#dallas the great western engine

[thefluffyrailway-official]

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[gacmediadaily]

Does it feel like Texas is suddenly taking over the national entertainment industry?

Megaproducer Taylor Sheridan – Wind River, Hell or High Water, and now the blockbuster Yellowstone– raised in Fort Worth, is making Western culture popular again and filling rodeo arenas with city folks. 

A new force in streaming and cable

Another Texas-based player may be an even more disruptive force in the U.S. entertainment industry. 

Great American Media (GAM) is suddenly an overnight contender in the U.S. streaming and cable television space, winning regular coverage in industry flagships like Variety and The Hollywood Reporter, and it has the entertainment industry sitting up and taking notice for its success attracting audiences to faith and family content.

“We’re on our way to being America’s most uplifting and inspiring network,” says CEO Bill Abbott, who founded Great American Media in 2021.

Abbott follows a familiar playbook – his own — perfected over 35 years in family entertainment.

Abbott’s resume includes senior leadership roles at Fox Kids, Fox Family Channel, and ABC Family, plus more than 20 years as the architect of the Hallmark television brands. Now he has launched another TV brand in the burgeoning Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex, a big community with small-town sensibilities and a dedicated and talented populace, he says.

As the engineer of the next big thing, Abbott pulled on both experience and his friends, instantly creating a crew of iconic TV stars, including Mario Lopez, Danica McKellar, Cameron Mathison, Alexa and Carlos PenaVega, and, of course, Candace Cameron Bure.

These stars are making an appearance at iconic venues across the nation for spotlight events and movie production. Carlos and Alexa PenaVega spent the day at AT&T Stadium in Dallas – right down the road from the headquarters of Great America Media – filming their upcoming holiday premiere movie. Not only is the AT&T Stadium recognizable by many, but this production further solidifies Abbott’s dedication to creating uplifting, quality content.

Today, his startup boasts over 70 million viewers and subscribers to its cable television channels and streaming service, a remarkable feat in any environment. The last three years have been some of the most tumultuous in television and entertainment history, with a record decline in cable subscribers and increasing competition among streaming services. Yet Great American Media is on the rise.

The success is a testament to early mornings, continual conference calls, coast-to-coast travel, and non-stop team building. Every Friday, Abbott hosts a company-wide review of the market and a company performance where he answers employees’ questions nationwide. One staffer describes it as a master class in cable and streaming television.

Great American Media’s Fort Worth headquarters includes production and administrative offices, while its sales and executive offices are in New York. Its member services center, a call center supporting a committed fan base, is in Phoenix.

“One of the most rewarding parts of my jobs is to read viewer emails,” says Abbott, who regularly corresponds with a group of over 25,000 loyal Great American Media Insiders. “Our viewers know what they want and it’s our job to give them a great uplifting experience free of the stress and contentiousness of their already overly complex world.”

Great American Media’s portfolio of brands now includes Great American Family, Great American Pure Flix, Great American Faith & Living, Great American Adventures, and Pure Flix TV.

As the company’s flagship cable TV network, Great American Family, features quality original movies and classic series that are inspiring and emotionally connecting. The business strategy is to align the content and convert cable viewers to streaming subscribers, a riddle many in Hollywood are attempting to solve.

Great American Pure Flix is GAM’s leading subscription on-demand streaming service and the most successful faith-based content provider of its size. A recent Financial Times story described GAM as the Netflix of faith-based content, to which Abbott responds, “Not bad company to be in after only three years.”

Great American Faith & Living features mostly unscripted lifestyle programming that celebrates family-friendly traditions every day and every season.

Great American Media is also home to a FAST (free ad-supporting streaming TV) channel with Great American Adventures, which offers both scripted and unscripted content, including cooking and do-it-yourself programs, and Great American Community, a free direct-to-consumer streaming app featuring short-form original series hosted by well-known lifestyle experts and TV stars. There is also a Pure Flix FAST channel.

“We are creating an oasis in a cultural desert,” says Candace Cameron Bure, star of many Great American Media original programs, including hit My Christmas Hero. She joined Abbott at the film’s screening on Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Tacoma, Washington.

Abbott agrees, saying, “I think that the culture overall needs what we’re offering. And there is just so little content out there that serves family and faith and yet is done in a quality way. It is a very big part of what our mission is and what we do, and the demand is huge.”

Not His First Rodeo

Abbott founded Great American Media in June 2021 with backing from Dallas-based investors, including Dallas businessman Doug Deason. Abbott credits Deason with the company’s steady focus on strategy.

“After running companies that possess varying levels of leadership and judgment exercised at the board and ownership level, I know first-hand that these qualities can make or break a business, and Great American Media’s success starts with Doug in his role as Chairman of the Board,” says Abbott.

Deason, who most recently demonstrated political acumen by leading an initiative to get Texans to set aside $1 billion to expand Texas state parks and co-chaired the expansion of Dallas’ Centennial Parks.

“Without Doug’s unwavering support, vision, and courage, Great American Media would lack the ability to stand firmly behind the values conveyed in our faith and family content,” says Abbott, “and in fact, it’s quite likely the business would never have gotten off the ground.”

Deason credits Abbott, who he points out is unique among broadcasting executives, who more typically are finance types or lawyers and rarely schooled in stories, let alone moral tales. Abbott is an English and Literature graduate of the College of the Holy Cross, a private Jesuit liberal arts college in Worcester, Massachusetts, a foundation he puts to good use by reading every script and participating in creative development with his producers and stars.

GAM’s CEO is deeply respected in the industry and serves on the boards of the Parents Television & Media Council and the International Radio & Television Society Foundation. He was inducted into Broadcasting & Cable’s Hall of Fame in 2017. 

Previously, Abbott served for two decades as a senior executive and then CEO of Crown Media Family Networks, the parent company of Hallmark Channel, Hallmark Mystery, Hallmark Drama, and Hallmark Movies Now. 

“We had tremendous success with creating a destination that was family-friendly and themed around the holidays,” explains Abbott. He is credited with creating the Christmas television genre, expanding the network’s romantic comedies, and launching its mysteries channel.

After 20 years, Abbott left Hallmark and looked to Texas to build a new network: Great American Family.

“We’re proud to say we celebrate faith, family, and country,” explains Abbott, “and we have an investor group where we all believe in the mission of family-friendly and faith-based content.”

Equipped with funding and a vision, Abbott acquired Fort Worth’s independently owned equestrian and western channel Ride TV and a music video channel called Great American Country from Discovery. This gave his fledgling dream two traditional cable television linear channels. As the company sorted through its inherited programs and shows, Great American Media was quickly rebranded.

“Now we had something to work with, and we went to work,” he explained.

The entertainment world suddenly noticed when the new GAM network acquired Michael Landon Jr.’s When Calls the Heart spin-off, When Hope Calls,” and began hiring the most well-known talent in the genre to appear in its own slate of made-for-TV movies. 

GAM also quickly established Great American Christmas premieres and seasonal rotation around Christmas, including 12 original movies in its first year. Now, they’re producing more than 20 original Christmas movies per year.

Dream Streaming

While building a traditional cable offering, Abbott heard from Sony Pictures Entertainment, one of the world’s largest entertainment conglomerates. They owned Pure Flix, a niche faith-based streaming video-on-demand service with a loyal fan base.

“Pure Flix had been sort of under the radar,” explained Abbott. Sony had only recently acquired the streaming service and began looking for a means of growing it. Sony executives saw the synergies between Abbott’s startup, the Great American Family channel, and their streamer and proposed a merger.

The merger enhanced both platforms’ content library and created synergies between cable and streaming services, meeting customer expectations for a fulfilling, uplifting, and inspiring entertainment experience. Since the merger, SVOD subscriptions have increased, and the customer experience has been enhanced through several platform upgrades, making the streaming service intuitive and user-friendly.

“Our brands and diversified content distribution capabilities have helped us reach substantially larger and broader audiences on each platform, creating a family- and faith-friendly streaming service unlike any other,” he added. “Our business strategy is becoming more and more clear to the industry.”

And they’re noticing. Great American Media ncluded 2023 as the fastest-growing channel on cable television, and its ad sales were up 25 percent. Under Abbott’s watchful eye, the economy balances with creative excellence, allowing the GAM channels to increasingly share the same programming vision, creating the brand synergies critical to growth. 

Great American Media’s programming and development team steers all original scripts from concept through production with an eye toward brand integrity. Abbott and the leadership team ensure every frame it controls is on brand as promised.

Great American Media has made headlines for the stars it has drawn in its first few years, including Candace Cameron Bure, Danica McKellar, Trevor Donovan, Jill Wagner, Jen Lilley, Cameron Mathison, and Jen Lilley.

In February, Great American Media announced it signed Emmy Award–winning host and actor Mario Lopez to a multi-picture, multi-year deal to star in content across the company’s vast media portfolio. Lopez will be a major part of Great American Christmas 2024. His first film in the partnership will include a holiday film starring alongside his wife and Broadway star Courtney Lopez. Lopez will continue hosting NBC’s Access Hollywood and Access Daily.

Abbott cites the dedicated Fort Worth team and the talent across Texas as a critical aspect of GAM’s success, noting that programmers and production crews work around the clock and maintain a high commitment to the brand and its viewers.

As conglomerates continue to obliterate brands, Abbott is on a mission to maintain his company’s commitment to bringing high-quality family content with a faith focus to a new heyday. 

“We are not replicating the past; we are creating a new bright future, diverse in genre and format, but all wrapped in high-quality family programming that features romantic comedies, Christmas, drama, faith-inspired lifestyles, and even drama series,” says Abbott. Mysteries are now a cornerstone of the broad programming, with Great American Mysteries’ inaugural launch, The Ainsley McGregor Mysteries: A Case for the Winemaker, starring Cameron Bure, premiering on July 25.

 “We’re about faith, family, and country,” said Abbott, “and those values can be reflected in uplifting and inspiring ways across all genres, including mysteries.”

[kneedeepincynade]

Western "socialists" can cry me a river about how they think China is bad and imperialist,the real socialist of the world stands in solidarity and cooperation with the Chinese nation

The post is machine translated

Translation is at the bottom

The collective is on telegram

⚠️ LA FERROVIA CINA - LAOS, PROGETTO DELLA NUOVA VIA DELLA SETA, È UN GRANDE SUCCESSO | COOPERAZIONE TRA PAESI SOCIALISTI ⚠️

🚝 La China - Laos Railway, uno dei progetti più ambiziosi della Nuova Via della Seta, è un grande successo, e sta portando grandi benefici ai due Paesi e ai due Popoli, a dimostrazione del fatto che la Cooperazione a Mutuo Vantaggio (合作共赢) è il percorso corretto da seguire 😍

⭐️ Costruita secondo gli ultimi standard ingegneristici, la C-LR ha ridotto drasticamente i tempi di viaggio tra i due Paesi, collegando 1035km di territorio, dalla meravigliosa città di Kunming, nella Provincia dello Yunnan, con Vientiane, la Capitale del Laos.

🔍 Approfondimento: "La Ferrovia Cina - Laos ha trasportato 14,43 milioni di passeggeri in 500 giorni di operatività" 🥳

🤝 Ad aprile del 2023, le due parti hanno concordato di aprire i servizi transfrontalieri di andata e ritorno, al fine di aumentare la connettività regionale e avvicinare sempre di più Cina e Laos, per costruire insieme una Comunità dal Futuro Condiviso (人类命运共同体) 😍

🇨🇳 Sempre più Cinesi stanno visitando il Laos, uno dei più grandi amici della Cina, come si può notare nel video di CCTV 📺

🇱🇦 Circondato da cinque Nazioni, il Laos è l'unico Paese senza sbocco sul mare nel Sud-Est Asiatico, e il Governo Socialista spera che la Ferrovia Cina - Laos possa trasformare il Paese in un importante snodo per i trasporti e per il turismo ⭐️

🇱🇦 A maggio, il Partito Rivoluzionario del Popolo Lao ha presentato un Piano Triennale per attrarre turisti dalla Cina, e molte agenzie di viaggio Cinesi hanno colto questa opportunità. I Compagni del Laos sono benvenuti in Cina, e gli scambi tra persone rafforzeranno i rapporti sotto ogni aspetto 💕

🔍 Per chi volesse approfondire il Tema delle Relazioni Sino-Laotiane, può rifarsi a questi post del Collettivo Shaoshan:

🔺Il Partito Rivoluzionario del Popolo Lao studia le Opere Scelte di Xi Jinping ⭐️

🔺Laos e Cina, legati da fiumi e montagne, condividono una lunga storia di amicizia e ideali comuni 💕

🔺Esercitazione Militare Congiunta tra l'Esercito Popolare di Liberazione e le Forze Armate del Popolo Lao 🌟

🌸 Iscriviti 👉 @collettivoshaoshan

⚠️ CHINA - LAOS RAILWAY, NEW SILK ROAD PROJECT, IS A GREAT SUCCESS | COOPERATION BETWEEN SOCIALIST COUNTRIES ⚠️

🚝 The China - Laos Railway, one of the most ambitious projects of the New Silk Road, is a great success, and is bringing great benefits to the two countries and the two peoples, demonstrating the fact that the Cooperation for Mutual Advantage (合作共赢) is the correct path to follow 😍

⭐️ Built according to the latest engineering standards, the C-LR has drastically reduced travel times between the two countries, connecting 1035km of territory, from the wonderful city of Kunming, in Yunnan Province, with Vientiane, the capital of Laos.

🔍 Insight: "The China - Laos Railway carried 14.43 million passengers in 500 days of operation" 🥳

🤝 In April 2023, the two sides agreed to open cross-border round-trip services, in order to increase regional connectivity and bring China and Laos closer together, to jointly build a Community of the Shared Future (人类命运共同体) 😍

🇨🇳 More and more Chinese are visiting Laos, one of China's greatest friends, as can be seen in the CCTV video 📺

🇱🇦 Surrounded by five nations, Laos is the only landlocked country in Southeast Asia, and the Socialist Government hopes the China-Laos Railway can transform the country into a major transportation and tourism hub ⭐️

🇱🇦 In May, the Lao People's Revolutionary Party presented a Three-Year Plan to attract tourists from China, and many Chinese travel agencies took advantage of this opportunity. Comrades from Laos are welcome in China, and people-to-people exchanges will strengthen relations in every respect 💕

🔍 For those wishing to learn more about Sino-Lao relations, refer to these posts from the Shaoshan Collective:

🔺Lao People's Revolutionary Party Studying Xi Jinping's Selected Works ⭐️

🔺Laos and China, linked by rivers and mountains, share a long history of friendship and common ideals 💕

🔺Joint Military Exercise Between People's Liberation Army and Lao People's Armed Forces 🌟

🌸 Subscribe 👉 @collettivoshaoshan

[abroadeducation]

Study in the USA: Top 5 states for Indian Students

Aspiring to study in the USA? The USA is regarded as the top-most choice for studying abroad, especially for Indian Students. Around 35% of the foreign nationals studying in the USA are Indians. It offers a plethora of universities that provide high-quality education and job opportunities. There are top cities in the USA that offer affordable living and students can manage their expenses without any complications.

The top 5 states for Indian students to Study in the USA-

New York

California

Texas

Illinois

Massachusetts

According to The Open Doors 2021 Report, the above-mentioned states are the top 5 states to study in the USA for Indian students. These places are home to many of the top universities in the USA, including Harvard, MIT, Cornell, UT-Austin, and North-western University.

Ø New York

According to the Open Doors report 2021, 18% of New York’s international students are Indian students.

New York is home to some of the world’s best universities, including the Ivy Leagues Columbia, and Cornell. Universities in New York offer a wide array of master’s programs to choose. New York is a great study destination for tech and research programs.

Average tuition cost– 30,000USD / year

Average graduate salary– 90,000USD/ year

Average living expenses– 18000USD/ per year

It is also Known as the “land of opportunity” and has a strong startup culture. New York is also home to several giant corporations, including Pfizer, Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, and Verizon Communications. Many job opportunities and internships are also offered in the USA that enhances career prospects.

Ø California

California can be counted among the best states in the USA for Indian students. It is Global Trendsetter. The state takes all the credit for developing the Internet, movies, and more. Students who graduated from universities in California have founded Snapchat, PayPal, and Yahoo.

According to the Open Doors Report 2021, Indians comprised 13.7% of the 132,758 international students. It is home to 9-top ranked universities including Stanford, California Institute of Technology and The University of California.

Average tuition cost– 28000USD/ year

Average graduate salary– 90,000USD/ year

Average living expenses– 15000 USD/ per year

Ø Texas

Texas is the second-largest state in the country and is considered one of the best states for students who want to study in the USA for Indian students.​​ 21.8% of them are Indian students. It is due to the state’s low cost of living and affordable universities that attracts international students.

Texas is also home to some of the top universities in the USA like the University of Houston and Texas Tech University.

Average tuition cost– 25000 USD per year

Average graduate salary– 80,000 USD per year

Average living expenses– 15000 USD per year

Cities like Austin, Houston, and Dallas offer a rich experience to international students and Austin is one of the fastest-growing cities in the USA which is popular among most students

Ø Illinois

Illinois is Known as one of the best states in the USA for Indian students. Illinois has 27.4% of Indian students. The most popular majors among Indian students are statistics, Engineering, and Computer Science.

