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vavuska · 4 years ago

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FRESH OFF THE BOAT, POSTERS AND ART

Season 1, 2 and 3 are HERE:

Season 4, 2017

In 2017, the cast of Fresh Off The Boat re-created the painting "Whistler's Mother" (1871) by James McNeill Whistler for a poster to promote the forth season of the show. Constance Wu posed as Whistler's mother, Anna McNeill Whistler.

Arrangement in Grey and Black No.1, best known under its colloquial name Whistler's Mother, is a painting in oils on canvas created by the American-born painter James McNeill Whistler in 1871. The subject of the painting is Whistler's mother, Anna McNeill Whistler. The painting is 56.81 by 63.94 inches (1,443 mm × 1,624 mm), displayed in a frame of Whistler's own design. It is held by the Musée d'Orsay in Paris, having been bought by the French state in 1891. It is one of the most famous works by an American artist outside the United States. It has been variously described as an American icon and a Victorian Mona Lisa.

Anna McNeill Whistler posed for the painting while living in London with her son at Cheyne Walk, Chelsea.

Several unverifiable stories relate to the painting of the work; one is that Anna Whistler acted as a replacement for another model who could not make the appointment. It is also said that Whistler originally envisioned painting the model standing up, but that his mother was too uncomfortable to pose standing for an extended period.

The image has been used since the Victorian era as an icon for motherhood, affection for parents, and "family values" in general, especially in the United States.

For example, the painting was used in "Fight for Her", a World War I recruitment poster from Canada, urging men to enlist with the Irish Canadian Rangers and to fight for the women in their lives. It appeals to notions of motherhood and family values that were popular at the time, and often attributed to this painting.

The painting become the subject of a 1934 three cent U. S. postage stamp "in memory and in honor of the mothers of America".

In 1938 the painting was used as model for Mothers' Memorial, a statue in Ashland, Pennsylvania. The Ashland Boys’ Association (A.B.A.), an organization of men and boys born in Ashland, raised the funds for the fabrication and erection of this monument.

The A.B.A. was formed in the early 20th century in response to the widespread job loss and dispersion of coal miners as mines began to fail. It was a homecoming organization that welcomed former Ashland residents back to their hometown. Men from all parts of Pennsylvania, as well as several other states, participated in these annual celebrations. The A.B.A. was the archetype of a poignant Pennsylvania story: how successive waves of industrialization and economic development create then destroy industries and communities, leaving large groups of people longing for the associations and comforts of family, friends and home. The Mother’s Memorial stands as a symbol of this sentiment.

The seven foot high three-dimensional sculpture was designed by Emil Siebern and sculpted by Julius Loester. Both artists were sculptors from New York who specialized in public art – funerary decoration, memorials, park statuary, etc. At the base of the statue you can read the words "a mother is the holiest thing alive".

Season 5, 2018

In 2018, the cast of Fresh Off The Boat posed for a Pop-Art poster, that recall the most famous of Andy Warhol seriography.

Andy Warhol was a neurotic and fragile child. Growing up in Depression-era Pittsburgh, he developed Sydenham chorea, a neurological disorder that left him confined to the house for months at a time. During his convalescence, he stoked an obsession with movie stars: he pored over fan magazines and even convinced his older brother, Paul, to write fan letters to the celebrities on his behalf. In exchange, the studios sent him dozens of headshots—autographed glossies of stars like Veronica Lake, Mae West, Marjorie Reynolds and, his all-time favourite, Shirley Temple, who misspelled his name in her personalized message. He painstakingly pasted each one into a cardboard scrapbook, arranging them in orderly grids.

That scuffed album is the key to understanding Andy Warhol: a whimsical career devoted to the reverence and ridicule of celebrity commodification. (Even his fluffy platinum-blond wig looked like a distorted tribute to Hollywood glamour.)

Born to a poor but close-knit Byzantine Catholic family, young Andy Warhol absorbed images of both the saintly icons on the altar of his local church and the glamorous stars he saw in the movies at his neighborhood cinema. Both would influence his life and art.

Warhol was an obsessive collection continued also in adult age: in the 1970s, when Hollywood studios were emptying their vaults, Warhol attended auctions to find photographic treasures. He purchased many photographs depicting celebrities past and present from the great collector John Kobal, and received others as gifts or discovered them at antique stores and flea markets.

After graduating, Andy Warhol moved to New York to become a commercial illustrator.

He was good at it too, creating magazine ads with a particular inky style that was very popular for a time.

Getting his art into the galleries, however, wasn’t so easy. Back then there was a clear line between fine art and commercial art, and Warhol had become a well-known commercial illustrator.

But Andy Warhol decided to use that to his advantage. He began to experiment with the stuff of commercialism itself—logos, trademarks, icons—things that had no fine art qualities at all.

Calling his studio "a factory", Warhol was interested in mass production, in commerce, and in the business of making money. Using repetition of similar or identical ready-made objects as a formal structure, he referred to himself as "a machine".

The use of repetition in the work of Andy Warhol is perhaps the most interesting and challenging components of his Pop Art.

In his works Warhol simultaneously celebrated and criticized consumption choices and mass (re)production, effectively turning his work into a repetitive whirlwind and establishing the grounds for the most successful Post–World War II art movement.

In the obsessive repetitions of Warhol, repetition produces a harmony which frees the shape from the contents.

Warhol's pop art can be seen as a relation to Minimal art in the sense that it attempts to portray objects in their most simple, immediately recognizable form.

On the occasion of Marilyn Monroe’s suicide in August 1962, Warhol used this image for his screenprinting. It was a publicity shot by Gene Korman for the film Niagara, made in 1953.

"In August 62 I started doing silkscreens. I wanted something stronger that gave more of an assembly line effect. With silkscreening you pick a photograph, blow it up, transfer it in glue onto silk, and then roll ink across it so the ink goes through the silk but not through the glue. That way you get the same image, slightly different each time. It was all so simple quick and chancy. I was thrilled with it. When Marilyn Monroe happened to die that month, I got the idea to make screens of her beautiful face – the first Marilyns."

Each print is vibrantly colored to reflect her vivacious personality. In many of the prints, her iconic lips are boldly colored a deep red. Many of the prints also emphasize her platinum blonde hair by adding variants of yellow. The colors ultimately bring to life Marilyn Monroe’s iconic status and celebrity glamour. By creating repetitive imagery, Warhol evokes her ubiquitous celebrity status.

Marylin Monroe is not a person anymore, she is become a commodity good, endlessly consumed by her public. (About how Marilyn Monroe become a sex symbol: LINK)

Season 6, 2019

In 2019, the cast of Fresh Off The Boat re-created the photo "Lunch atop a Skyscraper" (1932) by Charles C. Ebbets for a poster to promote the last season of the show.

The photo appeared the first in the Sunday photo supplement of the New York Herald Tribune on October 2, 1932.

The photograph was taken on September 20, 1932, on the 69th floor of the RCA Building during the last months of construction. According to archivists, the photograph was in fact prearranged. Although the photograph shows real ironworkers, it is believed that the moment was staged by Rockefeller Center to promote its new skyscraper.

Formerly attributed to "unknown", and often misattributed to Lewis Hine, it was credited to Charles C. Ebbets in 2003. Evidence confirming his authorship held in the Ebbets' Estate archives include original work orders showing invoices to Rockefeller Center for the time period surrounding the photo, letters of recommendation from his work at Rockefeller Center when the photo was taken, a copy of the original article from the NY Herald Tribune when the photo first appeared in 1932 in his own scrapbook of his work, photos from his office in NY taken in 1932 showing the image on a bulletin board display of his work, and a negative of him at work on the site that day.

The movie Men at Lunch traces some of the men to possible Irish origin, and the director reported in 2013 that he planned to follow up other claims from Swedish relatives. The film confirms the identities of two men: Joseph Eckner, third from the left, and Joe Curtis, third from the right, by cross referencing with other pictures taken the same day, on which they were named at the time. The first man from the right has been identified as Slovak worker Gustáv (Gusti) Popovič from the village of Vyšný Slavkov in the Levoča District. Popovič was originally a lumberjack and carpenter. In 1932 he sent his wife Mária (Mariška) a postcard with this photograph on which he wrote, "Don´t you worry, my dear Mariška, as you can see I'm still with bottle. Your Gusti."

Gustáv and Mária's joint grave in the Vyšný Slavkov cemetery is decorated with the picture.

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louis-sj · 5 years ago

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The Straitjacket Movie Page

Better formatting, pictures and links available on my site: http://sj.blacksteel.com/media/movies.cgi

Movies and films that straitjackets appear. Director's names follow the title of the movie.