(Read More: All that you must know about the USA education system)

Booth School of Business, the University of Chicago, and the Illinois Institute of Technology are a few of the top picks for MBA and Master’s degrees for international students.

Average tuition cost– 30000 USD per year

Average graduate salary– 75,000 USD per year

Average living expenses– 18000 USD per year

Illinois offers students affordable, top-ranking universities in the USA.  

Ø Massachusetts

Massachusetts is home to globally renowned institutions like the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard University. The state of Massachusetts attracted 19.9% of Indian students.

Average tuition cost– 30000 USD per year

Average graduate salary– 100000 USD per year

Average living expenses– 20000 USD per year

Massachusetts has a thriving work environment, a vibrant lifestyle, and rich cultural diversity.  Companies like General Electric, Kraft Group, Staples, and Gillette are also located in Massachusetts.  

Pursuing higher education abroad is much more than getting a college degree. It is all about the excitement of moving to a new country and experiencing its cultural and professional lifestyle. To build the best career, you must pick the right state for yourself. Look for factors like university rankings, Affordability, and work opportunities when shortlisting the best states to study in the US.  

[judefan849-blog]

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[pearlstendercare]

The Multiplicity of Players in The Healthcare Industry

Success Review on Specialty Hospitals:

The continuing boom in the healthcare industry, despite slowdown has invited many players into the healthcare industry and forced many older ones for strategic change, to invest more and standout with specific USP edge over the competitor.

Despite competition and prevailing pessimism on the success of a new hospitals, a group of young doctors turned entrepreneurs have come across with new concept of exclusive specialty hospitals or rather healthcare centers in their respective specialty across India and even trying their luck across the borders, the promoters of many such healthcare centers in the country and elsewhere are relishing great success. All of these successful new generation entrepreneurs have adopted different business strategies to justify high investments, reaping benefits for themselves and their investors. 

The multiplicity of players in the healthcare industry has created the need to ensure quality of clinical care in a cost effective manner, whether it is the high end specialty disciplines such as oncology, gastroenterology, ophthalmology, day-care surgery, dental care and skin care, all these players have registered tremendous growth by sticking to their knitting and while there have always been stand alone specialty clinics or hospitals run by doctors, these single specialty providers have grown like some of the big corporate hospitals and have set up infrastructure at multiple locations, offering the same precision of quality and care through out all their centers. 

Experts, successful in this area say that getting the model right is just the beginning. Then all lies in the execution. "When you focus on one thing you better be the best," says Dr. Vivek Desai managing director of Hosmac. He also stated that in order to address the current challenges in the hospital, efficient Business Process Re engineering and Process Management tools can be used to reduce operation costs, generate new revenue opportunities, deliver services faster, improve customer service, increase visibility and control.

It's all about aiming to be the best in the segment, they mean business in all their actions and while aiming to fly with eagles then, why waste time swimming with ducks.

In one of the past 'WHO' reports, mentioned that India needs to add 80,000 hospital beds each year for the next five years to meet the demands of its growing population. This had been positive news for the healthcare investors. India is well equipped to reach this benchmark with critical parameters in favour, high quality skilled talent pool, proven track record, favourable government policies and the ability to deliver healthcare services at low cost along with high quality infrastructure has now put India on the global map for outsourcing various healthcare related services. This has been further intensified by Government of India's policies, where enough emphasis has been given on setting up of healthcare delivery infrastructure mainly in Tier-I & Tier-II cities. In view of the aforementioned studies, Indian healthcare delivery industry is upbeat about the future of hospitals in the country.

The success of these single specialty hospitals setup are now quite visible in India, some of these brands in south is the Vasan Eye care network of hospitals in the ophthalmology segment, which is aiming 100 centers by 2012 across India and at some international destinations, the Apollo with the Dental care centers, Kaya and Ayurcare in skincare segments have shown tremendous growth.

In high specialty, cancer care segments the Healthcare Global has changed the traditional cancer care along with its partner spokes are at different levels of expertise in different parts of the cancer treatment paradigm. They all have to be brought to the same level so that a patient undergoing radiotherapy in an HCG spoke has a similar outcome as he would have at the hub (assuming the equipment is the same). HCG tackles it by using common training modules for doctors and paramedical staff such as nurses and social workers. There are video conferences every week to discuss patients and standards of care. Trainers are trained in the hub and then dispatched to spokes. This is still a work in progress.

Opportunities and Challenges:

There are many challenges in running specialty centers at multiple locations. One of which is maintaining uniformity across the centers. And unlike any booming industry in India, there is acute shortage of experienced personnel, medical professionals and other paramedical staff, brain drain in the medical field is a matter of concern, especially with skilled, experience specialist doctors moving out of the country to other developed countries, Doctors today are certainly businessmen par excellence and medical is no longer a charity. A doctor may be seen practicing in one corporate hospital, next time he might have moved and taken his practice somewhere else, says one expert. Even equity participation is not a guarantee that they will stick to that hospital. For instance, a good number of the founding team of doctors that started Asian Heart Institute in Mumbai are now out of it due to differences with management. They have formed the Western Heart Clinic, which is a group of heart specialists that ties up with large hospitals such as Fortis to offer its services. Healthcare in India is no longer a charity business, but a billion dollar money making entity, which promises enormous opportunities to those serious players who offer healthcare products and services at par with international standards, that is not just confined to major cities. All these positive business trends once again speak in favour of the professionals and students who are aiming for a career in the healthcare sector, galore of opportunities are awaiting them in the years to come.

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[architectnews]

Buildings of 2020: Architecture of the Year

Best Buildings in 2020, World Architecture of the Year, Good Property Designs, Architects

Buildings of 2020: New Architecture

17 Dec 2020

Major Architecture of 2020

e-architect Selection of Key Contemporary Architectural Developments in the past year.

Our parameters for inclusion:

– architecture designs that stimulate

– buildings that ask significant questions

– designs that show creativity and innovation

We considered the year’s international architectural highlights to pick out the key buildings of 2020.

Designs are listed by geographical region.

– Adrian Welch, e-architect editor / architect

Architecture of 2020

A further selection of buildings around the world – these are all fascinating architectural designs, but did not meet our final cut

********************

AFRICA

Kingsway Tower, Ikoyi, Lagos, western Africa Architects: SAOTA image courtesy of architects Kingsway Tower, Ikoyi, Lagos A landmark mixed-use building set on a prominent corner on Alfred Rewane Road, an arterial road that bisects the city leading north towards the airport and south to the Victoria Island. The building designed by South African architects SAOTA is 15 storeys high. It has a basement, a two-level retail podium, a parking podium and 12 office floor levels.

University of Bambey Building, Diourbel, Senegal, West Africa Design: IDOM image from architects University of Bambey Building In Senegal, shade and water are everything. This lecture-room block project, a close relative of another in Gaston Berger, San Luis, which was commissioned by the Ministry of Education and the World Bank, is set in the city of Bambey, located 120 km west of Dakar.

AMERICA – USA

DRIFT, 2020, Dallas, Texas, USA Design: sculpture by Gerry Judah photo : Dan Sellers DRIFT, Dallas, Texas sculpture by Gerry Judah In Texas, the Belt Line Road stretches thirty miles in a straight line through the hills and valleys between Dallas and Fort Worth. If you pause at the Olympus crossroad to North Lake, you will find DRIFT, the latest sculpture by Gerry Judah, dazzling in the sun like the bleached bones of an ancient leviathan.

Nancy and Rich Kinder Building, Museum of Fine Arts Houston, Texas, USA Design: Steven Holl Architects photograph © Richard Barnes, courtesy of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston Nancy and Rich Kinder Building Houston The third gallery building of the MFAH, dedicated for the display of the Museum’s outstanding and fast-growing international collections of modern and contemporary art, the 237,000-sqft Kinder Building has been designed by Steven Holl, who also designed the master plan for the Sarofim Campus. The landscape architects for the 14-acre Sarofim Campus are Deborah Nevins and Mario Benito of Deborah Nevins & Associates/ Nevins & Benito Landscape Architecture, D.P.C.

Columbia Building, Portland, Oregon, USA Design: Skylab ; Partner Architect: Solarc Architecture and Engineering Inc. photograph : Jeremy Bittermann Housing workspace, a visitor reception area, and public meeting spaces, the 11,640-square-foot building not only supports the engineering department of the wastewater treatment facility but also functions as an immersive educational experience, all integrated within a sustainable landscape.

Skyspace Residence, Las Vegas, Nevada, USA Architect: Marmol Radziner ; Artist: James Turrell photo : The Ivan Sher Group Skyspace Residence Nevada

Confluence Park, San Antonio, Texas, USA Design: Lake|Flato Architects + Matsys photo : Casey Dunn Confluence Park San Antonio The San Antonio River Foundation, is dedicated to enhancing the San Antonio River Basin as a vibrant cultural, educational, ecological, and recreational experience. The foundation tasked the design team with transforming a former industrial laydown yard into a one-of-a-kind outdoor educational center.

Filtered Frame Dock, Austin, Texas, USA Design: Matt Fajkus Architecture photography : Charles Davis Smith; MF Architecture Filtered Frame Dock in Austin, TX This single-slip boat dock of Filtered Frame Dock is a result of liberation through constraints balanced with sensory experience. Devised concurrently with the property’s new residence, the boat dock creates both tangible and implied connections of experience and shelter.

Lutheran Church of Hope-Grimes, Grimes, Iowa , USA Design: BNIM Architects photo : Nick Merrick Lutheran Church of Hope-Grimes Building Lutheran Church of Hope-Grimes is a satellite facility of a large, multi-campus Evangelical Lutheran Church in the heart of Iowa. The 21,150 sqft building serves as a community and worship center for a fast-growing congregation within an expanding rural community.

Horizon Neighbourhood, Powder Mountain, Utah, USA Design: MacKay-Lyons Sweetapple photograph : doublespace photography Horizon Neighbourhood Resort Horizon Neighbourhood was designed by the esteemed Canadian architecture firm MacKay-Lyons Sweetapple. It is the first pre-designed neighborhood to be built at 9,000 feet elevation on Powder Mountain, Utah. It consists of 30 cabins ranging in size from 1,000- 3,000 sqft.

Cheng Brier Residence, Tiburon, Marin County, California, USA Design: Swatt | Miers Architects photography : Marion Brenner and Russell Abraham Cheng Brier Residence in Tiburon, California This contemporary US residence is a 6,000-sqft home terracing down a steep sloped lot in Tiburon with dramatic views of the bay. The material palette elegantly combines bright white stucco, teak and gray limestone.

CHINA

The Village Apartments, Guangzhou Architects: TEAM_BLDG photograph : Jonathan Leijonhufvud The Village Apartments in Guangzhou In his book Arrival City: The Final Migration and Our Next World, Doug Saunders points out that the development of the arrival city (also known as urban village) is an important part in the urbanization process. It may be the birthplace of the next wave of economic and cultural development, or the explosive place of the next wave of violent conflicts, which needs to be properly handled.

One Sino Park Offices and Spa, Chongqing City, southwest China Architects: aoe photography : Huang Ligang One Sino Park Offices and Spa The project consists of a cliffside building, designed and constructed into its surrounding mountain façade. The main structure has been completed, and designers have deconstructed and reconstructed its internal spaces with an infusion of architectural elements conducive to the topography, resulting in the creation of a rich architectural, urban space.

Da Ya Li Roast Duck Restaurant, Chengdu, China Architects: IN • X photograph : Shi Yunfeng Da Ya Li Roast Duck Restaurant in Chengdu Wu Wei: Discovering the New Vitality of Traditional Brand – Da Ya Li Roast Duck Restaurant Chengdu Vanke Tianhui Branch. Food is a good embodiment of civilization, as well as the past and the present of a city. Chinese people have been good at tasting food since ancient times.

COPENHAGEN

Arup and Cobe’s new metro stations celebrate Copenhagen’s redeveloped docklands Design: Arup and Cobe photo : Rasmus Hjortshøj – COAST Nordhavn Station + Orientkaj Station Copenhagen Part of the Nordhavn metro line extension connecting the docklands to Copenhagen’s city center, Arup and Cobe have worked together to design two new metro stations, Orientkaj and Nordhavn, under the Nordhavn metro line extension. The recently opened public transport link unlocks the potential for the redevelopment of Copenhagen’s northern docklands, one of the largest urban regeneration projects in northern Europe.

COSTA RICA

Atrium House, Nosara, Guanacaste Architects: Studio Saxe photograph : Roberto D’Ambrosio Nosara Atrium House Eco-conscious family business Andaluz commissioned Studio Saxe to create Atrium House, giving experiences around architectural designs that harness the power of the environment to create life changing experiences. The Andaluz brand is all about meaningful and real experiences that combine comfortable human habitation with a deep connection to the surrounding landscape.

Courtyard House, Nosara, Guanacaste Architects: Studio Saxe photograph : Roberto D’Ambrosio Nosara Courtyard House Eco-conscious family business Andaluz commissioned Studio Saxe to design Courtyard House creating experiences around architectural designs that harness the power of the environment to create life changing experiences. The Andaluz brand is all about meaningful and real experiences that combine comfortable human habitation with a deep connection to the surrounding landscape.

Tres Amores Residence, Nosara, Guanacaste Architects: Studio Saxe photograph : Andres Garcia Lachner Tres Amores Residence in Nosara Studio Saxe was commissioned to design a family home perched on the hilltops of the town of Nosara Costa Rica. The Tres Amores Residence would blend and hide within its natural surroundings whilst opening to the dramatic ocean and mountain views.

The Athletic Center, Nosara, Guanacaste Architects: Studio Saxe photo : Andres Garcia Lachner Athletic Center at the Gilded Iguana in Guanacaste As an extension to the Gilded Iguana Hotel in the town of Nosara, this building was designed as a small village amongst the trees that creates a public space which integrates locals with visitors with similar interests of pursuing an active lifestyle and wellbeing.

CROATIA

Grand Park Hotel Rovinj, Rovinj Design: 3LHD architects, Zagreb photos courtesy of architects Grand Park Hotel Rovinj Building Due to its importance, the project was given the status of a strategic investment project in Republic of Croatia. The building offers great views of the Adriatic Sea, located directly on the coast, near marina and promenade

CYPRUS

The Garden House in the City, Nicosia Design: Christos Pavlou Architecture photo from architects Pool House in Nicosia Bringing nature back to the city although not a new idea it is a growing imperative especially for cities like Nicosia which has failed to make greenery and communal public areas a priority in its urban planning.

CZECH REPUBLIC

Helfštýn Castle, Helfštýn by Týn nad Bečvou, Czech Republic Architects: atelier-r photograph : BoysPlayNice, www.boysplaynice.com Helfštýn Castle Reconstruction Rising high above the Moravian Gate valley, Helfštýn Castle is the second largest complex in the Czech Republic right after Prague Castle. Helfštýn was established in the 14th century. In 2014 the Renaissance palace ruins had to close down due to the severe safety hazards such as falling masonry and remains degradation.

DEN HAAG

Bicycle Parking Garage, under the Koningin Julianaplein Design: Silo with Studio Marsman photo : Mike Bink Den Haag Bicycle Parking Garage As the COVID-19 crisis has spurred new initiatives to make cities more pedestrian and bike-friendly, the Netherlands continues to lead by example. In The Hague, the world’s second-largest bicycle parking garage has been opened, featuring an all-encompassing back-lit mural of Escher-like tesselations that honor the city’s eclectic architecture.

DENMARK

The Heart in Ikast, Vestergade, Ikast, Jutland, Denmark Design: C.F. Møller Architects photograph : Adam Mørk The Heart in Ikast The Heart in Ikast, by C.F. Møller Architects is a new centre for culture and communication, which combines teaching activities, communal activities, physical training and play in various new ways. Designed to offer a cultural community focal point, the building is a powerful, accessible piece of architecture which exudes openness, warmth and welcome.

DUBAI, UAE

Coca-Cola Arena, City Walk Architects: Populous photo courtesy of architects Coca-Cola Arena Global architecture firm Populous celebrates its first arena concept design in the Middle East. With a capacity of 17,000, the arena becomes the largest multi-purpose indoor arena in the region and, by incorporating climate control throughout the building.

Expo Entry Portals Architect: Asif Khan Studio photograph : Hélène Binet Dubai 2020 Expo Entry Portals in UAE Asif Khan, renowned British architecture studio, has designed the Expo Entry Portals, three spectacular gateways to Expo 2020 Dubai that will grant entry to visitors from 20 October. The structures are the first works to be unveiled from the studio’s design of more than six kilometres of Expo 2020 Public Realm.

ENGLAND

Island Rest, Isle of Wight, South of England Design: Strom Architects photos by Nick Hufton, Al Crow Island Rest Isle of Wight Residence ‘Island Rest’ is a response to the client’s brief for a contemporary family holiday home. Situated on a beautiful Isle of Wight creek, ‘Island Rest’ sits on a spacious site with direct access to the water and views of the Solent beyond.