My ratings:

sj-no straitjacket

sj*minor straitjacket action

sj**passive straitjacket scene

sj***some interesting straitjacket parts

sj****Some force or struggle

sj*****Lots of significant straitjacket action/*****Very good.

/-Don't bother

/*Not very promising

/**worth the time to watch

/***Good movie

/****I liked the movie

/*****Very good.

Alien 3, David Fincher, Copyright 1992 R sj**/** About 47 minutes into the movie one of the inmates in the maximum security work prison is carried into the infirmary in a straitjacket. There are no good views of the front-buckle jacket in the next 8 minutes during which it appears in five to ten short shots.

Asylum, James Seale, Copyright 1996 The movie has at least one good straitjacket scene in the last third. It has a guy being hauled away in a yellow collared straitjacket (Posey?), while he was expecting as call from god. the movie is about a private investigator with a history of mental instability posing as a patient to investigate a murder mystery.

Batman Begins, Christopher Nolan. Copyright 2005 sj*/**** Rating: PG-13 From a reader: It's not a great jacket. But Cillian Murphy looks very pretty in it. There's some other straitjackets in the movie too, but I can't remember who's wearing them. Movie night!External images: Image 1 & Image 2. Two mentions of straitjackets at 1:10 and 1:39. Two very short scenes at 1:41 and 1:46.

Book of Shadows: Blair Witch Project 2, Joe Berlinger. Copyright 2000 sj***/* Rating: R This confused film has Jeff Patterson (acted by Jeffrey Donovan) strapped into a Posey straitjacket in a padded cell. All straitjacket scenes are short at :04:31(11 sec), 1:06:02(2sec), and 1:17:38(2sec). Jeff does bounce off the walls in his straitjacket. The movie also has a tube feeding and a hose down scene.

The Boy Who Could Fly, Copyright 1986 sj****/**** There is a scene 19 minutes into the film where Eric Gibbs (Jay Underwood) an autistic teenager, is in a straitjacket being hustled into his house at night. Eric is fighting both the straitjacket and his two escorts during this 1 minute scene. (No closeup shots.) There is also a scene later in the movie (1hr27min) where he has his an arm into one of the sleeves of the straitjacket (unbuckled) to warm himself up. It appears to be a Humane Restraint straitjacket. Louis (Fred Savage) plays a very militant third grader.

The Brass Bottle, Harry Keller, Copyright 1964 sj**/*** Rating: TVG Burl Ives is a genie who Tony Randall releases from a Brass Bottle. Toward the end of the movie (1hr19min for 2min) when Tony Randall tries to tell people what has been happening, he is put into a straitjacket and padded cell. The straitjacket had leather reinforcement on the sleeve strap (locking?), hips and back of the shoulders (locking?).

Brazil, Terry Gilliam, Copyright 1985 R sj*/** A really strange straitjacket near the start of the film. It is pulled over the head, a strap is pulled from the front through the crotch and hooked on the back, then the arms are brought around to the back. Now just how did the arms get in the sleeves? It has an attached hood(?). A iron(?) collar is added at the end of the dark 15 second sequence. Still excerpts. Thanks to Bunker in the UK for the video captures. 2.8Mbyte MPEG movie excerpt. 1.4Mbyte MPEG movie excerpt.

Buster´s Bedroom, Rebecca Horn, Copyright 1990 NR O'Connor (Donald Sutherland) is a doctor, and a female journalist visits him. He wants to show her his special methods. So he put her into a straitjacket. The scene takes some minutes, and shows how she is put into the jacket and a little bit walking around.

Carnal Madness, Greg Corarito, Copyright 1974 R Three inmates of an insane asylum head to a private girls school. Some pictures can be seen at: http://www.teeninperil.com/deligirls.htm. Also known as: Bad Girls, The Sizzlers, Delinquent School Girls, Love Maniacs, and 3 Matti In Un Collegio. Extra names do not make a bad movie better.

Cheech and Chong's Nice Dreams, Copyright 1981, R sj****/- A really awful movie. "Hey man!" is the most popular line. Towards the end (1hr12min) Cheech is in straitjacket chained to a corner of a padded cell for a total of about 4min40sec. (There is also a 10 second scene prior to the main straitjacket sequence where Chong is examining a straitjacket in the background.)

Cecil B. DeMented, John Waters, Copyright 2000. R Cecil B. Demented (Stephen Dorff) is sporting a "modified" Posey straitjacket. He wears it backwards, with the sleeve-ends cut off, and like a regular jacket.

The Couch Trip, Michael Ritchie, Copyright 1988 R sj***/** This movie has one of the longest sequences that I have seen, Dan Aykroyd spends about 4 minutes in a large Posey straitjacket about 16 minutes into the movie. Two other short scenes at 14min and 90min. A comedy.

Days of Wine and Roses, Blake Edwards, Copyright 1962 An out-of control Jack Lemmon, suffering from the DT's, gets put in a straitjacket and spends a night in a padded cell. Graphically realistic. (an old HR but sleeve strap seems to be canvas and doubles as a waist belt too)

The Dentist, Copyright 1996 R sj**/- Dr. Feinstone (Corban Berson) is straitjacketed for a visit to the dentist at the very end (1hr27min) of this bad horror flick. Skip the first hour and a half. Save yourself time to do the laundry or wash dishes. All in all, a waste of money to rent and a waste of time to view.

The Disorderly Orderly, Frank Tashlin, Copyright 1964 sj**/** Jerome Littlefield (Jerry Lewis) fetches a straitjacket in the opening scene of the movie. He is then placed in the straitjacket by the patient (not shown) in a very incompetent manner. He is hobbled, but his arms are simply connected together in front of his body.

Dracula, Dan Curtis, Copyright 1973 Based on the Bram Stoker novel. I believe Tom Waits (as Renfield) is strapped into a straitjacket. The sleeves seem extra long and they are tied to the bars of his cell rather than behind him but I think it still qualifies.

The Drowning Pool, Copyright 1975 sj**/* Lew Harper, detective is played by Paul Newman. 1hr 20min into the movie, there is a 5 minute scene where he is strapped in a straitjacket and hosed down with a fire hose. It looks like a Melrose straitjacket. On close inspection the scene has several "flaws". First, the straitjacket is not put on correctly, in fact it was put on backwards. The arm loops under the shoulders are not used. Second, when the straitjacket is getting unbuckled, it is dry and the position of the sleeve end shifts. It is at this point you can see the lower end of the arm loop strap below the right shoulder.

Escape, John Llewellyn Moxey, Copyright 1971 (TV) Christopher George plays an escape artist who is overcome by villains. The beginning of the next scene shows him being pulled in front of the main villain in a straitjacket. In this long scene the straitjacket is clearly visible - followed by him being suspended by his feet and escaping. The straitjacket is like a Humane Restraint with a clingy collar and a very long waist belt in it.

Fisher King, Terry Gilliam, Copyright 1991 R sj**/**** This New York city search for the holy grail is well rated. It won many awards. It has two seperate straight jacket scenes. At 50min into the movie there is a 24 second scene with a background person sitting in a very strange emergency room waiting area. He struggles with the jacket a bit sitting in a chair. If you look carefully, you can get another brief glimpse of him as the camera pulls out and up at the end of the sequence. A two second one as part of a flash-back at 1hr40min with a Posey.

Fortune and Men's Eyes, Harvey Hart, Copyright 1971 R The straitjacket scene shows up about 34 minutes into the movie, and is rather brief (very few seconds), occurring when one of the inmates (Queenie) is visiting the infirmary. The jacketed man is also secured to a bed, and there is a second glimpse (partially blocked by furniture) about a minute later, and a third shot about a minute after that.

Ghostbusters II, Ivan Reitman, Copyright 1989 PG sj**/*** All the ghostbusters are straitjacketed in Posey straitjackets stenciled with "PARKVIEW" for a ten second scene about 72 minutes in to the movie. They are being moved down a corridor struggling against the straitjackets.

The Great Race, Blake Edwards, Copyright 1965 Starring Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon starts off with Curtis being tied up in a straitjacket. His ankles then are bound to a rope at the bottom of a hot air balloon. The balloon is released and he's lifted up (managing to free himself before the balloon lands).

The Green Mile, Frank Darabont, Copyright 1999, R sj****/***** This is a GREAT film. It has straitjackets, prisons, forced straitjacketing, a padded cell, and hosing down a prisoner. It is also a tear jerker. See it.

Houdini, George Marshall, 1953 with Tony Curtis

Houdini, 1999 Shows the classic Houdini escaping upside down from building scene.

In the Mouth of Madness, John Carpenter, 1995 R sj***/* The movie starts off with John Trent (Sam Neill) as a struggling and combative guy strapped in a large (yellow neck band) Posey straitjacket being dragged into an asylum. After a solid crotch kick to an beefy attendant he is thrown into a padded cell.

Jacob's Ladder, Adrian Lyne, 1990 R The scenes are short but there is one were Jacob Singer (Tim Robbins) in mental hospital strapped to gurney. While he is being wheeled down the hall good shots of this guy in a straitjacket beating his head into a glass window.

Johnny Cool, William Asher, Copyright 1963, B&W A 'B' film from book "The Kingdom of Johnny Cool" by John McPartland. The gangsters straitjacket a guy and he is then strapped to a gurney near end of movie. (Not For Children, Violence) (Apparently not on Video!)

Laserhawk, Jean Pellerin, 1997 PG-13 The movie has a great straitjacket scene in it. About mid way into the move Bob (Mark Hamill -- Luk Skywalker from the Star Wars movies) in found in a straitjacket and a padded cell. Hot scene.

Lifeforce, Tobe Hooper, 1985 R sj*/* This hi-tech British horror film has a sequence of a sleeping guy strapped into a padded straitjacket. The scene is about 10 seconds long 58 minutes into the movie. The encompassing padded cell sequence is about 1 minute long. One of the actors is Patrick Stewart (Jean-Luc Picard - Star Trek TNG).

Lethal Weapon 2, Richard Donner, Copyright 1989 R In the exposition wild cop Mel Gibson demonstrates an escape from a Posey straitjacket. In the straitjacket scene the straitjacket was not properly applied.

M*A*S*H, Robert Altman, Copyright 1970 R sj**/*** The Original movie. An MD gets escorted out of the field hospital by MPs in a straitjacket stenciled just below the neck. The letters appear to read "USA", but it is not clear.

Morgan: A Suitable Case for Treatment, Karel Reisz, Copyright 1966 BW sj**/** Morgan Delt (David Warner) is a 5 minute dream sequence near the end of the movie gets tied into a straitjacket, lifted (head up) and moved by a junkyard crane. He is then shot by about 30 people and wakes up.

Night Patrol, Jackie Kong, Copyright 1984 R At the beginning of the low-budget POLICE ACADEMY ripoff the protagonist pulls over an erratically swerving car. The officer asks the driver "Are you crazy?!" and we see that the driver is, indeed, wearing an SJ and speaking French.

One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest, Milos Forman 1975 R Jack Nicholson is placed in a straitjacket.

Penn & Teller Get Killed, Arthur Penn, Copyright 1989 R This movie very quickly shows a seen of Teller escaping from a straitjacket. It happens when they are watching the movie the Penn and Teller makes.

People vs. Larry Flynt, Milos Forman, 1996 R Not much of a straitjacket scene in this one. The scene lasts about 14 seconds and is about 1 hour into the movie.

Per le antiche scale, Mauro Bolognini, 1975 R Also known as Down the Ancient Stairs About an hour in, an SJed young man struggling on a bed.

Pink Floyd: The Wall, Alan Parker, 1982 R Never shows a person in a straitjacket, but it does show young pink in an asylum where he sees a straitjacket laying on a bed. This happens right before he meets his future self. Also during one of the cartoons towards the end they show a metamorphosis of a guy in a straitjacket turn into a wall.

Prick Up Your Ears, Stephen Frears, Copyright 1987, R Joe Orton was quite a bizarre character who was played in the film of his life by Gary Oldman in 'Prick up your Ears'. Orton was murdered by his boyfriend, a crime that was weirdly chronicled by the Beatles in their 'Rubber Soul' track 'Maxwell's Silver Hammer'. The straitjackets in this production weren't real ones, they looked quite odd, dark green quilted things.

Say it Isn't So, James B. Rogers II, Copyright 2001 R sj**/* The male lead Gilly Noble (Chris Klein) spends about 2 minutes straitjacketed and gagged in a padded cell about 1 hour 6 minutes into the movie.

A Sense of Freedom, John Mackenzie, Copyright 1979 Really violent struggle in a very tight straitjacket in a heavily padded cell in a British Prison. He gets out of the straitjacket and destroys the padded cell - true incident.

Seven Beauties, Lina Wertmüller, Copyright 1975 R sj****/? An Italian film, Pasqualino Settebellezze, staring Giancarlo Giannini as Pasqualino Frafuso. In the second half of the film Pasqualino Frafuso is fire-hosed down, forced into a straitjacket, and tied to a bed with a hole in the center. There is also an ECT scene. See section 10 of 14 at http://youtube.com/watch?v=hZw81UkM7rU

She's Having a Baby, John Hughes, Copyright 1988 PG-13 sj*/* There is a brief (10 second) scene where Jake played by Kevin Bacon is in a straitjacket, strapped to a rocket sled. He's harnessed in by a race car 5-point seat belt system. He's riding the rocket sled toward a brick wall. It's kind of a nightmare/dream sequence one hour into the film.

She's So Lovely, Nick Cassavetes. 1997 R After a violent mishap with a neighbor, Eddie (Sean Penn) is committed to a mental institution by his wife Maureen (Robin Wright-Penn). He has a 10 minute scene sitting in a Posey straitjacket. After he is released, he comes back looking for his wife to make-up and finds that she has remarried to Joey (John Travolta), a construction worker. Eddie (Penn) becomes crazy again and goes on a killing rampage. After he kills his wife's new husband, he is re-committed to the same asylum and is straitjacketed once again.

Shock Treatment, Jim Sharman, Copyright 1981 PG sj**/* Seldom-seen mediocre sequel to The Rocky Horror Picture Show. It has perhaps 25 very short, 1-5 second scenes. Lots of padded walls, but not around Brad, the straitjacket victim. At the very end, there is one sequence (about 1hr28min in) with LOTS (100+?) of people in straitjackets.

Silent Fall, Bruce Beresford, Copyright 1994. R Story about 9 year old autistic boy and grisly murder. The boy is put into a straitjacket in the beginning. Jack Rainier (Richard Dreyfuss) comes to the rescue.

Siting Target, (???) Douglas Hickox, Copyright 1972. R (???) Tries to throttle his unfaithful wife through the visitors bars - ends up frothing at the mouth in a straitjacket. McVicar (Roger Daltry). McVicar (Daltry) Looses an argument with Prison Officers and ends up in a very long straitjacket.

Strait-Jacket, William Castle, Copyright 1964. B&W. sj-/- Two quick "fade-overs" with a front closing straitjacket one near the beginning and one near the end. Arms don't show. Several heads are chopped off with one swing of an ax. Don't rent it for the straitjacket parts. With Joan Crawford.

Strange Brew, Rick Moranis & Dave Thomas, Copyright 1983 sj**/** Bob & Doug McKenzie are sent to the "Loony bin" by a judge 1hr and 3min into the movie and in the next 30 second scene, they're straitjacketed and in a VERY large padded cell. They play "steam roller" with each other. It's pretty funny!

Twelve Monkeys, Terry Gilliam, Copyright 1995 R sj*/**** James Cole played by Bruce Willis spends a fair amount of time in a grimy straitjacket with straps on the back. Unfortunately, the ends of the sleeves were cut off, so it looks more like a difficult straitjacket to put on than a straitjacket. Perhaps Bruce Willis wouldn't put up with the real thing. A wonderfully convoluted grungy time travel psych ward plot.

Where Truth Lies, William H. Molina, Copyright 1996 R sj***/** Starring John Savage and Malcolm Mcdowell (of A Clockwork Orange). John gets restrained quite a bit. The straitjacket scenes are a bit lame. The straitjacket, when on is quite loose. The scenes where a straitjacket is being applied always end with one arm in a sleeve. A bit of a disappointment. When he is strapped to a hospital bed, it isn't done "right", non-locking wrist restraints, strap across the chest, strap across the knees, and no ankle straps. (I would be out in 20 seconds.) There is naughty nurse and nice beefy sadistic attendant thrown in. Bloody in parts and sexually violent.

The Wolf Man, George Waggner, 1941 B&W This movie doesn't show Lon Chaney, Jr. in a straitjacket. There is a hospital scene in which orderlies attempt to put him in a straitjacket.

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theyearoftheking · 4 years ago

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Book Forty-Three: Storm of the Century

“Now I know how easy it is to just get... yanked out of the world. I wish I didn’t, but I do...”

It’s been blisteringly, hot-as-balls here in Wisconsin for the past few weeks. It’s gotten to the point the heat is actually making me anxious in a, “Global warming is real, and going to kill us all...” kind of way. To be clear, the recent heat hasn’t just convinced me global warming is a threat. I’m a woman of science. A woman of science who composts and celebrated the fact we’re officially out of plastic grocery bags (we use them for cat litter disposal); and hopefully will never see another one again. Wow. That was quite the overshare. I swear to God, my life is more than celebrating the fact I can now scoop cat poop into paper bags.