The Lookout, Lepe Country Park, Exbury, Southampton, Hampshire Design: Hampshire County Council Property Services photograph : Jim Stephenson The Lookout in Lepe Country Park The project, which provides a restaurant, visitor information point, staff offices and supporting facilities forms part of an ongoing programme of work that seeks to transform and regenerate a number of country parks within Hampshire.

Windward House in Gloucestershire, Gloucestershire, South West England Design: Alison Brooks Architects photo © Paul Riddle Windward House, Gloucestershire A monumental house and living art gallery high above the Wye Valley. The result of a ten-year collaboration, this new house and landscape project celebrates domestic living amongst an extraordinary collection of Indian and African Tribal Art.

Solar Gate, Kingston-upon-Hull, eastern England Architect: Tonkin Liu photograph : Alex Peacock and Mike Tonkin Windward House, Gloucestershire Solar Gate is a sundial that uses solar alignment to mark significant times and dates in Hull. The super-light innovative two-shell structure is place-specific, responding to pivotal historic events and to the cultural context of its location in Hull’s Queens Gardens adjacent to the ancient site of Beverley Gate.

FINLAND

Shiver House, Korppoo, Finland Design: NEON image courtesy of architects practice Shiver House in Korppoo Shiver House was previously installed in 2015 as part of the Barfotastigen exhibition in Korppoo, Finland. The project was intended to be in-situ for 4 months but due to its popularity it was kept on-site on a longer-term basis.

FRANCE

Théâtre “Legendre” in Evreux Design: OPUS 5 architectes photo : Luc Boegly Théâtre Legendre Evreux The highly respectful project aimed to restore this theater dating from 1903 to its former glory, in its original architectural style and including the design of a new décor for the lobby.

100% wooden house, Château de la Bourdaisière, Montlouis-sur-Loire, France Design: LOCAL and Suphasidh Studio photo : Atelier Vincent Hecht 100% wooden house Montlouis-sur-Loire LOCAL and Suphasidh Studio build a prototype of a 100% wooden house in the park of the Bourdaisière Castle. The project questions the flexibility and the usage of wood; it aims to modify the traditional codes of the individual housing.

Wicker Pavilion, Jardins de l’Europe, France Design: DJA – Didzis Jaunzems, Ksenia Sapega photo : Eriks Bozis Wicker Pavilion Annecy The pavilion blends in with the surrounding landscape and forms a shaded space for park visitors to shelter from the hot summer sun.

GERMANY

Carmen Würth Forum, Künzelsau, Baden-Württemberg, Germany photo © Simon Menges Carmen Würth Forum A second construction phase completes the Carmen Würth Forum for the Adolf Würth GmbH & Co. KG situated in the town of Künzelsau in southern Germany. The diverse range of functions further establishes the complex’s conceptual idea of a forum and allows the building to be open continuously, in particular due to its use as a museum.

HOLLAND – THE NETHERLANDS

Villa Fifty-Fifty, Strijp-R, Eindhoven Architects: Studioninedots photo : Frans Parthesius New Villa in Eindhoven Located on the green edge of Strijp-R in Eindhoven, Studioninedots designed family home Villa Fifty-Fifty as a pavilion where volumes alternate between open and closed, and where life happens just as much outdoors as indoors: a new typology for maximising visual and family interaction.

KeenSystems HQ, Gemert Architects: Denkkamer architectuur & onderzoek photograph : René de Wit KeenSystems HQ KeenSystems headquarters is situated along the ring road around the village of Gemert. The decision to not establish their new office building for the rapidly expanding telecom provider in the city of Eindhoven comes from the desire to operate from a very much green and inspiring environment.

Assen Station Design: Powerhouse Company + De Zwarte Hond photo : Egbert de Boer Assen Station Building Assen Station has been completely transformed thanks to an extraordinary wooden structure. The new station is defined by a triangular wooden roof that appears to float above the several buildings below.

Villa Tonden, Tonden, Gelderland, the Netherlands Architects: HofmanDujardin photography © HofmanDujardin, photographer Matthijs van Roon Villa Tonden The architecture practice carefully shaped its characteristic appearance to perfectly fit into the open spot in the pine woods. This wood clad home is equipped with amenities required to enjoy a laidback time. All rooms offer a good view of the surrounding nature.

INDIA

Maya Somaiya Library, Sharda School, Kopergaon, Maharashtra Design: Sameep Padora & Associates photograph : Edmund Sumner Maya Somaiya Library Building The site chosen for this small addition of a children’s library within a school in rural Maharashtra, was a sliver between existing buildings and the school boundary, a site that almost implied a linear building footprint to adjust the program for the chosen site.

Sangini House, Surat, Gujarat Design: Urbanscape Architects and Utopia Designs photograph : Noughts and Crosses LLP | Andre Fanthome Sangini House, Gujarat Offices The architecture and design of Sangini House explores ways in which it can respond to the context and spirit of the heritage in which it stands. This office building for the Sangini group characterizes new strategies for a flexible, column-free office space that creates a new urban venture in the city’s dense business district.

Akshaya 27, Chennai Design: Sanjay Puri Architects photos Courtesy BRS Sreenag, Sreenag Pictures Akshaya 27 Chennai Office Building Cantilevered cuboid volumes create a sculptural office building, Akshaya 27. Located in the old business district of Chennai in South India, the plot had multiple challenges to be overcome.

Aria Resort Hotel, Maharashtra, western India Architecture: Sanjay Puri Architects photo : Dinesh Mehta Aria Resort Hotel in Nashik, Maharashtra The site for the Aria Hotel is gently contoured rising up 9M towards the south with the entry at the lowest level in the north. Situated in the wine-growing region of India, the north faces a large river and a dam with hills beyond.

Rajasthan School, Nagaur, Rajasthan Design: Sanjay Puri Architects photograph : Dinesh Mehta The Rajasthan School in Nagaur Imbibing the organic character of Indian villages & old cities, this is a low-rise three-level Indian school building with open, enclosed and semi-enclosed spaces of various volumes. The architectural design is by award-winning practice Sanjay Puri Architects.

MALAYSIA

YTL Corporation Berhad, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia Interior Design: MOD, Architects photo : David Yeow Photography YTL Corporation Berhad YTL Corporation Berhad, a large Malaysian infrastructure conglomerate founded in 1955, grew from a small construction firm into a global infrastructure company spanning oil & gas, cement, construction, property development and hotels.

MONTREAL

Lightspeed offices – Phase 2, Montréal, Québec, Canada Architects: ACDF Architecture photo © Adrien Williams Lightspeed offices Phase 2 Lightspeed commissioned ACDF Architecture – the designers for the first phase of the firm’s headquarters – to create a new floor dedicated to product development. The workspace of the point-of-sale software company is located on the ground floor of a 19th-century railway hotel, the chateau-style Viger Railway Station.

Architecture of 2020 – post with the key buildings of the year

Architecture Awards

Contemporary Architectural Awards – selection:

RIBA Awards

Stirling Prize

RIBA Royal Gold Medal

Key Architectural Links

American Architecture

Contemporary Architecture

Modern Houses

Buildings of the Year Archive

Architecture of 2013: Buildings of the Year

Building Designs of 2013

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Architecture of 2011

Comments / photos for the Buildings of 2020 page welcome

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The post Buildings of 2020: Architecture of the Year appeared first on e-architect.

[thefluffyrailway-official]

𝕃𝕚𝕥𝕥𝕝𝕖 𝕨𝕖𝕤𝕥𝕖𝕣𝕟𝕤 𝕙𝕦𝕞𝕒𝕟𝕤 👀

𝚂𝚘𝚘𝚗𝚕𝚢 𝚏𝚒𝚗𝚒𝚜𝚑𝚎𝚍 𝚢𝚊𝚢!

𝙰𝚗𝚍 𝚋𝚊𝚋𝚞 𝙳𝚊𝚕𝚕𝚊𝚜 𝚊𝚜 𝚊 𝚌𝚊𝚖𝚎𝚘 :𝟹

(𝙲𝚊𝚗 𝚠𝚎 𝚊𝚕𝚕 𝚊𝚐𝚛𝚎𝚎 𝚌𝚑𝚞𝚋𝚋𝚢 𝚃𝚘𝚊𝚍 𝚒𝚜 𝚜𝚘 𝚌𝚊𝚗𝚘𝚗? 🩶)

[stephaniemarlowftw]

EARTH UNVEIL IMMENSE AND MEDITATIVE NEW TRACK, “THE COLOUR OF POISON”

Watch the duo’s post-modern Western front spring to life. // Their ninth studio album, Full Upon Her Burning Lips, is out May 24th on Sargent House.  

Continuing to stoke the anticipation revolving around their might return to the studio and stage, legendary duo Earth have shared another snapshot of their forthcoming LP Full Upon Her Burning Lips. Coupled with a stark black-and-white visualizer, the five-and-a-half minute dirge “The Colour Of Poison” is packed with Earth’s thematically meditative, sonically immense hallmarks.

Immerse yourself in “The Colour Of Poison” via YouTube today.

Commemorating a three-decade reign as one of metal’s most monolithic bands, Full Upon Her Burning Lips spares no expense in time or talent. While the duo’s musical vocabulary has expanded as the years have passed, every note still carries the weight of the world. Back with a sound more organic thane ver, the tried-and-true magic between guitarist Dylan Carlson and percussionist Adrienne Davies unfurls with each of the record’s ten tracks.

“In the past I’ve usually had a strong framework for an album,” Carlson says of the album’s gestation process. “This one developed one over the course of the writing and recording. It just felt like ‘Earth’—like just the two players doing their best work at playing, serving the music.”

The absence of a guiding narrative allowed Carlson and Davies to be more inquisitive, resulting in more terse musical vignettes unbound by context. Bolstered by the engineering, mixing, and mastering by longtime associate Mell Dettmer, Full Upon Her Burning Lips is a leap into undiscovered territory. The purest distillation of Earth yet, and indeed, anyone that’s followed Earth on their journey will bask in the unadulterated hums, throbs, and reverberations conjured by Carlson and Davies.

Full Upon Her Burning Lips will be released on May 24th via Sargent House. Preorders are available here and from Earth’s official store here.

See Earth on tour across the U.S. with label mates Helms Alee this May and June.

Full Upon Her Burning Lips — Track Listing: 

1. Datura’s Crimson Veils

2. Exaltation of Larks

3. Cats on the Briar

4. The Colour of Poison

5. Descending Belladonna

6. She Rides an Air of Malevolence

7. Maiden’s Catafalque

8. An Unnatural Carouse

l9. The Mandrake’s Hymn

10. A Wretched Country of Dusk 

Earth — On Tour w/ Helms Alee: 

May 24 Seattle, WA @ Neumos

May 25 Portland, OR @ Doug Fir Lounge

May 28 San Francisco, CA @ Great American

May 29 Los Angeles, CA @ The Echo

May 31 Los Angeles, CA @ The Echo

June 1 Phoenix, AZ @ Rebel Lounge

June 2 Albuquerque, NM @ Sister

June 4 Austin, TX @ Barracuda

June 5 Dallas, TX @ Club Dada

June 7 Houston, TX @ The Secret Group

June 8 Baton Rouge, LA @ Spanish Moon

June 10 Orlando, FL @ Wills Pub

June 11 Atlanta, GA @ The Masquerade

June 12 Carrboro, NC @ Cat’s Cradle

June 14 Richmond, VA @ Gallery 5

June 15 Baltimore, MD @ Otto-bar

June 16 Philadelphia, PA @ Johnny Brenda’s

June 18 Somerville, MA @ ONCE Ballroom

June 19 New York, NY @ Le Poisson Rouge

June 21 Pittsburgh, PA @ Spirit Hall

June 22 Detroit, MI @ El Club

June 23 Chicago, IL @ The Empty Bottle

June 24 Minneapolis, MN @ 7th St. Entry

June 27 Denver, CO @ Marquis Theatre

June 28 Salt Lake City, UT @ Urban Lounge

June 29 Boise, ID @ Neurolux

[backroadblues3]

Dusting off the Road Trip Blog

Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport.

Hi there folks,  I am in the process of embarking on another cross-country adventure.

As many of you know my beloved wife Elisa and I are in our 39th year of marriage.  More often than not during those 39 years we have happily owned some sort of recreational vehicle (RV).  We’ve had a couple of different ones.  We’ve had trailers towed with trucks and we’ve had a couple of different types of motorhomes.  At one time we had a 31′ Jamboree Class C motorhome.  Those are the types that are a little like a mullet hairstyle - cargo van in the front and party bus in the back.

We enjoyed “Jambo” as the kids named it, for many years until the business of life and growing list if interests of our kids began to get the best of us.  So after many years, we sold old Jambo to a one-legged senior citizen, who unfortunately lost a leg somehow or another.  He was looking for a motorhome that was of a size that he could manage with his handicap but would still afford him the room to travel the country.  As I think back now on how he happily drove off in old Jambo I can’t help but wonder what adventures he has had in the many years since we sold it.  

Once the kids were grown and gone and I retired from work the first time in 2012, Elisa and I got the itch to get another motorhome.  We began to visit dealerships trying to figure out what we wanted.  We settled on another Class C motorhome but this one would be a little different.  We wanted one that was built atop the very successful and reliable Mercedes Benz Sprinter chassis.  So, in 2013, we took the plunge and purchased our brand new Forest River Solera, model 24S from a dealership in DesMoines, Iowa.  So why did we, who were living in San Diego, CA at the time opt to purchase our motorhome from a large dealer in Des Moines?  Well, after much shopping, we were unable to negotiate an acceptable price from the dealers in sunny San Diego in the middle of winter.  But I found that the dealers in the frozen midwest were happy to take my order for a new Solera.  So we placed our order in November and then went to pick it up in April or May - I can’t quite remember.  We picked the Solera, because we were looking for a smaller motorhome that would be easy to drive and park but still roomy with a slideout….but still packing enough power so we could tow our small car behind it.  

We love the Solera! The MB diesel engine is just great.  It was our first experience owning a diesel vehicle and our initial apprehension and fears of not being able to locate a diesel fueling station were quickly allayed.  Now days you can barely pass a street corner where 2 out of the 3 gas stations are likely to also serve diesel.  The supercharged diesel engine in the Solera has plenty of power but was also pretty reasonable on fuel consumption. We would routinely experience 10 to 13 mpg depending on highway and weather conditions - all while pulling our car behind us.

Many of you may remember the previous blog I wrote in 2013 that detailed our “Epic Road trip”.  We spent almost 3 months on the road covering about 40 of the lower 48 states.  We put about 13000 miles on the Solera that summer and we did it without going totally mad in our cozy little motorhome.  

After that road trip I took another job to help a friend out turning around a small S/W company.  That kept me pretty busy through 2016, but we would still manage to put another 10000 miles on our Solera by taking a number of shorter trips around the Western USA.  It was on our last trip in January 2017 to Oceanside, CA, that I mentioned to Elisa that it would be nice to have a little larger motorhome - maybe one with a larger bed and most importantly a larger bathroom shower.

So that sort of explains why I’m here in Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport awaiting my next flight to Boise, Idaho.  You see, Elisa and I began looking at motorhomes again.  We started out looking at Class A motorhomes - the ones that look like fancy school busses.  We thought if we found one that was about 5 to 6 feet longer than our 25 fool long Solera it would give us all the space we could ever need.  Well, we had never owned a Class A before and we were amazed at the choices available.  They come in all different sizes and shapes and prices.  We had test driven some very basic ones back in 2013 but found them to be too big and noisy and squeaky.

The first one I looked at in 2017 was a very high-end Tiffen motorhome with a gasoline engine.  I was amazed at how sturdily built, quiet and easy to drive it was.  Night and day difference to the low end one we drove in 2013.  That Tiffen was 31′ long - only 6′ longer than our Solera.  As we looked at more motorhomes, we began to think that our Daughter Krista and her fiancé Travis were about to get married in 2017 and they would surely like to travel with us from time to time.  So, we thought maybe we would look at one that was “a little larger”.  Then we test drove a Newmar Ventana LE - all 37′ of it.  We were amazed at the quiet and smooth ride afforded by the rear mounted diesel engine.  That opened us up to the wonderful world of “diesel pusher” motorhomes.  These motorhomes have commercial diesel engines typically made by Cummins engines, sitting atop a heavy duty bus chassis made by Freightliner and equipped with a smooth Allison transmission.  We quickly learned that the sky was the limit on how these diesel pushers could be equipped.  

The Newmar we test drove was priced at $230K but as it was a 2016 closeout model, it could be ours for a mere $160K.  As nice as it was, we weren’t crazy about the floor plan.  It only had 2 sleeping areas - albeit one was a king sized bed and there other a long sofa that unfolded into a king size air bed.  But it didn’t have the dinette configuration that Elisa preferred - instead it had a regular dining table and 4 chairs.  Very nice.  So the crafty salesman showed us another Newmar - this one 39′ long and this one had everything - including 1 and ½ bathrooms and a fold-out sofa bed and the beloved dinette.  Unfortunately, 1 and ½ bathrooms does not come cheap and it was at $199K.  Still a seemingly great deal as compared to the $260K sticker price.  We were way out of our league.

So Elisa and I set off on a search for a gently used motorhome, preferably a diesel pusher and preferably with the much desired 1 and ½ bathrooms.  We thought we had found it, a Forest River Legacy model.  It was a 2015 and it was in Dallas, Texas.  The price was good but there were complications, the owner was traveling and he didn’t have the pink-slip on it and we would have to work out the transaction with his bank.  Nothing insurmountable.  As we were considering purchasing it we were able to find the same model located in Tampa, Florida.  It was a little more expensive by a few $k but it was a year newer and it was brand new complete with the original warranty.  That looked like the one, but I was not relishing the thought of a solo drive back to the SF Bay area from Tampa.

That pretty much brings us full circle.  I was able to find the same model for sale in Boise, ID at Denis Dillon RV.  After a few phone calls and a little negotiating we had bought our new motorhome.  I did manage to overlook that we are still in the middle of winter and the shortest route to Boise would take us up I-80 over Donner pass, which because of all the winter storms we’ve experienced was largely buried under a mountain of snow.  This would make the drive there and drive back a bit more challenging.  So, I now am sitting in the airport waiting on my next flight to Boise and I will be driving our new motorhome back to the SF Bay area taking a meandering route - sans snow - through Salt Lake City and Las Vegas.  it’s about 500 miles longer than if I were able to take the straight shot down I-80 - but after all, someone once said, “its about the journey and not the destination”.

So I’ll let you know how it goes and I promise to post a few pictures.

PS - so what started out as a quest to find a “little larger shower and bed” has resulted in our purchasing a 38′ long diesel motorhome.  What could possibly go wrong?

[smotley33]

So Many Places so Little Time...

I have not had much time to write and catch up on this blog since it’s been crazy busy.  Because of this, I am going to combine a bunch of stops into one post. 

October 17, 2016

RI, Austin Lake Austin/River Place (AUSLA) opening.  This site was a mess.  Walked in the door and the network was down.  Turned out to be an IP conflict that I resolved in about 20 minutes with the HSIA vendor on the phone.  The next fiasco came in the form of a flood.  When we were at the opening celebration, the engineer came down to tell Tricia that her room was flooded with 2 inches of water.  All the rooms below hers were also damaged.  Not unheard of but later that night while eating my dinner, the waterline under my sink broke and flooded my fourth floor room too.  Now it’s an issue since we had guests in house.  All the waterlines had to be turned off and redone. Opening hotels is not always fun!

October 28, 2016

CY, Dallas Plano/Richardson (DALXC) Opening.  Texas Western you are killing my liver and I love it.  I was with Hope and Maricela this time and had a blast.  Ryan and Hope beat Jim and I in Euchre but it was all Hope with her damn beginners luck.  We had some great BBQ at Lockhart’s.

We even celebrated with some weinerschnitzel and beer.

November 3, 2016

FIS, Chicago Schaumburg (CHIZS) Install.  This install was a disaster.  First, the meeting room was not ready so they wanted me to setup in a guest room or the back office.  Neither was great but after an hour debate we decided I would setup in the back office and they would move the equipment in a couple days when the meeting room is finished.  Ugh.  When I return the next morning to finish up, I am told that the fire marshal is here and I’m not supposed to be onsite yet since they haven’t passed inspection.  Ugh again.  I rushed, packed up and ran out the door.  I hope they actually move the equipment like they promised.

November 10, 2016

FIS and RI, Charlotte Airport CLTWE and CLTFS Viper Install with Matt and Josh.  We all needed to learn how to install a Viper server to allow the key system to work with a dual property (2 FOSSE servers).  It went smoothly since Matt has done a few before.  Seems doable if I have to do one in the future.  Stayed at my first ALoft property.  They are actually really nice.  Welcome to the family Starwood!  I will enjoy exploring your brands.

Friday, November 18th

FIS, Akron Stow (CAKAS) opening.  I’m so glad I was sent here for this one.  Great people and because of Matt’s perfect install, all went smoothly. 

November 21, 2016

FIS, Chicago Schaumburg (CHIZS) opening.  OMG this property should have pushed a week.  They are a new management company and I have no idea who approved them to do a dual property for their first one.  Big mistake.  They are some of the nicest people ever but are not used to the high Marriott standards. I had high hopes they would have pulled it all together for the opening.  They did not.  Allen and Nate were just as frustrated as I was having to walk rooms many, many times.  This is just one side of the hotel too.  The other side will open next year.  I hope they learn from this...

November 28, 2016

RI, Charlotte Airport (CLTWE) and FIS, Charlotte Airport (CLTFS) Install with Matt.  Luckily this property is awesome and the people are even better.  The onsite IT manager named Chris is amazing and did a lot of the work for us.  I feel like we should have tipped him or something.  Anyways, it was a typical install.  They are using FLI so they only had a couple PCs per side for the front desk.  We tested the viper again and made sure all was good before we left.

November 30, 2016

CY, Fayetteville Spring Lake (FAYCS) install.  Just another install in the middle of nowhere.  Not much around except a taco bell in the parking lot in front of the hotel. 

December 8, 2016

FIS, Charlotte Airport (CLTFS) Opening

December 9,2016

RI, Charlotte Airport (CLTWE) Opening

I returned with Matt to open this dual property.  As expected, all was perfect.  It was a smooth opening to finish out the year.

December 27, 2016

RI, Dallas Plano/Richardson (DALPR) - Another Texas Western Install.  Shuffleboard anyone?  They all underestimated my skills.  Gary and I dominated the table. 

[egan19680416-blog]

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[stephspencer10]

Famous ‘n’ Infamous Relatives

“We all come from the past, and children ought to know what it was that went into their making.” Russell Baker

  The following book by Diana Spencer’s brother, Charles Spencer, the ninth Earl of England, chronicles the story of his Royal family. It may be of interest to Spencer families and anyone related to the Spencers.

I had been told by my mother and my sister Mary Spencer that this book showed how we were related to this royal line. Recently I have done some fact-checking, and found the fact is, if we are related, it’s so far back as to be debatable.

    The Spencer Family Hardcover – November 4, 1999

by Charles Spencer (Author)

An insider’s history of the Spencer family, this book tells the family’s story from the sheep farmers of the 16th century through the Civil War and then the relationship with the Marlboroughs, on through the 19th century when the third Earl was one of the architects of the 1832 Reform Bill, to recent years and the death of Princess Diana. In the last chapter, Charles Spencer writes about his own views of the family’s history and what hopes he has for the future.</div> <em></em>

A famous sports figure, Eddie LeBaron, I’m proud to say, is part of my extended family. You can find him by using your search engine, Wikipedia, etc. He was a war hero, and also a Star in the NFL at 5-foot- seven! 

Years ago, in the public library, I found and enjoyed reading a well-written, interesting biography about him — though I’m not even a sports fan. I came away feeling so very proud of my cousin, Eddie LeBaron! He is a success story — a true hero who overcame many difficulties to become the sports star he had dreamed of being — and much more!

Eddie LeBaron

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

    Eddie LeBaron

1953 Bowman football card

No. 14 Position: Quarterback Personal information Date of birth: January 7, 1930 Place of birth: San Rafael, California Date of death: April 1, 2015 (aged 85) Place of death: Stockton, California Height: 5 ft 7 in (1.70 m) Weight: 168 lb (76 kg) Career information High school: Oakdale (CA) College: Pacific NFL Draft: 1950 / Round: 10 / Pick: 123 Career history

Washington Redskins (1952–1953)

Calgary Stampeders (1954)

Washington Redskins (1955–1959)

Dallas Cowboys (1960–1963)

Career highlights and awards

4× Pro Bowl (1955, 1957, 1958, 1962)

NFL Rookie of the Year (1952)

80 Greatest Redskins

Washington Redskins Ring of Fame

All-American (1949)

Career NFL statistics

Pass attempts: 1,796 Pass completions: 898 Percentage: 50.0 TD–INT: 104–141 Passing Yards: 13,399 Passer rating: 61.4 Player stats at NFL.com

  Player stats at PFR

College Football Hall of Fame

Edward Wayne LeBaron, Jr. (January 7, 1930 – April 1, 2015) was an American football quarterback in the 1950s and early 1960s in the National Football League for the Washington Redskins and the Dallas Cowboys. He played college football for the College of the Pacific. He also was an executive vice president of the NFL’s Atlanta Falcons.

Contents

 [hide] 

1Early years

2College career

3Military service

4Professional career

4.1Washington Redskins (first stint)

4.2Calgary Stampeders (WIFU)

4.3Washington Redskins (second stint)

4.4Dallas Cowboys

5Personal life

6See also

7References

8Further reading

9External links

Early years[edit]

Born in San Rafael, California,[1] LeBaron graduated from Oakdale High School in Oakdale, northeast of Modesto.

College career[edit]

LeBaron enrolled at the College of the Pacific (now the University of the Pacific) in Stockton as a 16-year-old.[2] He played college football for the Tigers under Amos Alonzo Stagg and Larry Siemering from 1946 to 1949, lettering all four years and achieving All-American honors as a senior. The Tigers registered an undefeated season (11–0) in 1949, led the nation in total offense (502.9 yards a game), and set an NCAA single-season record of 575 points. LeBaron was a two-way, 60-minute player, as a quarterback on offense, safety on defense, and punter on special teams. He also played one year of baseball for the Tigers as a catcher.

He left the school after re-writing many of the football records: career touchdowns (59), touchdowns in a season (23), longest punt (74 yards), most yardage off interception returns in a game (119), most times leading the team in total offense (3).

He was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1980,[3] into the Bay Area Sports Hall of Fame in 2004[4] and was a charter inductee into the Sac-Joaquin Section Hall of Fame in October 2010.[5]

Military service[edit]

LeBaron was commissioned in the U.S. Marine Corps reserves while in college and served as a lieutenant in the Korean War after graduation. He was wounded twice and was decorated with the Purple Heart. For his heroic actions on the front lines, he was awarded the Bronze Star. Due to his diminutive size, 5 feet, 7 inches, and leadership skills from his military service, he was sometimes known as the “Littlest General”.[6]

In 2008, he was inducted into the U.S. Marine Corps Sports Hall of Fame.

Professional career[edit]

Washington Redskins (first stint)[edit]

LeBaron was selected in the tenth round (123rd overall) of the 1950 NFL draft by the Washington Redskins, but had to leave training camp to perform military service during the Korean War. At 5 ft 7 in (1.70 m), he was one of the shortest quarterbacks in the history of the NFL.

He returned to the NFL in 1952 after a two-year commitment to the United States Marine Corpsas a lieutenant, when he was discharged after being wounded in combat. He replaced future hall of famer Sammy Baugh in the starting lineup after the fourth game and received All-Rookie honors at the end of the season.[7] The next year he was limited with a knee injury and also shared the starting position with Jack Scarbath.

Calgary Stampeders (WIFU)[edit]

In 1954, the Western Interprovincial Football Union (a predecessor of the Canadian Football League) raided the NFL talent to improve its level of play. LeBaron signed with the Calgary Stampeders along with his Redskins teammate Gene Brito, because his college coach Larry Siemering was named the team’s head coach.[8] He registered 1,815 passing yards, 8 touchdowns and 24 interceptions during the season. He also played defensive back and punter. He decided to return to the NFL at the end of the year, after the team fired Siemering.

Washington Redskins (second stint)[edit]

On December 9, 1954, he re-signed with the Washington Redskins.[9] In his seven seasons with the Redskins he started 55 of a possible 72 games at quarterback (he played in 70 of those 72 games).[10] He was also the primary punter for his first three seasons with Washington (punting 171 times for a total of 6,995 yards in five seasons).[10] He was the league’s top-rated quarterback in 1958. He announced his retirement to focus on his law practice at the end of the 1959 season.[11]

Dallas Cowboys[edit]

After not being able to participate in the 1960 NFL draft during their inaugural year of existence, the Dallas Cowboys traded their first round (#2-Norm Snead) and sixth round (#72-Joe Krakoski) draft choices in the 1961 NFL Draft to the Washington Redskins in exchange for LeBaron,[12] convincing him to come out of retirement to become the franchise’s first starting quarterback. He started 10 of 12 games in 1960, with rookie Don Meredith and Don Heinrichstarting the other two.[13] He also scored the Cowboys’ first-ever touchdown in their first exhibition game against the San Francisco 49ers, on August 6 in Seattle. He set a record for the shortest touchdown pass in league history, with his throw to receiver Dick Bielski from the 2-inch line against the Redskins on October 9, 1960.[14]

LeBaron started 10 of 14 games in 1961, with Meredith starting the other four.[15] He only started five games in 1962, splitting time with Meredith.[16] He started the first game of the 1963 season, but was replaced permanently by Meredith for the rest of the season.[17]

He retired at the end of 1963, after playing 12 seasons, throwing for 13,399 yards and 104 touchdowns and being selected for the Pro Bowl four times in 1955, 1957, 1958, and 1962.[10]He is the shortest quarterback to ever be selected to the Pro Bowl.[18] He was also known as an elusive scrambler and great ball-handler.

Personal life[edit]

LeBaron became a football announcer for CBS Sports after his NFL career, and worked as an announcer from 1966 to 1971.[19] He had obtained a law degree during his off-seasons from football, and practiced law after his football career. He was also the general manager of the Atlanta Falcons from 1977 to 1982 and executive vice president from 1983 through 1985.[20]LeBaron was an avid golfer and continued to play golf in his retirement. He died of natural causes on April 1, 2015.[21]

                                                         Documentary about Ervil LeBaron and his cult

(*Some books about Uncle Ervil LeBaron — in public libraries and bookstores)

https://thetrueprophetfilm.com/proposed-cast/

Proposed cast

THE TRUE PROPHET is an independent film written and directed by Scott Hillier and executive produced by…

THETRUEPROPHETFILM.COM

  NOTE: This movie was planning on its release in 2014. It was never released due to lack of funding. But there is some information here that may very well be of interest to you. For example, on this Website there are some of Ervil’s writings and more. Must see.

A number of books have been published and more than one movie has been done on Mother’s brother, my infamous Uncle Ervil LeBaron. He is now known as “Evil Ervil,” and “The Mormon Manson.” I knew, respected, and loved him till I came to realize, many years later, what a manipulator he was — and before he went off the deep end with his sociopathy and psychosis. 

The “Prophet of Evil” is an especially well-done film produced years ago. It portrays a poignant part of this serial killer’s life. I love how brilliantly Brian Dennehy played the part of my Uncle Ervil.

But no film can possibly portray the depth of suffering, damage, and lunacy this personality-disordered megalomaniac caused in the lives of all he touched — especially his family and his brainwashed, true-believing followers, not to mention his around sixty children. 

You may get the film from wherever you get movies and see the portrayal for yourself. I, myself, will be telling my experiences with my Uncle Ervil down the line in my memoir blogs. You may also read books written about him.

See “Media” and also “Media on Extended Family, Friends and Fundamentalist Cults” in my Menu bar for other books, Book Reviews, and films I may not have listed in this blog. Wikipedia and other Who’s Who sites relate a short history of him also — as well as a short history of many of my other infamous, as well as famous LeBaron and other extended family members and relatives.

For example, you can find in Wikipedia a short biography of my great-great Uncle, Joel Johnson (brother of my great-great grandfather Benjamin F. Johnson) who helped found some of Utah’s first Townsites. And wrote 800 hymns for the Mormon hymnal, during the time of Joseph Smith. Two of these hymns are still in the modern Mormon hymnals. The beautiful “High on the Mountain Top” is one of them — and to this day is still one of mine and Mormonism’s favorite hymns.

Another outstanding relative is my a-number-of-places-removed-maternal great-grandfather, Dr. Francis LeBaron. He was the first of the LeBarons in the United States — brought to America around 1668 by his nurse to save his life, it is said, “because he was part of the French royalty,” or/and his parents were members of the Huguenots — so went into hiding and may eventually have been killed.

~PLEASE NOTE: I took the following material off the Internet. It needs editing. I edited a part of this bio. Do not have time to polish it:

 ~ NOTE: This portrait is of Dr. Francis LeBaron Apothecary General (1781-1829). He is the namesake and great-grandson of Dr. Francis LeBaron born 1668: 

This Dr. Francis LeBaron served in the service of the United States as: Surgeon’s Mate (Navy), Jan. 31, 1800 to Mar. 1, 1802 Garrison Surgeon’s Mate (Army), 1802 to 1808 Garrison Surgeon 1808 to1813 Apothecary General. 1813 to 1821. Check out the following link: http://www.anamelessnobleman.com/HTMLs/ApthcryGnrl.html

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Birth: Aug. 9, 1668 Bordeaux, France Death: Aug. 8, 1704 Plymouth Plymouth County Massachusetts, USA Francis LeBaron was a doctor from France. There are unconfirmed family stories that he was son of the persecuted Huguenots. One Story has him being handed over to a childless doctor, Louis Pecton of Bordeaux, and being instructed that if his father did not return in one year he was to raise the child as his own and teach him the family trade, for his mother had been killed and his father’s life was in danger. He was just an infant.This would explain how he became a doctor. Louis Pecton raised him and on his death bed in 1693 he told Francis of his true identity. It is said that he also gave him a golden cross that was his mother’s. And it is said that he adored it and never took it off but wore it concealed under his clothing and was buried with it. As far as is known, Francis never revealed his true identity to anyone.