Ok, that didn’t help. I’m just going to stop now.

Back to the heat... I’m not going to lie, reading Storm of the Century had me fantasizing about a cold, snowy blizzard. Which, thanks to quarantine, I won’t have to leave the house to go drive in. I kinda hope this whole social distancing thing will extend through March, so I can live in Uggs and leggings all winter long, drink lots of tea, and continue to binge watch Cold Case Files with my daughter. A girl can only dream...

In the introduction, Steve talks about how he wanted to try his hand at a screenplay, and a jailhouse image wouldn’t leave him alone: “...that of a man...sitting on the bunk in his cell, heels drawn up, arms resting on knees, eyes unblinking. This was not a gentle man, or a good man... this was an extremely evil man. Maybe not a man at all.”

I have to give Steve credit for trying a new format, and I thought he was successful. I fully anticipated reading a dry screenplay, full of director’s notes. But instead it was a vividly descriptive screenplay, with plenty of Steve’s humor and snark throughout. For example, “He bends out of the frame, and we hear the SOUND OF VOMITING. (Sort of like the SOUND OF MUSIC, only louder.” and then later on, “He gestures to the girl, who is (pardon the pun) just about CATatonic.” The girl in question, her name is Cat. Groan. But also kind of snort-laugh.

There were also plenty of references to Steve’s universe:

The story is set on Little Tall Island (the former home of Dolores Claiborne)

“There hasn’t been a murder on this island for almost seventy years... unless you counted Dolores Claiborne’s husband, Joe, and that was never proved.”

“Crawl out of the sewer” (It)

“A friendly, grinning, Saint Bernard” (Cujo)

Storm of the Century takes place seventy years after Dolores Claiborne killed her husband. Little Tall Island is bracing themselves for... you guessed it... the snow storm of the century. People are stocking up on groceries, getting the town hall ready in case the island loses power, and picking their babies up from daycare.

While all this hustle and bustle is going on, Andre Linoge bludgeons Martha Clarendon to death with his cane (black, with a silver wolf’s head on the top); while whistling “I’m a little teapot”.

Local kid Davey Hopewell is walking home when he stumbles across the crime scene, and immediately alerts the police. When Constable Mike Anderson arrives on the scene, he finds Linoge calmly waiting to be arrested. Creepy. Of course a murder happens just as a massive snowstorm is starting, and he can’t contact the authorities on the mainland.

Mike tries to get Linoge into the jail, but the door won’t budge. So, he needs to parade him inside the grocery store, to get to the attached jail. While in the grocery store, Linoge locks eyes with a few townsfolk, and spills some dangerous secrets. He seems particularly fascinated with Mike’s son Ralphie. Mike eventually gets him locked in a jail cell, and calls on teams of men to guard the cell.

All hell breaks loose.

Linoge has the ability to visualize a crime from his cell, and have unwilling participants commit it. For example, he has one woman bludgeon her boyfriend to death, and he has one of his guards hang himself. And he keeps leaving little notes everywhere, “Give me what I want, and I’ll go away!”

What Linoge wants is one of the town’s children. He puts them all into a deep sleep, and makes the parents pick which one of the eight children will leave with him. If they can’t decide, or decide not to give him a child, he’s going to kill all the kids. Mike is the only parent that strongly objects to this, but the town (and his wife Molly) quickly overrule him. The parents all pick a stone out of a sack, and whichever parent picks the black stone, loses their child. Of course Molly picks it, and Ralphie leaves with Linoge.

Mike is understandably heartbroken, and leaves Molly and Little Tall Island for San Francisco. One day he’s out getting groceries, and sees an older man and a teenage boy walking down the street singing, “I’m a little teapot.” He’s convinced it’s Ralphie. He chases after them, and Ralphie turns around and snarls, showing him his fangs. Mike decides to leave well enough alone.

And that’s pretty much where the book ends. It was an annoying, and frustrating end: I hate it when the good guys get screwed over without any silver lining. But there was a rather prophetic moment in the book. Mike tells some of the local townspeople, “You know the story about Job? In the Bible? Well, here’s the part that never got written down. After the contest for Job’s soul is over and God wins, Job gets down on his knees and says, “Why did you do this to me, God? All my life, I worshiped You, but You destroyed my livestock, blighted my crops, killed my wife and my children, and gave me a hundred horrible diseases...all because You had a bet going with the devil? Well, okay... but what I want to know, Lord- all your humble servant wants to know is- Why me? So he waits, and just when he’s about made up his mind God isn’t going to answer, a thunderhead forms in the sky, and lightning flashes, and this voice calls down, “Job! I guess there’s just something about you that pisses me off!”

Well, I guess there’s just something about Mike Anderson that pisses God off too.

Overall, I thought the book was good. There were a few loose threads for me: what exactly IS Linoge? Is he a monster like Pennywise, or a villain like Leland Gaunt? Lots of fan sites claim he might be Randall Flagg. And what’s up with the word “Coratan?” That was never really teased out. I also feel like three quarters of the screen play was the lead up, the end felt kind of rushed and unsatisfying. But all in all, it was a quick, fun read. And now I need to watch the television series.

Speaking of television series... there was a character I thought was named Fred Andrews... which made me sniffle, thinking of Luke Perry in Riverdale.

You can imagine how dumb I felt when I realized his name was FERD and not Fred. Selective dyslexia strikes again.

Total Wisconsin Mentions: 28

Total Dark Tower References: 39

Book Grade: B-

Rebecca’s Definitive Ranking of Stephen King Books

The Talisman: A+

Wizard and Glass: A+

Needful Things: A+

The Green Mile: A+

Rose Madder: A+

Misery: A+

Different Seasons: A+

It: A+

Four Past Midnight: A+

The Shining: A-

The Stand: A-

Bag of Bones: A-

The Wastelands: A-

The Drawing of the Three: A-

Dolores Claiborne: A-

Nightmares in the Sky: B+

The Dark Half: B+

Skeleton Crew: B+

The Dead Zone: B+

Nightmares & Dreamscapes: B+

‘Salem’s Lot: B+

Carrie: B+

Creepshow: B+

Storm of the Century: B-

Cycle of the Werewolf: B-

Danse Macabre: B-

The Running Man: C+

Thinner: C+

Dark Visions: C+

The Eyes of the Dragon: C+

The Long Walk: C+

The Gunslinger: C+

Pet Sematary: C+

Firestarter: C+

Rage: C

Desperation: C-

Insomnia: C-

Cujo: C-

Nightshift: C-

Gerald’s Game: D

Roadwork: D

Christine: D

The Tommyknockers: D-

Next up... ugh... I put it off long enough. It’s time to come back to the twisted world of the long-deceased Richard Bachman. It’s time for Regulators. Mount up!

youtube

Until next time, Long Days & Pleasant Nights,

Rebecca

#storm of the century #constant readers #stephen king #dolores claiborne #It #Pennywise #Cujo

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farahdamji · 5 years ago

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Justice and Women’s Rights Campaigner, Farah Damji - Heroine or a Villain? ~ by Jazz Kaur

“The aphorist Christopher Spranger wrote: “The author who possesses not only ideas of his own but eloquence with which to clothe and adorn them cannot avoid cutting an impudent figure in this world.” Spranger might have been describing Farah Damji when he wrote those words. For she is such an author, creative, eloquent, and most definitely impudent. And it’s the impudence that makes her memoir Try Me so delightful to read….And oh! What life she led. The kind of life only a very few women have lived. Women like Cleopatra of Egypt, the Queen of Sheba, Theodora, Elizabeth Taylor, and Marilyn Monroe. Women who had style, imagination, élan and a lust for life.”

Randall Radic, ex-con, ex-priest

Farah Damji is a woman in conflict with the law. Since 2010 Farah has dedicated her life to social justice issues. She actively campaigns for the rights of women in the criminal justice system which has often lead to her being at loggerheads with the institutions that damage and fracture women’s lives.

She has previous convictions for perverting the course of justice and theft of services by fraud 2005. These convictions are spent.

A forensic report by Dr Tony Nayani, obtained at the time these offences were committed confirmed a diagnosis of underlying mental health conditions which should have triggered support. Instead, she was handed a severe custodial sentence. She pleaded guilty at the first opportunity. She served 21 months of a 42 month sentence and was released under supervision in the community by probation services.

During that sentence she was studying for an OU degree but a friend who was a fellow inmate, Lilly, was being raped by a governor at HMP Downview. No one took her complaints seriously. She was released on home leave to attend a university lecture but she didn’t return to the prison. In the knowledge that she would not be sent back to HMP Downview, she handed herself in to Plymouth police.