Another story goes that after Louis’s death, Francis became involved with a French privateer. And it is known that he left France aboard a privateer ship.

The ship ran aground in Buzzards Bay in the fall of 1694. This was during the later stages of King William’s war with Louis XIV of France. The French crew was captured by the colonists. Francis became separated from his shipmates.

Some stories have him being hidden by his future wife Mary Wilder, while others have him being left behind because he was sick — or both.

At this time Plymouth had no surgeon and Francis, being a surgeon, performed a successful operation. Since he was willing to settle in Plymouth, the settlers petitioned the govenor to keep him. And it was done.

There is a book written by Mrs. Jane Goodwin Austin whose great-grandfather Nathaniel Goodwin married Lazarus’ widow Lydia. The book is called “The Nameless Nobleman.” It is fictional but is said to be the story of Dr. Francis LeBaron (dated 1876).

LOUIS PECTON had been a surgeon in the French armies. As popular prejudice would not allow of dissections in civil life, and as Harvey’s discoveries were written in English, few French practitioners then knew as much of their profession as did the old women who acted as nurses, or the barbers who monopolized the use of the lancet. In his army practice, young Pecton had abundant opportunity for dissections and for making the acquaintance of English surgeons.

When, therefore, he went to take possession of his patrimony in a suburb of Bordeaux, he was a surgeon of far greater skill and knowledge than was common in that day. He had married some years before. The parents of the parties had arranged the match, the bride and bridegroom knowing or caring little about each other, as was customary.

On settling down at Bordeaux, it was with a sort of agreeable surprise that the young couple found themselves exceedingly well mated, and proceeded to fall in love with each other.

Pecton practiced medicine, mainly from a sense of duty. His property was enough to support him, so that the fees, which he rigidly exacted from the rich, were systematically distributed among the poor.

One dark night, in 1668, the worthy doctor’s surgery was visited by a stranger of commanding appearance, but in humble apparel. In reply to the puzzled look of the former, the stranger pushed aside his hair, pointed to a little star-shaped scar above is temple, and said:

“Yes, my dear Pecton, your unspoken guess is right. But keep your seat. If you want to show me respect, do it by serving me. My life is sought, and so is that of my infant son. You know by whom! Mine he will yet have, but you must save that of my now motherless boy. He will reach your house to-night with his wet-nurse.

“Let him pass as your son till he grows up, Then tell him what you think will be for his good. Educate him well and see that he is trained to martial exercises. Then teach him your own noble calling. Two hundred Louis-d’ors will come with him to meet the expenses. He has been baptized as “Francis.” Honor him by giving him your own honest surname. And if he never knows any other, he will be far happier than if he bore his father’s historic title.

“Finally, rear him as a good Catholic. And teach him to wear this cross constantly, and to have it buried with him. It may lead, in happier times, to his identification.”

So saying, he handed the doctor a small but richly chased gold cross attached to an embroidered ribbon. A long, whispered consultation followed. The result was that the doctor, after conferring with his wife, accepted the trust imposed, but declared that the little stranger should take the place of his own deceased darling. And should be made his heir, unless reclaimed by his father.

The stranger sadly replied: “No! My double benefactor, that will never be. If I am alive, you shall hear from me in just one year. If you do not, you may know that I no longer live.”

The stranger departed. The doctor never heard of him again. The child arrived mysteriously and the family adapted itself to its new circumstances without attracting outside attention. Soon after, they moved to the opposite side of the city, among strangers, who neither knew nor cared whether little Francis Pecton was the son of his nominal parents or not.

At twenty-one, Francis had a fine education as the times went, and his training had been such as his father had requested. He was the embodiment of health and good spirits, the only grief of his life having been the recent death of his supposed mother. His guardian had given him rare instruction in surgery, and had abandoned his medical practice to him, which the young man was following up with enthusiasm.

In 1693, when Francis was twenty-five years old, Dr. Pecton lay on his death-bed. In a long, last interview he revealed to his ward such portion of his history as he knew. Soon after, he departed, leaving Francis heir to his little estate. The latter, now doubly an orphan, never recovered his former light-heartedness — largely because of something he had learned from the doctor which cast a shadow over his spirit for life. His hereditary cross seemed now doubly precious to him, and was seldom long out of his hand.

At length, his old home becoming insupportable, he invested a part of his funds in the city. A part he distributed among the poor of his neighborhood. With the rest, he bought a share in the privateer L’Aigle. Then, assuming the name of LeBaron, as surgeon of his ship, he started out to fight the battles of Louis XIV against William and Mary.

Like most privateers, L’Aigle won many ignoble victories and made some very gallant failures. At length, in 1696, while running along the New England coast, she took a look into Buzzard’s Bay, and being caught there by a south-west wind, she never looked further.

To bear up was impossible and to bear away was destruction. She came to anchor but soon the storm tore her loose and drove her upon the west coast of Falmouth. Her crew all landed safely, but the inhabitants gathered about them with extremely hostile indications. They had mistaken L’Aigle for a pirate, and were disposed to exterminate her crew at once.

After some hours of threatening, Major Bourne, a magistrate, arrived and took command. By his order, the Frenchmen were received as prisoners of war and were finally started on the route for Boston. When they came to march, it was found that the surgeon of the ship was not among the prisoners. He had landed with the crew, and had evidently escaped inland. Some of the people, first agreeing that the fugitive must be a spy, and therefore not entitled to quarter, started in pursuit.

A few miles northward stood a large, rambling house, in which Edward and Elizabeth Wilder had lived and died, and where their children now lived. The morning after the shipwreck, Mary Wilder was at home alone. Her brother and his wife were away for the day, and she was spinning flax and singing psalm tunes in the big, old kitchen. Suddenly a ragged, drabbled, excited young man rushed into the house and in broken language asked her to protect him. Her good sense and her woman’s heart roused her to efficient action. She took the fugitive to the garret and, taking up the loose boards of the floor, exposed a deep space, bounded by the stout wooden ceiling of the room below.

A few mats and sacks were thrown in, some food was provided, and Mary went to watch for the searchers. At length they appeared, examining every bush and hiding-place, far and near. Mary sent her captive into his place of refuge, and then, replacing the floor, she spread some bedding over the spot and lay down. Soon the hunters arrived and examined the house. In the garret they found Mary tucked up on the floor, with her head bound in a towel, and a bowl of sassafras tea by her side. They tried to explain their errand, but she was “so sick” she would not listen. Ransacking the rest of the premises, they went on their way. That night Mary won her sister-in-law over to her side and they two soon coaxed young Edward Wilder to help protect the fugitive.

In the course of two weeks, the latter was well nigh forgotten by the outside world. Major Bourne, who had been consulted by the Wilder’s, volunteered to go with LeBaron to Boston, and ask that he might live in Falmouth, on parole, until exchanged. Early one morning Major Bourne, with Wilder and LeBaron, crossed on horseback to Scusset Harbor, in Sandwich, where a boat at once started for Plymouth. At the latter place the prisoner was turned over to the selectmen who at once put him in care of Major Bourne until a convenient craft should be sailing to Boston.

There was then no surgeon in Plymouth, and there was a very serious case of disease requiring treatment. LeBaron volunteered to perform the operation. His knowledge and skill so impressed the people that the selectmen procured his discharge as a prisoner from Lieut.-Gov. Stoughton, and persuaded him to settle in Plymouth.

Dr. LeBaron’s first use of his freedom was to revisit Falmouth, and bring back Mary Wilder as his wife. How much of his history he told his wife was never revealed by her, beyond what is here recorded. To other people he said nothing. It was only known that he considered himself the victim of an official conspiracy, defrauding him hopelessly of his hereditary rights.

But while this feeling made him ready to abjure his native land and all connected with it, he held steadfastly to his religion, wearing his golden cross night and day, and providing that it should not be removed at his death. Many of his new neighbors were greatly troubled that their should be a devote’ of Rome and this fact much injured his influence.

Indeed, he was often charged with a lack of cordiality and sociability. But the poor found him a true follower of the noble-hearted Pecton. For them, his gentlest manners and most earnest efforts were ready. The remnants of his French property were reclaimed and formed into his private charity fund. When his survivors opened his will, they found that he had bequeathed the town of Plymouth ninety acres of land for the same purpose.

The prosperous complained of his brusqueness, but the weak and friendless blessed the sound of his approaching footsteps. With them, he was never impatient or indifferent, though they were sometimes ungrateful to him. With the aged, he was tender, as they reminded him of his adopted father and mother.

Especially was he affected when, in 1699, he soothed the last moments of Mary Allerton Cushman, who as a girl of ten years had landed from the Mayflower, and now at the age of 90 was the sole survivor of that immortal company. That the orphan of Bordeaux should have been, by such mysterious ways, brought to perform this duty, filled LeBaron’s soul with awe. Eight years of this new life passed quietly away. Then, at the early age of 36, the exile made his last journey. The visitor to Burial Hill in Plymouth may still see the gravestone which Mary Wilder had to import from England. On it he may read: HERE LYES Ye BODY OF Mr FRANCIS LEBARRAN, PHYTICIAN WHO DEPARTED THIS LIFE AUGUST Ye 8, 1704, IN Ye 36 YEAR OF HIS AGE.

A third of a century afterward, loving hands laid Mary Wilder by the side of her long-lost husband. Her son had then, for many years, been his father’s successor as “the beloved physician” of Plymouth. Her grandson was fitting himself for the same high position when his turn should come.

All in this country who bear the name “LeBaron” are of this stock. So are many more, who, through intermarriages with the descendants of Bradford, Standish, Alden, Howland, and Southworth, bear widely different names.

Few of them know of the romance which surrounds their French ancestor. None of them can unravel its mysteries. One of the number has herein told all that he can learn of the matter and it amounts to little more concerning its hero than this family link: Spouse: Mary Wilder Waite (1668 – 1737)Children: James LeBaron (1696 – 1744) Lazarus LeBaron (1698 – 1773)* Francis LeBaron (1701 – 1731)<span class=”fakeLink” title=”header=[  Reverse Relationships:] body=[This relationship was not directly added to this memorial. Rather, it is calculated based on information added to the related person’s memorial. For example: if Joe Public is linked to Jane Public as a spouse, a reciprocal link will automatically be added to Jane Public’s memorial. ] fade=[on] fadespeed=[.09]”>Calculated Relationship Inscription: HERE LYES Ye BODYOF Mr FRANCIS LEBARRAN PHYTICIAN WHO DEPARTED THIS LIFE AUGUST Ye 8. 1704. IN Ye 36 YEAR OF HIS AGE My flesh shall slumber in the ground.

His a-number-of-places-removed-granddaughter, Author Jane Goodwin Austin, wrote a history about him, “The Nameless Nobleman.” I bought the book on Amazon.com a few years ago, as well as other books written by her.

Another book I found years ago in the Public Library was written, I believe, by my Uncle Ben LeBaron’s son, George LeBaron — if I remember his name, and other facts correctly. (If you’re reading this and I am wrong in my data, would you please advise me in my “Comments” section?) 

He told of his experiences earning his Physician’s license and Medical degree at the prestigious Harvard Med School, no less. I say “no less” because if you knew what he grew up under, your sentiments would be the same! He had to be strong and brilliant to do this!

One of Uncle Ervil’s amazing daughters, Author-Speaker-Blogger-and Life Coach, Anna LeBaron, has also written a book. It is about her life growing up in her father’s dangerous and crazy cult — which she ran away from when she was 13! Her memoir, “The Polygamist’s Daughter,” was released March 21, 2017. It’s in the public library, in audiobook, eBook, and print versions. You can order it, now, on Amazon.com and other sites. Check out her Website at AnnaLeBaron.com.

These two above photos are of my cousin Anna LeBaron.

By Stephany Spencer: My Book Review of my cousin Anna LeBaron’s Memoir: “The Polygamist’s Daughter”

Thanks to Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., I was honored with a complimentary ARC (Advance Reader Copy) of cousin Anna LeBaron’s bravely written book, “The Polygamist’s Daughter,” published March 21, 2017.

Regarding Anna’s Memoir, I was disappointed she didn’t tell us more about her miscreant father, “Evil Ervil,” (the murderous “Mormon Manson”). Also wish she had gone more into the details of her “running away from home.” (I would not have cared if the book were longer!)

As it was, her book said very little about her colorful father. And her “running away” was simply to call her married sister to take her in — a sister within walking distance, no less. Still, I have to give her credit for having had the sense and courage to run away at the tender age of thirteen, no less! For having run away, she might even very well have been killed by the cult she is fled!

Even so, in essence, her book was milquetoast for me, in comparison to what was really going on in her family and father’s violent cult that drove her to flee the abusive and corrupt lifestyle. However, I realize she was between a rock and a hard spot when it came to relating this treacherous past.

I, an old veteran of much of that history, also realize that if she were totally up front, it would possibly compromise her present and future — and her amazing success in surviving her malevolent past.

Her father is my mother’s brother. And was my husband’s buddy for ten years — so  I knew him well … as well as you could know a devious man like my Uncle Ervil LeBaron for whom I had felt love and respect, till he went off the deep end in his psychopathy.

Now I feel mostly pity and shame for my insane, sociopathic, revengeful, zealot uncle who, nonetheless, had a lot of people convinced he was a prophet.

To better understand that whole scenario, read “Cult Insanity” by Irene Spencer;” “Prophet of Blood,” by Ben Bradlee, Jr. and Dale Van Atta.  And “The 4 O’clock Murders,”  by Scott Anderson.

To further understand this whole bizarre crime family scene, also check Wikipedia and other online Info about Ervil LeBaron, including my Website Menu bar under “Media About my Family, Friends, and Mormon Fundamentalist Cults.” And “Famous ‘n’ Infamous Relatives of Mine.” You could, as well, watch the excellent film, “Prophet of Evil,” starring Brian Dennehy.

Getting back to Anna LeBaron’s Memoir, “The Polygamist’s Daughter,” everyone in the LeBaron Colony in the 1960’s saw how Uncle Ervil went about preaching and “doing missionary work, ” indifferent toward his nine neglected children he bore by his first wife, bipolar Aunt Delfina.

These indigent kids were left to roam the streets, starving, and unkempt —  not to mention his fifty or more other deprived and abandoned children he bore by his thirteen other wives!

So it hurt to the quick to hear, firsthand, in Anna’s Memoir how it felt for her to be so badly neglected and used by her non-empathetic, uncaring, sense-of-entitlement, narcissistic father!

But when I then read how his unloved and abused daughter Lillian died, I grieved for days. She was one of Aunt Delfina’s children whom I had helped look out for while I lived near them in the LeBaron Colony in Mexico before I escaped the cult in 1967 at age twenty-one.

Lillian was only around five or so, then. And I don’t believe Anna had been born yet. But I had lived across the street from her jolly mother with the beautiful singing voice, Aunt Anna Mae. And had taught her older siblings in my Colonia LeBaron preschool I started in my home at age fifteen.

Therefore, though I wish Anna had gone more into depth, I’m proud of her efforts and the work she put into writing and publishing what she did of her Life Story. I’m sure her tragic memories were anything but easy to put into print.

For me, her story really picked up in the latter part where she began to shoot from the hip. I especially found it enlightening and helpful when she went into detail about how she overcame a bout of deep depression.

I benefited, also, when she told of her epiphany that gave her a new lease on life — a greater purpose for living. She is presently a Life Coach. And works to help improve the world — just the opposite of what her father did!

Though her father preached that he was “Here to set the house of God in order, to prepare it for the second coming of Christ,” in reality, he did just the opposite of everything he preached and claimed!!

Like her father, she is bright, a writer, and a leader. Unlike her father, she exhibits integrity, sanity, empathy, and a loving, giving spirit. So my hat goes off to Anna! She has come a long way, made a lot of good choices, and overcome a lot. I look forward to her next book — when she feels safe to actually “tell all.”

My Uncle Joel LeBaron’s daughter, Ruth Wariner, wrote a bestselling Memoir, “The Sound of Gravel,” published February 2016. It’s available on Amazon.com or wherever you get books. It’s also in audiobook and print in public libraries.

The following essay is my Book Review of “The Sound of Gravel,” a Memoir by Ruth Wariner, a first cousin of mine. (“Wariner” is Ruth’s mother’s maiden name. My mother’s brother, my Uncle Joel LeBaron, was Ruth’s father.)

By Stephany Spencer: In the past year, I’ve read once and listened three times to my cousin Ruth Wariner’s best-selling book/audiobook, “The Sound of Gravel.”  It has gotten higher ratings from me with each new read or listening to it. So I’ve found it pays to read or listen to a book more than once!