When she was finally adjudicated for this absconding offence and embarrassing the Ministry of Justice, the punishment was loss of canteen, loss of association etc suspended, so effectively, nothing. The governor was later sentenced to 5 years in prison.

In 2008 she fell into an abusive relationship and was bullied and coerced into claiming a higher amount of housing benefit from the local authority, because her then partner Franco Miccolupo. The judge, HHJ Marron QC should have accepted her version of the facts at this hearing because the CPS were unable to produce their star witness, the former partner who had fled the country. The fact that she had been a victim of domestic violence was not taken into account by the courts. Most of the 10 month sentence imposed was spent in the community on home detention curfew.

In 2010 Farah Damji set up a social enterprise called Kazuri Properties which supported and housed 136 women returning to the community from prison, care or domestic violence refuges. This was successful until 2013 when the housing benefit rules changed. The company managed and / owned almost 90 properties. It operated as a regulated Social Enterprise, a Community Interest Company.

In 2010 Farah commissioned King’s College inter alia to conduct a literature review of all the evidence available concerning trauma and women in the criminal justice system. In 2011 she helped to draft an article for Lord KK Patel on women in the criminal justice system and mental health issues for House magazine the parliamentary in-house magazine.

She has also commissioned a report on women in the criminal justice system co-authored with Imran Khan Flo Krause and Julia Gibby, and this was launched in Parliament. This report led to an amendment being proposed by Baroness Joyce Gould for a gendered approach to women in the criminal justice system, as a statutory obligation for the Ministry of Justice. For the first time, trauma was acknowledged as a being a driver for many women’s offending behaviour and Farah was instrumental in bringing that home, in spite of the nurtured complacency of the Women’s Unit in the MoJ (since disbanded).

In 2012 She organised a panel event with the support of Garden Court Chambers with panellists including Eoighan McLennan Murray, the former prison governor and Secretary of the Prison Governors’ Association, Jonathan Aitken and Imran Khan, the human rights solicitor who is renowned for his support of the family of Stephen Lawrence and the subsequent Macpherson enquiry into racism within the Metropolitan Police. At this event, Imran Khan described Courts and Prisons as systemically misogynistic. Short clips from the event are available to view on Kazuri’s YouTube channel here.

In 2012 when the Armed Forces bill was being debated in Parliament, she asked Imran Khan and Lord Carlile to help draft an amendment to the Bill, seeking parity in the Military Court Martial system, and the civilian justice system for the person accused to establish, through a fair assessment process whether there were underlying mental health and substance misuse issues. This was so that the accused could be properly diverted to existing mental health and substance misuse programmes, rather than being court-martialled and then slammed into Colchester prison. Baroness Finlay of Llandaff proposed the amendment in the House of Lords and Farah help to write a speech which is available on Hansard. She spoke in private to the Armed Forces Bill team charged with the smooth progress of this bill in Parliament. This amendment lead to significant change in the way the MoD deals with service men and women with mental health issues or substance abuse abroad. They finally acknowledged that PTSD is a real condition, causing real suffering which they had tried to deny previously.

In 2013 Farah commissioned and co-authored a report on the way very vulnerable women are treated under the Home Office’s Compass contract. This provided housing for women and children awaiting the outcome of their asylum applications. G4S and Serco were the contracted providers for housing and support services. The report was published in parliament with the support of Julian Huppert MP, Geoffrey Robinson MP, Sarah Tether MP and Jeremy Corbyn MP. It was then submitted to the Public Accounts Committee members for the scrutiny and examination of contracts. This in turn led to the uncomfortable questioning of the managing directors responsible for these contracts at G4S and Serco, by the Home Affairs committee and the Public Accounts Committee. Major reform of the way these contracts have been tendered and are commissioned was a result of the inquiry.

Also in 2013 Farah was an active campaigner against the legal aid cuts to services and the privatisation of probation services. She edited and contributed to Mike Turner QC’s weekly Monday Message newsletter when he was chairman of the Criminal Bar Association, for a year. She continued to write, including a draft of an article for Karl Turner MP for Hull East for House magazine. This was a piece about women in the criminal justice system and the need for more gendered approach. This led to a debate in Westminster Hall.

In 2014 Farah founded Uprise Community CiC social enterprise providing affordable housing options for local authorities particularly for vulnerable women and their children on the housing list. The company was launched in Parliament with the support of Stephen Timms and Oliver Colvile MP.

Farah has also organised and delivered resilience training for frontline workers in local authorities, chief executives in the third sector and private companies. The resilience training program consists of mindfulness training and proven methods deployed to counteract secondary trauma in the supervision of people who work with severely traumatised veterans at rehabilitation centres in the US. Resilience training has been very well received and was acknowledged in a notable mention in The Spectator magazine after Melanie McDonagh attended as session and found it interesting.

In May 2016 Farah successfully completed the Mayor of London’s Landlord Accreditation Scheme. In May 2016 Uprise bought its own first development site at 312 Hackney Road and Farah raised £1.17m for the purchase price and additional £50,000 in fees. When she was imprisoned on the harassment charges, negotiation was underway with London Borough of Tower Hamlets to provide some of the units proposed for post refuge accommodation for which there is a dire recognised need for post refuge accommodation for women. Women in refuge accommodation in London are turfed out and meant to just supposed to get on with life in the private rented sector with no support. Farah produced the Construction Management Plan, submitted to the local authority describing how the site will be managed and run.

In March 2016 Farah organised a conference the Quaker Friends Meeting House on Euston Road, about the Public Services (Social Value) Act 2013. Partners included the Daily Mail, the FT, the Ministry of Justice and the Cabinet Office, the children’s charity Barnardo's, the YMCA, Nacro, King and Shaxson Investment bank and Big Issue Foundation.

In April 2016 she organised a conference specifically addressing the housing crisis in the capital. The four main candidates were invited to South Bank University, the event partner, to discuss only their plans for housing in London and how they planned to finance these ideas. Over 100 people attended. The report from the conference was hand delivered to the chief of policy at the Treasury and Number 10 Downing Street and London Assembly Members to pave the way forward with practical ideas for raising investment and building new homes. You can hear an interview about Plan A (for Affordable) Housing on Share Radio here.

In August 2016, she was sentenced on 3 counts of S4(a) harassment, to 5 years imprisonment, in spite of two forensic reports stating that she should not go to prison, that mental health diversions in the community were available, by HHJ Timothy Lamb QC at Kingston Crown Court for 18 months, 18 months and 2 years to be served consecutively. Friends of Farah are crowdfunding on CrowdJustice to raise funds and profile for these matters to be taken back to the Court of Appeal on fresh evidence. The matter is now with the CCRC which is considering the safety of the convictions.

She received no mental health support in prison although she repeatedly requested support. She has asked Dr Anton Van Dellen of Goldsmith Chambers in London and renowned forensic medical practitioner Dr Koseen Ford to bring a case against the Ministry of Justice and its providers for failing to provide her with any mental health support, in spite of their knowledge of her diagnoses. This neglect constitutes a breach of Article 3 of the ECHR , in the State’s failure to provide any mental health intervention, in spite of being diagnosed with conditions under the Mental Health Act, and the State’s duty to provide the services for treatment and rehabilitation under UN , European and domestic law. A conference in the House of Lords, supported by MPs and peers from all parties is being organised for the end of October 2018, to discuss these issues and launch Beyond Reason, the experiences of 130 women who have been denied services, with recognised mental health disabilities. The aim of the conference is to look at new ways to provide better services for women in prison, to meet their mental health and rehabilitative needs and to hold the Government accountable for the £500m it spends yearly on justice health contracts. A steering group will prepare amendments for parliamentarians to bring pertinent issues to the Domestic Abuse Bill, due to be debated in parliament in May 2019. You can hear Farah’s interview with Jerry Hayes, leading criminal barrister and talk show host here, discussing the issues of mental health and the criminal justice system.

She is also asking the Judicial Conduct Investigations Office, the Judicial Appointments Committee and the Judicial College to review the way that judges repeatedly ignore the Sentencing Guidelines meant to protect vulnerable or mentally disordered offenders and how they fail to take into account the recommendations of forensic experts. The judge in Farah’s case tried to blame her for not having sought CBT when it was not what the forensic reports suggested, and there being no court ordered intervention previously. He decided he was not only a judge, he was also psychologist. Farah is asking for a Mental Health Ombudsman to be appointed with an army of investigators, for every Crown Court, to sit in on proceedings where mental health has been identified as an issue, and to ensure that the Court is abiding by its Public Sector Equalities Duty towards disabled people.

In March 2017 Farah contributed to the Joint Committee on Human Rights enquiry on Mental Health and Deaths in Custody. In November 2017 she compiled a response with several other women prisoners for the Public Accounts Committee into Mental Health in Prison describing the dearth of services let alone any parity of services as would be found in the community. Farah continues to highlight injustice and wrongdoing in the women’s prison estate.

Farah’s explosive report on the sexual harassment to which women in the criminal justice system are subjected was published by the Women and Equalities Select Committee in July 2018. She is due to give evidence in camera to the Committee shortly.

Checkout Book From Amazon — Try Me (Paperback) — 2009

Flowers For Freedom - https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/Flowers4freedom

#Farah Damji #Farah Dan #Human Rights Activist #Farah Damji London #Advocate For Justice & Human Rights #Criminal Justice #human rights

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architectnews · 3 years ago

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Wood Marsh embeds Lonsdale Links golf club in coastal landscape

Architecture studio Wood Marsh has completed a clubhouse facility for a golf course in Point Lonsdale, Australia, featuring blade-like concrete walls that emerge above the surrounding coastal dunes.

The Lonsdale Links golf club is located on the Bellarine Peninsula south of Melbourne, where its 18-hole links course is integrated among sand dunes, salt marshes and wetlands on the edge of Lake Victoria.

Top: Lonsdale Links golf clubhouse is located on a hilltop. Above: the building has a concrete exterior

The clubhouse designed by local office Wood Marsh is positioned on the crest of a hill where it can be experienced from different sight lines, emerging above the trees as golfers navigate the course.

The building responds to the coastal climate by hunkering down into the site. Its curved blade walls are finished in a textured render that emphasises its robust construction and connection to the earth.

"Like ancient ruins, the softened contours of the building are meant to be embedded in the landscape, as though it has been there for a long time and will be for years to come," claimed Wood Marsh director Roger Wood.

Walls protrude from rounded volumes

Materials used across the building's exterior feature raw, weathered finishes that are appropriate to the coastal setting. The brown rendered walls and dark wood are complemented by bronze glazing that reflects the evening light.

The textured walls and dark-stained laminated structural elements that radiate outwards from the building's spine help to accentuate its non-rectilinear form.

A zinc roof extends over the building

Two of the curving walls frame the entrance to the clubhouse and hide the majority of the building's mass from view on the approach.

A dish-shaped zinc roof extends over the threshold, which is flanked by four circular orange lights.

"The curving canopy of the entry has a funnelling effect," Wood added. "Likewise, the substantial walls curve from either side towards the front doors. Where the directionality of the curving walls meets the belly of the canopy the building effectively compresses to draw in visitors."

Inside, a circular vestibule connects with a timber-lined corridor that leads guests toward the restaurant and golfers' lounge.

These spaces wrap around the northern and western sides of the building, providing views across the lake, the golf course and the landscape through full-height windows.

Large windows frame views across the golf course

At the opposite end of the corridor from the entrance is a wall made from stacked dry stones. The monolithic element incorporates a fireplace on its reverse side that forms a focal point for the club lounge.

Laminated timber beams and folded acoustic ceiling panels radiate out from the centrally positioned stone wall, drawing the eye out towards the natural surroundings.

Large stone walls mark diferent zones

The lounge and restaurant feature a vibrant green carpet with curved edges that playfully evokes the golf course's fairways.

Marble surfaces used for the bar counter and surfaces in the bathrooms add a further natural element to the refined material palette.

Green carpet resembles the course fairways

Roger Wood and Randal Marsh established their practice in 1983, and have maintained a consistent focus on creating buildings with a sculptural quality that play on the combination of solidity and transparency while utilising limited material palettes.

The studio's previous projects include a surf club that emerges from sand dunes along the coast from the Lonsdale Links golf club, as well as a sculptural house in Melbourne with curving concrete walls and a disc-shaped roof.

The photography is by Willem-Dirk du Toit.

The post Wood Marsh embeds Lonsdale Links golf club in coastal landscape appeared first on Dezeen.

#Architecture – Dezeen

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rounderhouse · 1 year ago

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I gotta ask because I’ve recently been reading a lot of Undervegas stuff and I absolutely love it— how old was Randall when he became director of Site-666? He’s described as not looking older than his early 30’s in The Signing of the Las Vegas Accords, but 4661 takes place 8 years before that, in 1992, and by then he was already a senior researcher in occult sciences. Was he a protege (which I’m inclined to believe since his grandpa was in the foundation) or does he use something to look younger than he is (some sort of anomaly like 006, or botox?)

that motherfucker is 1000% a nepo baby lmao. i never really ironed this out in Undervegas (or not yet, anyway) but the House family are historically Foundation bigwigs. the House Accords are mentioned in some other works, named for the architect of the treaty (his grandfather), and i vaguely mentioned his father being some bigshot too. through a combination of genuine talent at his One Thing (occultic sciences) and being a complete nepo baby, he weaseled into Directorship of 666 by the time he was 29, and then just aged particularly well. no anomalies, just skincare.

oops, i wrote too much. i'm glad you're enjoying Undervegas, ty for the question!

#ask #scp #undervegas

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ymd3signs · 4 years ago

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How To Design Happiness

Design, at its heart, is about solving problems. That’s why it’s so easy to talk to designers. They can explain exactly how their interface is built to help you navigate through your phone, or how a device was shaped to make it possible for mass manufacturing on the assembly line.

But throughout hundreds of conversations with designers, I’ve begun to wonder: If most people’s goal is to live a happy life, why did I never hear designers explain how they’d built something to make me happy?

At SXSW, I moderated an event called Designing Happiness. Its experts included Bruce Vaughn, former chief creative exec with Disney Imagineering; Gabby Etrog Cohen, senior vice president of PR and brand strategy at SoulCycle; and Randall Stone, director of experience innovation at Lippincott. All three brands strive to create happy experiences, not as an afterthought, but as the first step in what they do. It is an approach that’s paid enormous dividends for each company. Here’s what they taught me:

HAPPINESS IS MOSTLY THE ANTICIPATION OF AN EVENT AND MEMORY OF IT

“Ask yourself whether you are happy, and you cease to be so,” said the philosopher John Stuart Mill. It’s a paradox at the heart of happiness. We are hardwired to enjoy the anticipation of a joyous event and savour the memory. But in that actual moment of experience? It can be hard to tell.

So at the creative consultancy Lippincott, designers have a theory called the Happiness Halo–and it’s built upon reconstructing happiness as a three-act structure of anticipation, experience, and memory.

“First it’s about creating anticipation,” Stone explains. “That’s really strong–both from a psychological standpoint but also the anticipation of the experience is sometime greater [than experience]. It goes back to our primitive skills of releasing dopamine. It’s our hunting skills. If we didn’t have this sense of anticipation, we would have starved to death a long time ago.”

Anticipation is so powerful that being excited about a big event, like running a marathon, can give you as much joy as actually completing it.

“The experience itself is really important,” Stone continues, “but an experience is never perfect, and you don’t weigh an experience by adding it up over time. It’s not like you add four and five and get a score that equals happiness. You actually remember the high moment and the end moment, and the most important thing is the memory.”

The end moment is particularly profound–and it’s something every good waiter already knows. One study found that waiters who gave mints at the end of the meal received 3% higher tips, while those who presented the mints with just a bit more effort, asking the question “would anyone like mints at the end of their meal?” received 14% higher tips. It shows that we’re biased to remember endings by nature (remember that when penning your next novel).

YOU NEED A MOMENT OF TRANSITION TO ESCAPE THE REAL (UNHAPPY) WORLD

Anticipation reveals something else about happiness: That with all of the micro-stresses we experience in our daily lives, it helps us to prepare ourselves to be happy, to decompress, wipe our consciousness, and open ourselves to joy.

Disney and SoulCycle both craft experiences specifically to accommodate this transitional time. At Disney, they call it a “portal.”

“Think about Disneyland where you literally go through a dark tunnel, kind of a mythic experience where you go through a compressed space and come out the other side,” Vaughn says. “Architects use this a lot; Frank Lloyd Wright used this a lot in his houses. You’ve completely left the world you were in, and you’re in a very very different world. The sites, the sounds, the smells . . . suddenly you’re in this world where there are marching bands and the smell of fudge and horses and giant mice that are waving at you and people who are very friendly and people are hugging big bears, and it’s just fine . . . and without that transition, without stepping through a portal, you lose that opportunity to reset the state of mind of guests.”

Likewise, every SoulCycle location has been built to accommodate what the company calls the “crossover.” “We purposefully design our spaces so that when you are leaving your class, another class is coming in,” Cohen says. The “crossover” isn’t anything fancy. One cyclist friend describes it as a “hallway lined with lockers.” But that hallway is an important two-way street, designed for the people coming in to cross paths with the people coming out. For the sweatless, it’s a taste of things to come. For the exercised, it’s an audience to provide validation–the cherry on top of their hard work. And for both sides, it can create a longer-lead experience to the next SoulCycle class.