With my first read, I deemed the book “Not what I expected.” I grew up much the same way she had, so I had preconceived notions of what it was and should be about. It took listening to it a second time, as an audiobook, to be able to say:

“You go, cousin Ruth! It’s a well-written Memoir that should be read, as well as listened to, at least two times by everyone who thinks Mormon cults are “Just people exercising their freedom of religion.”

This well-scripted book gives you some idea of what “people just exercising their freedom of religion” do to the kids born into these Mormon fundamentalist cults! I should know: I grew up in and then escaped, 50 years ago, this same LeBaron cult Ruth grew up in!

People who grow up in abusive and traumatizing childhoods often split and revert into themselves when anything goes wrong in their life. I’ve learned from the late Dr. David Viscot that feeling sorry for one’s self is a form of splitting. Traumatized people do this so as to try to protect themselves, and to better handle a bad situation. However, it only leads to depression.

Thanks to Ruth’s Memoir, she’s taught me to replace bad situations with the song and mantra: “Count Your Blessings.” I grew up singing this song. But I didn’t realize, till I read Ruth’s book the third time, that this is what I needed to do, more than anything, to keep a good spirit with me and thus avoid depression, negativity — and splitting from myself by feeling sorry for myself in the face of bad situations (like aging, for example!) that I was experiencing or going through.

Now, whenever dark clouds threaten to rain on my sunshine, I quickly remember to say and sing “Count your blessings!” For there are no end of blessings that have been bestowed upon me in my life, despite all the bad things I’ve also survived.

I grew up singing this song, just as my cousin Ruth had. But I had not been taught the lesson Ruth’s mother, Kathy, taught her when she constantly and quickly always reminded her daughter Ruth to “count her blessings” — no matter how bad things were!!

At first, this seemed like a silly thing to consistently say, in the face of all the mire and dire adversity Ruth and her family constantly lived with. But now I realize Ruth’s mother, Kathy, had learned from her upbringing a good lesson that she then passed down to her own children:

Counting one’s blessings chases out negativity and depression, or feeling sorry for oneself. And supplants it with positivity, action, and being in control: the best prescriptions for surviving any bad situation.

 Thank you, Ruth, for passing this lesson on to me  — along with many other lessons you have taught through your outstanding memoir — your valuable gift to the world.

*I’ve posted below the words to this Thanksgiving song, in case you want to sing it too. (The music can be found online, by looking up the title of this song, if you don’t already know it).

Count Your Many Blessings

1-  When upon life’s billows you are tempest-tossed, When you are discouraged, thinking all is lost, Count your many blessings, name them one by one, And it will surprise you what the Lord has done.

Refrain: Count your blessings, name them one by one, Count your blessings, see what God has done! Count your blessings, name them one by one, *Count your many blessings, see what God has done. [*And it will surprise you what the Lord has done.]

 2-  Are you ever burdened with a load of care? Does the cross seem heavy you are called to bear? Count your many blessings, every doubt will fly, And you will keep singing as the days go by

3-  When you look at others with their lands and gold, Think that Christ has promised you His wealth untold; Count your many blessings money cannot buy Your reward in heaven, nor your home on high.

4-  So, amid the conflict whether great or small, Do not be discouraged, God is over all; Count your many blessings, angels will attend, Help and comfort give you to your journey’s end.

By Johnson Oatman, Jr., 1897

“Shattered Dreams” and “Cult Insanity” by Best-Selling Author  Irene Spencer/ AKA: Irene Kunz LeBaron, at IreneSpencerBooks.com.  Her books are also in audiobook form. (Irene is my Aunt, through marriage, as is Rebecca Kimbel, Irene’s half-sister.)

*Note: I took the photo featured on Irene’s book cover,”Cult Insanity. “Uncle Ervil LeBaron is holding my eight-year-old daughter, Asenath Marie Tucker, the little girl in the yellow dress. I took this photograph before I had any idea of the psychopathic, maniacal activities my mother’s brother Ervil was up to.)

“His Favorite Wife,”   by Susan Ray Schmidt/ AKA: Susan Ray LeBaron  (Another Aunt of mine, her Memoir reads like a novel. My family is mentioned in it.)

One of my favorite books on the subject of my relatives and my past is the following book, written by a very talented writer, Aunt Susan Ray Schmidt. (I took care of her for five days when she was around nine years old (long before she married my Uncle Verlan LeBaron, and thus became my aunt) while her parents were out of town, and we were still living in Colonia LeBaron, Chihuahua, Mexico).

Doris Hansen and Rebecca Kimbel also each interviewed Authors Irene LeBaron Spencer (See: IreneSpencerbooks.com)  and Susan Ray Schmidt (see her website). Both are my Aunts. 

Aunt Rebecca Kimbel and Doris Hanson also interviewed, on their TV and YouTube sites, other relatives and friends of mine from my days in the cult — people such as my cousin,  Carolyn Jessop,  a memoirist who wrote the bestselling, “Escape,” and other books.

Also, check out Aunt Rebecca Kimbel’s  excellent and adamant speech on YouTube’s TED-X Talks. (In around only 18 minutes, she did a genius presentation of the main issues concerning Mormon cults, including White slavery.

See the film: “The Childbride of Short Creek.” It was on YouTube, among other places, the last time I checked. (The writers of this film interviewed some of my sisters to gather Info for their Script.)

“Banking on Heaven“  is a Documentary my cousin Laurie Allen  (Mother’s brother, Uncle Wesley’s granddaughter) and her cohort Dot Reidelbach created. This documentary gives an outstanding overview of life as it used to exist for the Mormon fundamentalist female in Short Creek, Arizona; and Hilldale, Utah.

This DVD is available on Amazon.com @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@

NOTE: My Spencer family line may or may not be related to England’s famous poet Edmund Spenser. The jury is still out on this.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

    Edmund Spenser Born 1552/1553 London, England Died 13 January 1599 (aged 46–47)[1] London, England Resting place Westminster Abbey Occupation Poet Language English Alma mater Pembroke College, Cambridge Period 1569–1599 Notable works The Faerie Queene

Signature

Edmund Spenser (/ˈspɛnsər/; 1552/1553 – 13 January 1599) was an English poet best known for The Faerie Queene, an epic poem and fantastical allegory celebrating the Tudor dynasty and Elizabeth I. He is recognized as one of the premier craftsmen of nascent Modern English verse, and is often considered one of the greatest poets in the English language. He was deeply affected by Irish faerie mythology, which he knew from his home at Kilcolman and possibly from his Irish wife Elizabeth Boyle. His genocidal tracts against Gaelic culture were war propaganda. His house (ruins remain) was burned to the ground during the war, causing him to flee Ireland.

  Edmund Spenser was born in East Smithfield, London, around the year 1552, though there is some ambiguity as to the exact date of his birth. As a young boy, he was educated in London at the Merchant Taylors’ School and matriculated as a sizar at Pembroke College, Cambridge.[2][3] While at Cambridge he became a friend of Gabriel Harvey and later consulted him, despite their differing views on poetry. In 1578, he became for a short time secretary to John Young, Bishop of Rochester.[4] In 1579, he published The Shepheardes Calender and around the same time married his first wife, Machabyas Childe.[5] They had two children, Sylvanus (d.1638) and Katherine.[6]

In July 1580, Spenser went to Ireland in service of the newly appointed Lord Deputy, Arthur Grey, 14th Baron Grey de Wilton. Spenser served under Lord Gray with Walter Raleigh at the Siege of Smerwick massacre.[7] When Lord Grey was recalled to England, Spenser stayed on in Ireland, having acquired other official posts and lands in the Munster Plantation. Raleigh acquired other nearby Munster estates confiscated in the Second Desmond Rebellion. Some time between 1587 and 1589, Spenser acquired his main estate at Kilcolman, near Doneraile in North Cork.[8] He later bought a second holding to the south, at Rennie, on a rock overlooking the river Blackwater in North Cork. Its ruins are still visible today. A short distance away grew a tree, locally known as “Spenser’s Oak” until it was destroyed in a lightning strike in the 1960s. Local legend has it that he penned some of The Faerie Queene under this tree.[9]

In 1590, Spenser brought out the first three books of his most famous work, The Faerie Queene, having travelled to London to publish and promote the work, with the likely assistance of Raleigh. He was successful enough to obtain a life pension of £50 a year from the Queen. He probably hoped to secure a place at court through his poetry, but his next significant publication boldly antagonised the queen’s principal secretary, Lord Burghley (William Cecil), through its inclusion of the satirical Mother Hubberd’s Tale.[10] He returned to Ireland.

By 1594, Spenser’s first wife had died, and in that year he married Elizabeth Boyle, to whom he addressed the sonnet sequence Amoretti. The marriage itself was celebrated in Epithalamion.[11] They had a son named Peregrine.[6]

In 1596, Spenser wrote a prose pamphlet titled A View of the Present State of Ireland. This piece, in the form of a dialogue, circulated in manuscript, remaining unpublished until the mid-seventeenth century. It is probable that it was kept out of print during the author’s lifetime because of its inflammatory content. The pamphlet argued that Ireland would never be totally “pacified” by the English until its indigenous language and customs had been destroyed, if necessary by violence.[12]

In 1598, during the Nine Years War, Spenser was driven from his home by the native Irish forces of Aodh Ó Néill. His castle at Kilcolman was burned, and Ben Jonson, who may have had private information, asserted that one of his infant children died in the blaze.[13]

  Title page, Fowre Hymnes, by Edmund Spenser, published by William Ponsonby, London, 1596

In the year after being driven from his home, 1599, Spenser travelled to London, where he died at the age of forty-six – “for want of bread”, according to Ben Jonson – one of Jonson’s more doubtful statements, since Spenser had a payment to him authorised by the government and was due his pension.[14] His coffin was carried to his grave in Poets’ Corner in Westminster Abbey by other poets, who threw many pens and pieces of poetry into his grave with many tears. His second wife survived him and remarried twice. His sister Sarah, who had accompanied him to Ireland, married into the Travers family, and her descendants were prominent landowners in Cork for centuries.

The Spenserian stanza and sonnet[edit]

Spenser used a distinctive verse form, called the Spenserian stanza, in several works, including The Faerie Queene. The stanza’s main meter is iambic pentameter with a final line in iambic hexameter (having six feet or stresses, known as an Alexandrine), and the rhyme scheme is ababbcbcc. He also used his own rhyme scheme for the sonnet. In a Spenserian sonnet, the last line of every quatrain is linked with the first line of the next one, yielding the rhyme scheme ababbcbccdcdee.

   Joel Johnson, My Great-Great-Uncle

Joel Johnson is my great-great-uncle, brother of my great-great-grandfather Benjamin F Johnson.

My Uncle Joel LeBaron is my mother’s brother and my Great–great Uncle Joel Johnson’s namesake. I was amazed to see how much Uncle Joel LeBaron looks like his Great Uncle Joel Johnson – especially in the cheeks, nose, mouth, and jaw! (He resembles his namesake more than any of my  mother’s other six brothers!)

Great-great uncle Joel Johnson is, among other things, famous for such well-known and beloved Mormon hymns as “High on the Mountaintop.” It  can still be found in modern Mormon hymn books. And is still one of my favorite hymns.

Great-great Uncle Joel Johnson wrote around 800 hymns for the Mormon church. He also helped found some of Utah’s Townsites.

The following I borrowed from Wikipedia for your convenience. But there is also more on him and his history that you can find if you do various online searches:

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia 

“High on the Mountain Top” Hymn

The text writer of the Latter Day Saint hymn

Written 1853 Text by Joel H. Johnson Meter 6 6 6 6 8 8 Melody “Deseret” by Ebenezer Beesley Composed 1854

“High on the Mountain Top” is an 1850s hymn written by Latter Day Saint hymn writers Joel H. Johnson and Ebenezer Beesley.[1]Originally named “Deseret”, it is hymn number 5 in the current LDS Church hymnal.

The lyrics to the hymn were written by Johnson in 1853, five years after Brigham Youngpreached on Ensign Peak as the Mormon pioneers first arrived in the Salt Lake Valley.[2]Even though Johnson’s journal contains more than 700 hymns, “High on the Mountain Top” is his most notable contribution to LDS music.[3]

In 1854, Beesley composed music to accompany Johnson’s poem. The Mormon Tabernacle Choir adopted Beesley’s rendition and it has since become one of the choir’s standard numbers.

The hymn has five verses and centers on the theme that God has restored the gospel to the earth.

  BELOW: Andre The Giant and Chief Jay Strongbow take on Don Leon Jonathan and Otto Von Heller from Madison Square Garden-1973.All rights owned by WWE entertainment.YOUTUBE.COM

“The Mormon Giant” Don Leon Jonathan was the grandson of my grandfather Alma Dayer LeBaron’s brother Leo LeBaron

The Mormon Giant * By Kris Wray While Dayer LeBaron [Sr]’s eldest son Ben may have been able to do 100 push-ups in a traffic jam to demonstrate he was mighty and strong, and bellow out roars that would leave people’s ears ringing as evidence he was the Lion of Judah, ol’ Ben had serious competition from another, little known member of the LeBaron family. Dayer’s younger brother Leo had a daughter named Leona, Ben’s cousin. Leona LeBaron Heaton gave birth to a son in 1931, in Hurricane, Utah, and named him Don. Don’s father, Jonathan, who had dabbled in professional wrestling [the male version of soap operas type], was once described as the “hymn-singing, psalm-shouting Brother Jonathan, who tossed opponents from pillar to post while in the midst of a Bible quotation”. Don–at 6 ft. 6 in. and 300ish pounds–followed in his footsteps. Raised Mormon, Don entered the ring in 1949 as Don Leo Jonathan, “The Mormon Giant”, and didn’t quit wrestling until 1980. In 1972, the same year Ervil had his brother Joel killed, Don the Mormon Giant defeated André the Giant with his trademark finisher, “The birthright brain buster”. Okay, that part’s not true. Don did win, but it was because André the Giant was disqualified [several rematches followed]. What is true is that years before Jake “The Snake” Roberts gained fame by bringing his pet boa into the ring in the 80s and 90s, The Mormon Giant often entered his matches with a seven-foot, defanged rattlesnake named “Cold Chills” draped over his shoulders. Gentiles who witnessed Don handle his serpent surely must have known that by such a sign following him, he was a true believer [Mark 16:17-18]. Big Don, also nicknamed The Lumberjack, won over 40 championships during his career, and was inducted into the Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame in 2006. Don died October 13, 2018. One can only imagine the face-offs that must have occurred when The Mormon Giant and LeBaron boys crossed paths.

* Don Leo Jonathan – Wikipediaen.wikipedia.org › wiki › Don_Leo_Jonathan The Mormon Giant Sonny Jonathan. Billed height, 6 ft 6 in (198 cm). Billed weight , 285–340 lb (129–154 kg). Billed from, Salt Lake City, Utah. Trained by, Brother Jonathan. Debut, 1949. Retired, 1980. Don Heaton (April 29, 1931 – October 13, 2018), also known as Don Leo Jonathan, was an …Billed weight‎: ‎285–340 lb (129–154 kg)Died‎: ‎October 13, 2018 (aged 87); ‎Langley, Bri…Debut‎: ‎1949Born‎: ‎April 29, 1931; ‎Hurricane, Utah‎, U.S‎Professional wrestling … · ‎Personal life · ‎Championships and …

Famous ‘n’ Infamous Relatives Famous 'n' InfamousRelatives "We all come from the past,and children ought to know what it was…

[ciathyzareposts]

The Shareware Scene, Part 2: The Question of Games

In one of the last interviews he gave before his death, shareware pioneer Jim Button said that he “had written off the idea of shareware games” prior to the beginning of the 1990s. At the time, it seemed a reasonable position to take, one based on quite a bit of evidence. While any number of people had tried to sell their games this way, there had been no shareware success stories in games to rival those of Andrew Fluegelman, Jim Button, or Bob Wallace.

Naturally, many pondered why this should be so. The answers they came up with were often shot through with the prejudices of the period, which held that programming or playing frivolous games was a less upstanding endeavor than that of making or using stolid business software. Still, even the prejudiced answers often had a ring of truth. You had a long-term relationship with your telecommunications program, database, or word processor, such that sending its author a check in order to join the mailing list, acquire a printed manual, and be assured of access to updates felt as much like a wise investment as merely “the honest thing to do.” But you had a more transient relationship with games; you played a game only until you beat it or got tired of it, then moved on to the next one. Updates and other forms of long-term support just weren’t a factor at all. No one could seem to figure out how to untangle this knot of motivation and contingency and make shareware work for games.

Luckily, there was an alternative to the shareware model for those game programmers who lacked the right combination of connections, ambitions, and talents to go the traditional commercial route — an alternative that offered a better prospect than shareware during the 1980s of getting paid at least a little something for one’s efforts. It was the odd little ghetto of the disk magazines, and so it’s there that we must start our story today.

The core idea behind the disk magazines is almost as old as personal computing itself. In February of 1978, Ralph McElroy of Goleta, California, published the first issue of CLOAD, a monthly collection of software for the Radio Shack TRS-80, the first pre-assembled microcomputer to rack up really impressive sales numbers. “To join the somewhat elite club of computer users,” wrote McElroy in his introductory editorial, “one [previously] had to learn the mysterious art of speaking in a rather obscure tongue” — i.e., one had to learn to program. Before any commercial software industry to speak of existed, CLOAD proposed to change that by offering “vast quantities of software to be shared.” It was actually distributed on cassette tape rather than floppy disk — a disk drive was still a very exotic piece of hardware in 1978 — but otherwise it put all the pieces into place.

By 1981, the TRS-80’s early momentum was beginning to flag and the more capable Apple II was coming on strong. Jim Mangham, a programmer at the Louisiana State University Medical Center in Shreveport, decided that the market was ready for a CLOAD equivalent for the Apple II — albeit published not on cassettes but on floppy disks, which were now steadily gaining traction. He recruited a buddy named Al Vekovius to join him in the venture, and the two prepared the first issue of something they called The Harbinger. They called up Softalk magazine, the journal of record for early Apple II users, to discuss placing an advertisement, whereupon said magazine’s founder and editor Al Tommervik got so excited by their project that he asked to become an investor and official marketing partner. Thus The Harbinger acquired the rather less highfalutin name of Softdisk to connote its link with the print magazine.

Starting with just 50 subscribers, Mangham and Vekovius built Softdisk into a real force in Apple II computing. Well aware that they couldn’t possibly write enough software themselves to fill a disk every single month, they worked hard from the beginning to foster a symbiotic relationship with their readership; most of the programs they published came from the readers themselves. In the early days, the spirit of reciprocity extended to the point of expecting readers to mail their disks back each month; this both allowed Mangham and Vekovius to save money on media and provided a handy way for readers to send in their programs and comments. Even after this practice was abandoned in the wake of falling disk prices, Softdisk subscribers felt themselves to be part of a real digital community, long before the rise of modern social media made such things par for the course. At a time when telecommunications was a slow, difficult, complicated endeavor, Softdisk provided an alternative way of feeling connected with a larger community of people who were as passionate as oneself about a hobby which one’s physical neighbors might still regard as hopelessly esoteric.

Thus Mangham and Vekovius’s little company Softdisk Publishing slowly turned into a veritable disk-magazine empire. In time, Mangham stepped back from day-to-day operations, becoming a nearly silent partner to Vekovius, always the more business-focused of the pair. He expanded Softdisk to two disks per issue in August of 1983; started reaching retail stores by January of 1984; launched a companion disk magazine called Loadstar for the Commodore 64 in June of 1984. Softdisk survived the great home-computer bust of the second half of 1984, which took down Softalk among many other pioneering contemporaries, then got right back to expanding. In November of 1986, Vekovius launched a third disk magazine by the name of Big Blue Disk, for MS-DOS-based computers; it soon had a monthly circulation of 15,000, comparable to that of Softdisk and Loadstar. A fourth disk magazine, for the Apple Macintosh this time, followed in 1988. At least a dozen competitors sprang up at one time or another with their own disk magazines, but none seriously challenged the cross-platform supremacy of the Softdisk lineup.

In order to encourage software submissions, all of the Softdisk magazines ran a periodic programming competition called CodeQuest. Readers were encouraged to send in programs of any type, competing for prizes of $1000 for the top submission, $500 for second place, and $250 for third place, on top of the money Softdisk would pay upon eventually publishing the winning software. Big Blue Disk‘s second incarnation of the contest ended on January 31, 1988, yielding two winners that were fairly typical disk-magazine fare: the gold-winning The Compleat Filer was a file-management program to replace the notoriously unfriendly MS-DOS command line, while the bronze-winning Western was a sort of rudimentary text-based CRPG set in, you guessed it, the Old West. But it was the silver winner — a game called Kingdom of Kroz, submitted by one Scott Miller from a suburb of Dallas, Texas — that interests us today.

At the time of the contest, Miller didn’t seem to be going much of anywhere in life. In his late twenties, he was still attending junior college in a rather desultory fashion whilst working dead-end gigs at the lower end of the data-processing totem pole, such as babysitting his college’s computer lab. His acquaintances hardly expected him to ever move out of his parents’ house, much less change an industry. Yet this seeming slacker had reserves of ambition, persistence, marketing acumen, and sheer dogged self-belief that would in the end prove a stick in the eye to every one of his doubters. Scott Miller, you see, wanted to make money from videogames — make a lot of money. And by God, he was going to find a way to do it.

The young Scott Miller.

Before entering the CodeQuest contest, he’d written a column on games for the local newspaper, written a book on how to beat popular arcade games, and, last but not least, tested the early shareware market for games: he’d written and distributed a couple of shareware text adventures under the name of Apogee Software — a name which would later become very, very famous among a certain segment of gamers. But on this occasion he was disappointed by the response, just like everyone else making shareware games at the time. Unlike most of those others, though, Miller didn’t give up. If shareware text adventures wouldn’t do the trick, he’d just try something else.

Put crudely, Kingdom of Kroz was a mash-up of the old mainframe classic Rogue and the arcade game Gauntlet — or, if you like, a version of Rogue that played in real time and had handcrafted levels instead of procedurally-generated ones. It wasn’t much to look at — like classic Rogue, it was rendered entirely in ASCII graphics — but many people found it surprisingly addictive once they got into it. It went over very well indeed with Big Blue Disk‘s subscribers when it appeared in the issue dated June 1988 — went over so well that Miller provided two sequels, called Dungeons of Kroz and Caverns of Kroz, almost immediately, although the magazine wouldn’t find an opening for them in its editorial calendar until the issues dated March and September of 1989.

While he waited on Big Blue Disk to release those sequels, Miller started to explore a new idea for marketing games outside the traditional publishing framework. In fact, this latest idea would eventually prove his greatest single stroke of marketing genius, even if its full importance would take some time yet to crystallize. He would later sum up his insight in an interview: “People aren’t willing to pay for something they’ve already got in their hands, but they are willing to pay if it gets them something new.” Call it a cynical notion if you must, but, in the context of games at least, it would prove the only way to make shareware pay on a scale commensurate with Scott Miller’s ambitions.

Miller and George Broussard, his longtime best friend and occasional partner in the treacherous world of shareware, made an engine for multiple-choice trivia games — not exactly a daunting programming challenge after the likes of Kroz. They compiled sets of questions dealing with different topics: general trivia, vocabulary, the original Star Trek and Star Trek: The Next Generation. They created “volumes” in each category consisting of 100 questions. Then they released the first volume of each category online, accompanied by an advertisement for additional volumes for the low, low price of $4 each.

Alas, the scheme proved not to be a surefire means of selling trivia games; the economics of getting just 100 questions for $4 were perhaps a bit dodgy even in the late 1980s, when just about everything involving computers cost exponentially more than it does today. But a seed had been planted; the next time Miller tried something similar, he would finally hit pay dirt.

The next time in question came in the second half of 1989, just after Big Blue Disk published the last Kroz game. The magazine’s contract terms were far more generous than those of any traditional software publisher: Miller had retained the Kroz copyright throughout, and the magazine’s license to it became non-exclusive as soon as it published the third and last game of the trilogy. Miller, in other words, could now do whatever he wished with his three Kroz games, while still benefiting from the buzz their appearance in Big Blue Disk had caused in some quarters.

Kingdom of Kroz

So, he decided to try the same scheme he had used with his trivia games: release the first part of the trilogy for free, but ask people to send him $7.50 each for the second and third parts. A tactic that had prompted an underwhelming response the first time around worked out much better this time. Unlike those earlier exercises in multiple choice, the Kroz trilogy was made up of real games — or, perhaps better said, was actually one real game artificially divided into three. After you’d played the first part of said game, you wanted to see the rest of it through.

In short, Scott Miller — and shareware gaming in general — finally got their equivalent to that day when Jim Button returned home from a Hawaiian vacation to find his basement drowning in paid registrations. Suddenly Miller as well was drowning in mail, making thousands of dollars every month. He’d done it; his dogged persistence had paid off. He’d found a way around the machinations of the big publishers, found a way to sell games on his own terms, cracked the code of shareware gaming. His sense of vindication after so many years of struggle must defy description.

From here, things happened very, very quickly. Miller whipped up a second trilogy of Kroz games to sell under the same model — first part free, second and third must be paid for — and was rewarded with more checks in the mail. Most people at this point would have been content to continue writing lone-wolf games and reaping huge rewards — but Miller was, as I’ve already noted, a man of unusual ambition. At heart, he was more passionate about marketing games than programming them; in fact, he would never program another game at all after the second Kroz trilogy.

Already before 1989 was over, he had reached out to a Silicon Valley youth named Todd Raplogle, who had created and uploaded to various bulletin-board systems a little action-adventure called Caves of Thor that was similar in spirit to the Kroz games. Miller convinced Raplogle to re-release his free game under the Apogee imprint, and to make two paid sequels to accompany it. Raplogle followed that trilogy up with a tetralogy called Monuments of Mars. Meanwhile George Broussard returned on the scene to make two more four-volume series, called Pharaoh’s Tomb and Arctic Adventure.

By 1991, Apogee was off and running as a real business. Miller quit his dead-end day jobs, moved out of his parents’ house, convinced Broussard to join him as a full-time partner, found an accountant, leased himself an office, and started hiring helpline attendants and clerical help to deal with a workload that was mushrooming for all the right reasons. His life had undergone a head-spinning transformation in the span of less than two years.

At this point, then, we might want to ask ourselves in a more holistic way just why Apogee became so successful so quickly. Undoubtedly, a huge part of the equation is indeed the much-vaunted “Apogee model” of selling shareware: hook them with a free game, then reel them in with the paid sequels. Yet that wasn’t a silver bullet in and of itself, as Miller’s own early lack of success with his trivia games illustrates. It had to be executed just right — which tells us that Miller got it just right the second time around. The price of $7.50 was enough to make the games extremely profitable for Apogee in relation to the negligible amounts of money it took to create and market them, but cheap enough that customers could take the plunge without feeling guilty about it or needing to justify it to a significant other. Likewise, each game was perfectly calibrated to be just long enough for the customer not to feel cheated, but not so long that she spent hours playing it which she could have sunk into another Apogee game.

If all of this sounds a bit mercenary, so be it; Miller was as hard-nosed as capitalists come, and he certainly wasn’t running Apogee as a charity. Yet it’s seldom good business, at least in the long run, to sell junk, and this too Miller understood. Apogee maintained a level of quality control that was often lacking even from the big publishers, who often felt compelled to release a game before its time to meet the Christmas market or to pump up the quarterly numbers. Apogee games, on the other hand, seldom appeared under a Christmas tree, and Miller had no shareholders other than his best friend to placate. “Our philosophy is never to let an arbitrary date dictate when we release a game,” said Miller in an interview. As a result, their games were small but also tight: bug-free, stable, consistent. They evinced a sense of care, felt like creations worth paying a little something for. Soon enough, people learned that they could trust Apogee. If none of Apogee’s early games were revolutionary advances within the medium, there were few to no complete turkeys among them either.

I’ll be the first to admit that the Apogee style of game does little for me. Still, my personal tastes in no way blind me to the reality that these unprepossessing but well-crafted little games filled a space in the market of the early 1990s that the big publishers were missing entirely as they rushed to cement a grand merger of Silicon Valley and Hollywood and begin the era of the “interactive movie.” While the boxed-games industry went more and more high-concept, with prices and system requirements to match, Apogee kept things simple and fun, as befit their slogan: “Apogee means action!” Apogee games were quick to play, quick to get in and out of; they had some of the same appeal that the earliest arcade games had, albeit implemented in a more user-friendly way, with the addictive addition of a sense of progression through their levels. The traditional industry regarded this sort of thing as hopelessly passé on a personal computer, suitable only for videogame consoles like the Nintendo Entertainment System. But, as the extraordinary success of Nintendo and the only slightly less extraordinary success of Apogee both demonstrated, people still wanted these sorts of games. Their near-complete absence from the boxed-computer-game market left a massive hole which Scott Miller was happy to fill. Younger people with limited disposal income found Apogee particularly appealing; they could buy six or seven Apogee games for the price of one boxed production that would probably just bore them anyhow.

But of course a business model as profitable as Miller’s must soon attract rivals who hope to execute it even better. Already in 1992, a company called Epic MegaGames appeared to challenge Apogee for the title of King of Shareware; they as well employed Scott Miller’s episodic approach, and also echoed Apogee’s proven action-first design aesthetic. Shareware gaming was becoming a thriving shadow industry of its own, right under the noses of the big boys who were still chasing after their grand cinematic fantasias. They would have gotten the shock of their lives if they had ever bothered to compare their slim profit margins to the fat ones of Apogee and Epic. As it was, though, they felt nary an inkling in their ivory towers that a proletarian revolution in ludic aesthetics was in the offing out there on the streets. But even they wouldn’t be able to ignore it for much longer.

This shareware sales chart from July of 1993 shows how dominant Apogee was at that time. Seven out of the top ten games are theirs, with a further two going to Epic MegaGames, their only remotely close competitor. Although the fast-and-simple design aesthetic in which those companies specialized ruled the charts, they pulled with them a long tale of many other types of shareware games, as we’ll see in the next part of this article. The very fact that there existed a sales chart like this one at all says much about how quickly shareware had exploded in a very short time.

Many of you doubtless have an inkling already of where this series of articles must go from here — of how not only the story of Apogee Software but also that of Softdisk Publications will feed directly into that of the most transformative computer game in history. And never fear, I’ll get to all of that — but in my next article rather than this one.

For in addition to that other story which threatens to suck all the oxygen out of the room, there are a thousand other, smaller ones of individual creators being inspired to program all kinds of games and sell them as shareware in the wake of Apogee’s success. Exactly none of them made as much money from their endeavors as did Scott Miller, but some became popular enough to still be remembered today. Indeed, many of us who were around back then still have our obscure little hobby horses from the shareware era that we like to take out and ride from time to time. My personal favorite of the breed might just be Pyro II, a thunderously non-politically-correct puzzle game in which you play a pyromaniac who must burn down famous buildings all over the world. Truly, though, the list of old shareware games that come up in any given discussion is guaranteed to be almost as long as the list of old-timers reminiscing about them. The shareware gaming scene in the aggregate which took off after Apogee’s success touched a lot of people’s lives, regardless of how much money this or that individual game might have earned.

Like the Apogee games, many other shareware titles identified holes in the market which the big publishers, who all seemed to be rushing hell-bent in the exact same direction, were failing to fill. In many cases, these were genres from which the traditional industry had actually done very well in the past, but which which it had now judged to no longer to be worth its while. For example, the years between the collapse of Infocom in 1989 and the beginning of the Internet-based Interactive Fiction Renaissance circa 1995 were marked by quite a number of shareware text adventures. Likewise, as boxed CRPGs got ever more plot- and multimedia-heavy at the expense of the older spirit of free-form exploration, other shareware programmers rushed to fill that gap. Still others mimicked the look and feel of the old ICOM Simulations graphic adventures, while lots more catered to the eternal need just to blow some stuff up after a long, hard day. There were shareware card games, board games, strategy games, fighting games, action puzzlers, proto-first-person shooters of various stripes, and some concoctions that defy description.

In terms of presentation, most of these shareware games were dead ringers for the games that had been sold on store shelves five to ten years earlier. And by the same token, the people who made them in the 1990s were really not all that different from the bedroom programmers who had built the boxed-games industry in the 1980s. Just as many creators of non-game shareware were uncomfortable with time-limited or otherwise crippled software, not all creators of shareware games embraced the Apogee model — not even after it had so undeniably demonstrated its efficacy. Even then, some idealistic souls were still willing to place their faith in people sending in checks simply because it was the right thing to do. All of which is to say that shareware gaming encompassed a vast swath of motivations, styles, and approaches. Apogee, Epic, and that other company which we’ll get to in my next article tend to garner all the press when the early 1990s shareware scene is remembered today, but they were by no means the sum total of its personality.

By way of illustration, I’d like to conclude this article with a short case study of a shareware parnership that didn’t make its principals rich, that didn’t even allow them to quit their day jobs. In fact, neither partner ever really even tried to achieve either of those things. They just made games in two unfashionable styles which they still happened to love, and said games made some other people with the same tastes very happy. And that was more than enough for Daniel Berke and Matthew Engle.

Excelsior Phase I: Lysandia

Matthew remembers his best childhood Christmas ever as the one in 1983, when he was twelve years old and his family got an Apple IIe computer. A sheet of Apple-logo stickers came in the box that housed the computer, and Matthew stuck one of them on his notebook. Soon Daniel, another student at his Los Angeles-area school, noticed the sticker and came over to chat. “I’ve got an Apple II also!” he said. Just like that, a lifelong friendship was born.