“There are these interactions where you’re rubbing up against people, to purposefully create community,” Cohen says. “It’s all about creating relationships with people so that you’re not just walking out anonymously to your next venture in life.”

EMPLOYEES NEED TO BE EMPOWERED TO MAKE PEOPLE HAPPY, SANS APPROVAL

If any experience is anti-happy, it’s bureaucracy. (Consider how a trip to the DMV is more or less the least happy experience on earth.) And so it should come as little surprise that companies that know how to make customers happy enable their employees to make customers happy.

For instance, take the Haute N.Y.C. dining establishment Eleven Madison Park. Not only does it serve some of the most beautifully plated, scrumptiously paired flavours in the world, but it also employs a staff member called the Dreamweaver. The Dreamweaver is like a concierge for the experience. As Stone tells the story, on one occasion, visitors from out of town expressed that their only regret was not having a slice of N.Y.C. pizza. And so the Dreamweaver responded.

“[The Dreamweaver] jumped in a cab–and here you’re getting a very expensive, multicourse meal–and one of the courses was an authentic slice of New York pizza so they could have everything on their list checked off,” Stone says. “So, if you talk to [Eleven Madison Park], they say, yes, we use food to deliver an experience, but we want you to leave with a memory of being here–not necessarily the dish or the course. It’s about making it a memorable night.”

The Dreamweaver is an empowered decision-maker, focused on customer experience, just like Disney’s “cast members,” who are allowed to intervene and cheer up someone having a bad day at the park. A cast member is trained from day one so that if she sees a problem, she can take care of it. She can replace a child’s spilt popcorn or ice cream; no middle management questions asked. But there’s also a highly organized system of communication that allows cast members to pull off more astonishing feats, too. (Have you ever read the tear-jerking story of Toby, the Bear?)

It’s why cast members–not the million-dollar attractions–are Disney’s highest-rated touchpoint at its parks.

SURPRISE IS THE KEY TO DELIGHT, AND IT’S MUNDANELY EASY TO SURPRISE PEOPLE

These happiness interventions, staged by employees, are the perfect opportunity to inject an essential element into happy experiences: surprise. Much like beginnings and endings, we’re cognitively predisposed to remember surprises, too. And when you have employees primed to surprise customers, it’s far easier to pull off the feat.

“At SoulCycle, we have a program that’s actually called ‘surprise and delight’ where everyone of our managers and key holders has a budget to be able to surprise and delight our riders—whoever they want,” Cohen says. “And that’s at any level. Whether that’s putting a gift in their locker, taking them out to coffee, putting a cupcake on their bike for their birthday, or if a kid just went off to college, and they send them a T-shirt . . . it can be any number of things, because relationships matter.”

A surprise is a tool that’s more effective at dealing with angry customers than catharsis. Complaining verbally actually makes people more upset by reinforcing their negative sentiments. But empowering an employee gives the company a chance to recover–to leave a surprisingly positive signpost in customers’ memories of an evening.

And truth be told, it’s also not that hard to surprise people if you put just a little bit of thought into it.

“It’s about making the mundane memorable,” Stone says. “You can take the most mundane moment of any experience interaction or process and bring it to life.” His example is when checking into the Park Hyatt of Chicago, you’re offered a series of five or so pens. They’re not just Bics. Instead, they might be brass or tortoiseshell or any pen you’d see used by a pen lover.

“They put the box in front of you and for that moment, you sit there and ponder, which pen is the most beautiful? Which reflects my personality?” Stone says. “You ask the person checking in next to you, ‘Which pen are you going to pick?’ And suddenly the most mundane moment becomes one of delight because you’re signing the Magna Carta with this pen. It’s no longer a plastic pen; it’s a ceremony.”

NATURE KNOWNS HAPPINESS BEST BECAUSE WE’RE ALL BARELY TAMED BEASTS

According to Disney’s Vaughn, happiness is real “lizard brain” stuff that’s mostly satisfying the concerns of our core instincts. That is why, fundamentally, Walt Disney’s philosophy was that a key to happiness was feeling safe, and his parks were designed to make you feel safe.

At one level, the parks themselves are designed at a human scale. The streets aren’t built for cars but spaced for pedestrians. And despite their liberal use of concrete, Disney parks are teeming with organic materials.

“In our theme parks, there’s a lot of what we call the ‘living show’—actual live plants, living plants, a lot of water, all these things work on the subconscious level to give reassurance,” Vaughn says. “Great cities have this as well. In the city of Paris there’s a lot of food, a lot of bistros and things. People are very reassured by food.”

We crave the resources of nature, and having them on hand makes us happy. Of course, if you subscribe to this philosophy, the world can look pretty silly! Your favourite water feature is no longer about the sculpture or the art, but a means to tell your basest instincts, “It’s okay, there’s water nearby to drink.”

LEAVE YOUR CUSTOMER WITH A KISS GOODNIGHT

But as I mentioned earlier, endings are necessary. At Disney, they call it a “kiss goodnight,” the perfectly timed element that can turn even a mediocre experience into a fantastic memory.

In Orlando, this could be the spectacular fireworks show. At SoulCycle, it would be the last uplifting track played by the DJ, or the aforementioned “crossover,” where you smile on your way out, feeling accomplished, among other riders about to go in. Even Lyft and Uber have a sort of kiss goodnight, Stone argues. In removing the cash transaction at the end of a traditional cab ride, you can share the briefest of human moments with your driver: a real “thank-you.”

At SXSW, keeping in mind the importance of the power of surprise and the kiss goodnight, while recognizing that nature can give us happiness in a way nothing else can, we had an idea:

“Look at the puppy—if anyone doesn’t feel like the puppy is the embodiment of happiness and joy, then you have no soul, so for me,” Vaughn said. “I feel like nature has done it perfectly, and from there it gets hard.”

So we went full-on Oprah, and we released puppies to the audience. (They were a Lab-Golden Retriever mix–totes adorbs.) Now look, I’m not going to claim it was a tsunami of puppies or anything. We only had ten puppies for a room of 600 people. That’s a 60:1 person to puppy ratio! But the resulting happiness in the place was palpable. People climbed over one another to take photos like the paparazzi. They shared stories of their pets back home while waiting for their turn for puppy snuggles. And of course, their faces melted when they held the pups. In case there was any scepticism that you can design, not just for solving problems, but for solving one of humanity’s biggest problems, I can attest, if you can make someone smile when walking out of an hour-long talk in a hotel ballroom? You can make someone smile just about anywhere.

#illustration #digital illustartion #photoshop #artwork #porfolio #graphic design

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abcnewspr · 5 years ago

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ABC NEWS PRESENTS SPECIAL COVERAGE OF THE DISPARITIES IN RACE AND CLASS AMID THE CORONAVIRUS PANDEMIC

‘Pandemic – A Nation Divided’ Begins Tomorrow, May 20, Across All ABC News

ABC News announced today it will present special coverage for three days across ABC News to examine the racial/ethnic and socioeconomic disparities amid the coronavirus pandemic. “Pandemic – A Nation Divided” kicks off on Wednesday, May 20 with new stories about how the virus has heightened racial/ethnic and socioeconomic divides coast-to-coast. The most recent statistics are troubling: in the nation’s capital, Latinos have been seven times more likely to be infected with coronavirus than white residents; black residents in Chicago are nearly three times more likely to die than white city residents and in Georgia 80% of COVID-19 hospitalizations are African Americans; in New York City African Americans are twice as likely to die of the virus than white residents and in New York State, of the 21 zip codes with the most new COVID-19 hospitalizations, 20 have greater than average black and/or Latino populations.

“As the COVID-19 global pandemic became a black, brown and working class epidemic in America, we quickly recognized there was an urgent need to tell more stories from these communities,” said Marie Nelson, SVP of Integrated Content Strategy, ABC News. “It is incredibly heartening to see every corner of ABC News think big and deeply for a cohesive examination of the many sobering stories that have made the racial and class divide, stemming from this pandemic, more apparent across this country.”

The latest ABC News reporting on COVID-19 is available here: https://abcnews.go.com/alerts/coronavirus.

MaryAlice Parks serves as Supervising Producer on “Pandemic – A Nation Divided.”

This special coverage between May 20-22 includes:

“Nightline”

Co-anchor Juju Chang will give a glimpse into the pandemic’s epicenter in the U.S. – the Bronx. As she walks neighborhood by neighborhood, Chang will connect the dots about public housing, close quarter living, food deserts and underlying health hazards. She talks to Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a NYC bus driver who has lost co-workers to the virus and now works double shifts because thousands of his colleagues are out sick and a young city council member raised in public housing. “Nightline” also meets a local Latino doctor working to expand testing.