The two joined an informal community of fellow travelers, the likes of which could be found in school cafeterias and playgrounds all over the country, swapping tips and exploits and most of all games. Their favorites of the games they traded were the text adventures of Infocom and the Ultima CRPGs of Origin Systems; if the pair’s friendship was born over the Apple II, it was cemented during the many hours they spent plumbing the depths of Zork together. Matthew and Daniel eventually joined the minority of kids like them who took the next step beyond playing and trading games: they started to experiment with making them. Their roles broke down into a classic game-development partnership: the analytical Daniel took to programming like a duck takes to water, while the more artistically-minded Matthew was adept at drawing and storytelling.

So many things in life are a question of timing — not least the careers of game developers. One story which Matthew Engle shared with me when I interviewed him in preparation for this article makes that point disarmingly explicit. In 1986, Daniel, Matthew, and another friend created a BASIC text adventure called Zapracker, which they attempted to sell through their local software stores. Matthew:

We made our own boxes and packaged the game with the floppy disk and the manual, just like Richard Garriott did back in the day. Our box was designed to hang on a peg in a software store. We got on a bus with 25 or so copies and visited a few different stores. We’d say, “Hey, would you like to sell this on consignment? You get half the money and we get half.” A few stores took us up on it, and we sold a few copies.

Zapracker (A Lost Classic?)

This tale is indeed almost eerily similar of that of Richard Garriott selling a Ziploc-bagged Akalabeth through his local Computerland just six years earlier; if anything, our heroes in 1986 would appear to have put more effort into their packaging, and perhaps into their game as well, than Garriott did into his. But in the short span of barely half a decade, the possibility of parlaying a homemade game hanging on a rack in a local computer store into an iconic franchise had evaporated. Instead Daniel and Matthew would have to go another route.

Their game-making efforts were growing steadily more sophisticated, as evinced by Daniel’s choice of programming languages: after starting off in Apple II BASIC, he moved on to an MS-DOS C compiler. Adopting unknowingly the approach that had already been used by everyone from Scott Adams to Infocom, from Telarium to Polarware to Magnetic Scrolls, Daniel wrote an interpreter in C which could present a text adventure written in a domain-specific language of his own devising. Matthew then wrote most of the text for what became Skyland’s Star, a science-fiction scenario.

During the pair’s last year in high school, the Los Angeles school district and the manufacturing conglomerate Rockwell International co-sponsored a contest for interesting student projects in computer science. Once Daniel and Matthew decided to enter it, it gave them a thing which many creators find invaluable: a deadline. They finished up their game, and submitted it alongside the technological framework that enabled it. They were soon informed that their project was among the finalists, and were invited to a dinner and awards ceremony at a fancy hotel. Matthew:

All of the finalists were there, demonstrating their entries. We did a couple of interviews for a local TV station. Then the dinner started. They started running down the list of winners, and before we knew it, it was down to two finalists: my and Dan’s project and another one. Then they announced the other one as second place; we had won. It was quite a night!

Matthew Engle and Daniel Berke win the contest with Skyland’s Star in 1989. That’s Daniel’s Apple II GS running the game; he wrote it on that machine in MS-DOS via a PC Transporter emulator card.

Daniel and Matthew gave little initial thought to monetizing their big win. After finishing high school in 1989, they went their separate ways, at least in terms of physical location: Daniel moved to New York to study computer science, while Matthew stayed in Los Angeles to study film. But they kept in touch, and soon started talking about making another game, this time in the spirit of their other favorite type from the 1980s: an old-school Ultima.

It was 1991 by now, and, fed by the meteoric success of Apogee, shareware games of many different stripes were appearing. Daniel and Matthew as well finally caught the fever. They belatedly released Skyland’s Star as shareware for $15, using it as a sort of test case for the eventual marketing of their Ultima-alike. They were among those noble or naïve souls who eschewed the Apogee model in favor of releasing their whole game at once. Instead of offering the rest of the game as an enticement, Daniel and Matthew offered a printed instruction manual, hint book, and map — nice things to have, to be sure, but perhaps not things that played on the psychological compulsions of gamers so powerfully as the literal rest of a game which they dearly wanted to finish. Daniel and Matthew weren’t overwhelmed with registrations.

Progress on the Ultima-like game, which was to be called Excelsior Phase I: Lysandia, was inevitably slowed by their respective university studies; the biggest chunk of the work got done in the summers of 1991, 1992, and 1993, when Daniel came back to Los Angeles and they both had more free time. Then they would sit for hours many days at their favorite pizza restaurant, sketching out their plans. Matthew did most of the scenario design, graphics, and writing, while Daniel did all of the programming.

Calling themselves by now 11th Dimension Entertainment, they finished and released Excelsior in 1993 as shareware, with a registration price of $20. Once again, they relied on a manual, a hint book, and a map alongside players’ consciences to convince them to register. Although it certainly didn’t become an Apogee-sized success story, Excelsior did garner more attention and registrations than had Skyland’s Star. It was helped not only by its being in a (marginally) more commercially viable genre, but also by its coming into a world that was just on the cusp of the Internet Revolution, with the additional distribution possibilities which that massive change to the way that everyday people used their computers brought with it.

As they were finishing Excelsior, Daniel and Matthew had also been finishing their degree programs. Daniel got a programming job at Electronic Arts after a few false starts, while Matthew started a career in Hollywood that would put him, ironically given the retro nature of Excelsior, on teams making cutting-edge CD-ROM-enabled multimedia products at companies like Disney Interactive. Despite their busy lives, they were both still excited enough by independent game development, and gratified enough by the response to Excelsior I, that they embarked on a sequel in 1994. Whereas Excelsior I had aimed for a point somewhere between Ultima IV and Ultima V, Excelsior II took Ultima VI as its model, with all of the increased graphics sophistication that would imply. For this reason not least, the partners wound up spending fully five years making it, communicating almost entirely electronically.

The sheer quantity of labor which Matthew in particular put into this retro-game with limited commercial prospects could have been motivated only by love. Matthew:

We went all out. I ultimately made about 3800 16 X 16-pixel tiles. It was an exhausting process. For every tile, I had to specify whether you could walk on it or it would block you. There was also transparency; we had layers of tiles, overlaid upon one another. There might be a grass tile, then the player-character tile. Then, if you’re walking through a doorway, for example, the arch at the top of the doorway.

Then, after that exhausting process, began the arduous process of putting the tiles down to create the map, which was 500 X 500 tiles if I’m not mistaken — so, 250,000 tiles to place. Plus all of the town and castle and dungeon maps had to be created.

By the time they released Excelsior Phase II: Errondor in 1999, software distribution had changed dramatically from what it had been six years before. It was now feasible to accept credit-card registrations online, and to offer registrants the instant satisfaction of downloadable PDF documents and the like. The motivating ethic of the original shareware movement was alive and well in its way, but, just as with other types of software, the phrase “shareware games” was soon to fall out of use. The more tactile, personal side of the shareware experience, entailing mailed checks, documents, and disks, had already mostly faded into history. Excelsior II did reasonably well for a niche product in this brave new world, but even before its release Daniel and Matthew knew that it would be their last game together. “We realized we just didn’t have it in us to do an Excelsior III,” says Matthew.

In the end, the two of them sold roughly 500 copies each of Excelsior I and II — “small potatoes” by any standard, as Matthew freely admits. He believes that they made perhaps $5000 to $10,000 in all on their games, after the cost of postage and all those printed manuals was subtracted.

I must confess that I personally have some reservations about the 11th Dimension games. It seems to me that Skyland’s Star‘s scenario isn’t quite compelling enough to overcome the engine’s limited parser and lack of player conveniences, and that the Excelsior games, while certainly expansive and carefully put-together, rely a bit too much on needle-in-the-haystack hunting over their enormous maps. Then again, though, I have the exact same complaints about the Ultima games which Excelsior emulates, which would seem to indicate that Daniel and Matthew actually achieved their goal of bringing old-school Ultima back to life. If you happen to like those Ultima games a little more than I do, in other words, you’ll probably be able to say the same about the Excelsior games. One thing that cannot be denied is that all of the 11th Dimension games reflect the belief on the part of their makers that anything worth doing at all is worth doing well.

Shareware gave a place for games like those of Daniel and Matthew to live and breathe when the only other viable mode of distribution was through the boxed publishers, who interested themselves only in a fairly small subset of the things that games can do and be. Long before the likes of Steam, the shareware scene was the indie-games scene of its time, demonstrating all of the quirky spirit which that phrase has come to imply. While the big boys were all gazing fixedly at the same few points in the middle distance, shareware makers dared to look in other directions — even, as in the case of Daniel and Matthew, to look behind them. In the face of a mainstream industry which seemed hell-bent on forgetting its history, that was perhaps the most radically indie notion of them all.

(Sources: the books Masters of Doom by David Kushner, Rocket Jump: Quake and the Golden Age of First-Person Shooters by David L. Craddock, and Sophistication & Simplicity: The Life and Times of the Apple II Computer by Steven Weyhrich; Computer Gaming World of December 1992, January 1993, March 1993, May 1993, June 1993, July 1993, September 1993, January 1994, February 1994, and June 1994; Game Developer of January/February 1995; PC Powerplay of May 1996; Questbusters of November 1991; Los Angeles Times of February 6 1987; the tape magazine CLOAD of February 1978; the disk magazine Big Blue Disk of January 1988, May 1988, June 1988, March 1989, April 1989, September 1989, and August 1990. Online sources include the archives on the old 3D Realms site, the M & R Technologies interview with Jim Knopf, Samuel Stoddard’s Apogee FAQ, Al Vekovius’s old faculty page at Louisiana State University Shreveport, Stephen Vekovius’s appearance on All Y’all podcast, “Apogee: Where Wolfenstein Got Its Start” at Polygon, Benj Edwards’s interview with Scott Miller for Gamasutra, and Matt Barton’s interview with Scott Miller. Most of all, I owe a warm thank you to Matthew Engle for giving me free registered copies of the 11th Dimension games and talking to me at length about his experiences in shareware games.

In the interest of full disclosure as well as a full listing of sources, I have to note that a small part of this article is drawn from lived personal experience. I actually knew Scott Miller and George Broussard in the late 1980s and early 1990s, albeit only in a very attenuated, second-hand sort of way: Scott dated my sister for several years. Scott and George came by my room from time to time to see the latest Amiga games when I was still in high school. Had I known that my sister’s lovelife had provided my with a front-row seat to gaming history, and that I would later become a gaming historian among other things, I would doubtless have taken more interest in them. As it was, though, they were just a couple of older guys with uncool MS-DOS computers wanting to see what an Amiga could do.

A year or two after finishing high school, I interviewed for a job at Apogee, which was by then flying high. Again, had I known what my future held I would have paid more attention to my surroundings; I retain only the vaguest impression of a chaotic but otherwise unremarkable-looking office. Scott and George were perceptive enough to realize that I would never have fit in with them, and didn’t hire me. For this I bear them no ill will whatsoever, given that their choice not to do so was the best one for all of us; I would have been miserable there. I believe that the day of that interview in 1991 or 1992 was the last time I ever saw Scott and George; Scott and my sister broke up permanently shortly thereafter if not before.

The company once known as Apogee, which is now known as 3D Realms, has released all of their old shareware games for free on their website. Daniel Berke and Matthew Engle continue to maintain their old games in updated versions that work with modern incarnations of Windows; you can download them and purchase registrations on the 11th Dimension Entertainment home page.)

source http://reposts.ciathyza.com/the-shareware-scene-part-2-the-question-of-games/

[biofunmy]

Barron Hilton, Hotel Magnate and Founding A.F.L. Owner, Dies at 91

Barron Hilton, who oversaw the vast expansion of his father’s hotel empire and took part in changing the pro sports landscape as an original club owner in the American Football League, died on Thursday at his home in Los Angeles. The last survivor of the A.F.L.’s founding ownership, he was 91.

The Conrad N. Hilton Foundation, of which he was chairman emeritus, announced the death.

Mr. Hilton embarked on a business career at 19, when he acquired a citrus distribution company in the Los Angeles area. He had turned down an offer from his father, Conrad Hilton, for a $150-a-week job and a chance to work his way up in the chain he founded in 1919 when he bought his first hotel, in Cisco, Tex., capitalizing on an oil boom in the area.

Barron Hilton’s citrus business proved successful. But he joined Hilton Hotels in the early 1950s, became a vice president in 1954 and then rose to president and chief executive in 1966 and chairman in 1979, when his father died.

“Barron, like Conrad, was a man who paid great attention to the day-to-day operations of his hotels,” J. Randy Taraborrelli wrote in “The Hiltons: The True Story of an American Dynasty” (2014), explaining that Barron Hilton reduced company payrolls, economized on food preparation costs and centralized purchasing in the 1960s.

“Everything is about the bottom line,” the author quoted Mr. Hilton as saying. “That’s where I keep my eye, all the time.”

Still, Barron Hilton pursued new ventures, turning the family enterprise, based in Beverly Hills, Calif., into a business that included thousands of hotel rooms, casino-hotels, time-share apartments and an early credit-card company, Carte Blanche.

He engineered Hilton’s entrance into the Las Vegas casino market in 1970. He purchased Kirk Kerkorian’s International, the world’s largest resort hotel, renaming it the Las Vegas Hilton, and bought Mr. Kerkorian’s Flamingo as well, renaming it the Flamingo Hilton.

The company’s casino-hotels later extended to Atlantic City and other locations. At varying times the Hilton empire also included the Waldorf Astoria and the Plaza in New York, as well as the Sir Francis Drake in San Francisco, the Mayflower in Washington and the Conrad Hilton and Palmer House in Chicago.

The Hilton company split off its United States and international hotels into separate entities in the 1960s, but reunited its properties in 2006 with the acquisition of more than 400 overseas hotels, creating an empire of 2,800 hotels.

Barron Hilton was co-chairman of Hilton Hotels together with the financier Stephen Bollenbach when it was sold for some $26 billion to the private equity group Blackstone in 2007.

Mr. Hilton largely kept away from the spotlight that fell on others in the family.

His father had a brush with show business when Zsa Zsa Gabor became his second wife in 1942. Barron’s older brother, Conrad Jr., known as Nicky, married a teenage Elizabeth Taylor in 1950. Barron’s socialite granddaughter Paris Hilton transformed herself into a pop culture brand.

Barron Hilton entered the sports world as a member of the so-called Foolish Club: the eight team owners who defied long odds in challenging the National Football League by forming the American Football League in 1960.

He was the founder of the A.F.L.’s Los Angeles Chargers, then moved the team to San Diego in 1961 after the Chargers lost some $900,000 in their first season. The Chargers, with an offense led by quarterback Tobin Rote, running back Paul Lowe and receiver Lance Alworth, won the 1963 A.F.L. championship and captured five Western Division championships during Mr. Hilton’s ownership. They returned to their origins in 2017, becoming the Los Angeles Chargers again.

William Barron Hilton (he preferred using his middle name) was born on Oct. 23, 1927, in Dallas, the second of three sons of Conrad Nicholson Hilton and the Mary Adelaide (Barron) Hilton.

He displayed a penchant for deal-making while away at school in his early teens. As related in Jerry Oppenheimer’s “House of Hilton” (2006), Barron sent his father a letter carefully detailing his expenses in asking for a raise in his allowance to $5 a week, leaving him $2.50 for “weekend pleasures.”

“Sorry this is all business,” he wrote in conclusion, then signed off, “Your loving son, Barron Hilton.” (It’s not clear whether he got the raise.)

After serving as a Navy photographer at Pearl Harbor and running his citrus distribution business, he was groomed by his father to oversee the Hilton properties, although Nicky and Eric, the youngest of Conrad’s three sons, also held executive posts with the company.

Mr. Hilton is survived by two daughters, Hawley and Sharon Hilton, and six sons: Steven, the chairman of the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation; Richard, the father of Paris Hilton and her three siblings; William Barron Jr.; David, Daniel and Ronald. He is also survived by 15 grandchildren and four great-grandchildren. His wife, Marilyn Hawley Hilton, died in 2004. His brothers Nicky and Eric and his half sister, Constance Francesca Hilton, whose mother was Zsa Zsa Gabor, also died before him.

Mr. Hilton had been an aviation enthusiast since his teens and received a twin-engine rating from the University of Southern California’s aeronautical school, though he did not earn a degree. He played host to aviation pioneers and Hollywood celebrities at his Flying-M Ranch in Nevada (named by a previous owner) and piloted a variety of aircraft, including gliders and helicopters, from its airstrip. The adventurer Steve Fossett died flying one of Mr. Hilton’s planes from that ranch in September 2007.

Conrad Hilton left 97 percent of his estate to the foundation he created in 1944; its ventures include the development of clean water and sanitation facilities in developing countries, the prevention and treatment of blindness, and housing for the homeless. In 2007, Barron Hilton announced plans to similarly bequeath to the foundation 97 percent of his own net worth, estimated this year by Forbes at $2.5 billion. He was the foundation’s chairman from 2007 to 2012.

Mr. Hilton paid a $25,000 fee to obtain a franchise when he founded the A.F.L.’s Chargers. Although he became a billionaire with his Hilton holdings, he told The Los Angeles Times in 2009 that “the happiest days of my life were the days I was involved with the Chargers.”

Those were profitable days as well. In 1966, he sold the majority interest in the Chargers for $10 million.

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