Co-anchor Byron Pitts will bring viewers to central Mississippi, where an immigrant, who was detained in massive raids that targeted local meat processing plants in early August, opens up about the hazardous conditions and outbreaks inside the area’s poultry plants and detention centers. He says he and other detainees say they asked for PPE for weeks before receiving any. “Nightline” talks to Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba and Dr. Charles Robertson, who works at one of the largest hospitals in the state and has built 170 ventilators of his own design.

Correspondent Deborah Roberts will shine a light on the suburbs of Chicago where a family with mixed immigration status live in a multi-generational home. One family member works at an Amazon warehouse, another at a meat-packing plant, and their story displays the risk of going to work and the complications and limitations of trying to social-distance at home. “Nightline” also speaks with other Amazon center employees who have been calling for safer working conditions, fearful that they could bring the virus home.

“World News Tonight with David Muir”

Chief National Correspondent Matt Gutman travels to Navajo Nation, the reservation spanning the corners of New Mexico, Arizona, and Utah, that has lost more of its citizens in the pandemic than many states with experts predicting their peak is yet to come. “World News Tonight” speaks to Native doctors who are battling the virus that has ravaged their people and distributing food and medicine. The report examines how the Navajo are fighting to keep traditions alive amidst some of the strictest lockdown measures in the country and features one hard-hit multi-generational family that lost relatives and even their home.

Correspondent Alex Perez reports from the streets of Chicago, a city facing two public health crises: COVID-19 and continued gun violence. Despite safer at home measures, the city has experienced an uptick in crime. “World News Tonight” follows an outreach worker in the Roseland area, who is part of Chicago CRED, a frontline group working to break the cycle of violence in the community and now informing the public about the seriousness of the pandemic, and visits a testing center performing approximately 100 tests a day in a mostly African American and Latino neighborhood. In addition, an emergency room physician paints a real picture of racial disparity in COVID-19 cases in city hospitals.

Correspondent Adrienne Bankert visits the Bronx to report on how community groups like East Side House Settlement are helping families find solutions to the challenges they’re facing during the COVID-19 crisis including remote learning, food shortages, and job insecurity. Bankert interviews Daniel Diaz, Executive Director of East Side House Settlement, about how the organization has given out free hotspots as well as more than 230 tablets to students in its community so they can continue their learning. Diaz also shares the various other ways the nonprofit has pivoted from workforce/education development to filling even the most basic needs for residents including distributing food weekly, making remote health and safety check-ins on families and students and helping pay some residents’ bills. “World News Tonight” also highlights some Bronx families willing to give an inside look at how they’re tackling distance learning and their plans for the summer and concerns as the fall 2020 school year quickly approaches.

“Good Morning America”

Senior National Correspondent Paula Faris will report on the role that The Boys and Girls Club has played in offering child care to essential workers.

Multi-Platform Reporter Rachel Scott will interview leaders at Howard University who are offering free coronavirus tests in especially hard-hit communities in the nation’s capital.

“The View”

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) will discuss the racial disparity in COVID-19 cases plaguing communities across the country when he joins the co-hosts on Thursday.

“Pandemic: What You Need to Know”

Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves will address the deep racial divide in cases and the explosion of cases near detention centers, prisons and meat-packing plants.

Jonathan Nez, President of Navajo Nation, will discuss how the virus has threatened their communities, and Birmingham, Alabama Mayor Randall Woodfin will highlight his economic plan for bringing his city back.

Dr. Monica Goldston, CEO of Prince George's County Schools, will add her thoughts on how to make sure no low-income and minority children in Maryland get left behind.

A profile of Fawn Weaver, an inspiring African American woman owner of a whiskey distillery, will feature how she pivoted her company to respond to the crisis.

“ABC News Live Prime” with Linsey Davis

Anchor Linsey Davis will explore how the virus has set back residents of disadvantaged neighborhoods struggling to get out. She looks closely at one Brooklyn neighborhood where a child mourns the loss of his mother who died in a hospital struggling to stay open. This child who will now have to be raised by his grandmother now faces a future uncertain because the school he attends doesn’t know if it will reopen in the fall.

Correspondent Diane Macedo will profile the struggles of an Illinois and Texas family with mixed immigration status who are trying to wade through COVID-19 benefits that appear to have left many of them out.

Scott will examine the COVID-19 experience on one of the wealthiest and poorest neighborhoods in our nation’s capital.

Roberts will spotlight black leaders who have stepped up as the cavalry to save their own neighborhoods.

ABC News and GMA Digital

ABCNews.com will pay tribute to thought leaders and pioneers who have been lost to COVID-19, offer a look at how the black church in America will rebuild after losing so many members of clergy and provide a close examination of how minority-small businesses are struggling to get federal economic relief.

A feature on Asian American-owned small businesses will give an inside look into the unique economic realities and hardships they’re facing.

Original produced video pieces will feature experts offering reasons for long-standing health and economic disparities in the country and next steps.

GoodMorningAmerica.com will feature and profile graduating seniors, extraordinary young men and women of color, who overcame incredible odds.

FiveThirtyEight

A new investigative project will launch that analyzes testing site availability and breaks down how access to COVID-19 testing varies by race, income and more.

“This Week with George Stephanopoulos”

The Powerhouse roundtable will discuss voting and voting access, as well as new polling about the uneven toll of the virus and anxieties about getting back to work.

ABC Audio

“Start Here” podcast hosted by Brad Mielke will explore the intersection of COVID-19 and race through health and the pre-existing conditions that lead to greater sickness, the lack of resources for vulnerable populations and the potential for skepticism of medical care in general; the economic impact on families; and how this crisis has shaped communities for the long term and could exacerbate historic inequities and where things could land a generation from now.

Special editions of the daily radio special and podcast “COVID-19: What You Need to Know,” hosted by Correspondent Aaron Katersky, will be released each day. In addition to answering questions about the virus itself, the special editions will examine how COVID-19 affects different communities unevenly.

This Friday ABC Audio will also release a special edition of the radio newsmagazine and podcast “Perspective,” hosted by ABC News Radio Anchor Cheri Preston. The hour-long program will focus entirely on issues of race and ethnicity, and how some groups have been more at risk during the pandemic.

ABC NewsOne

The affiliate news service of ABC News will offer stations a report from Multi-Platform Reporter Alex Presha on the challenges minority-owned small businesses are facing in the time of the pandemic and his interview with NAACP President Derrick Johnson. NewsOne will also provide resources for ABC stations to support their coverage of this issue. NewsOne provides news content and services for more than 200 ABC affiliates and international news partners.

ABC Owned Television Stations

On Wednesday, 6abc/WPVI-TV Philadelphia will contribute to the Pandemic: A Nation Divided special with anchor Nydia Han airing a report on the racial discrimination faced by the Asian American community and the support to extinguish racism, and reporter George Solis presenting a digital reporter’s notebook from the perspective of a Hispanic American reporter and the impact on his community. And, on Thursday, WLS-TV Chicago will air an investigative report on Cook County to examine the health complications more likely experienced by African Americans and the increased likelihood of Latinx communities to contract the disease.

On Wednesday, ABC7/KABC-TV Los Angeles will host a virtual town hall, “Race and Coronavirus: A SoCal Conversation,” featuring Veronica Miracle and Los Angeles-based doctors and leaders to discuss how the virus has affected the health and finances of racial and ethnic groups and contributed to the rise of discrimination.

On Thursday, ABC13/KTRK-TV Houston will host its second virtual Town Hall to discuss the racial impact of COVID-19, focusing on the Asian American Community. Hosted by ABC13’s Eyewitness News reporter Miya Shay, the town hall coincides with the observance of Asian American Pacific Islander (AAPI) Heritage Month to discuss the disparate challenges of COVID-19 faced by the 7% of Houstonians that identify as AAPI. KTRK-TV Houston’s first virtual town hall (5/7/20) featured Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner and Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee.

The virtual town halls are the latest in a series of community offerings across the owned markets: WABC-TV New York hosted an Instagram Live Town Hall ‘Coronavirus Pandemic Impact on African Americans: Mortality, Messaging and Money’ (4/29/20); KABC-TV Los Angeles exclusively streamed the Minority Health Institute Virtual Town Hall on the Impact of COVID-19 in African American Communities (4/30/20); WPVI-TV Philadelphia hosted a Town Hall about The Virus of Hate (5/14/20), and KGO-TV San Francisco hosted three-part “Bay Area Conversation about Race & Coronavirus.” All town halls are available for streaming on digital and the stations’ connected TV apps across Amazon FireTV, Android TV, Roku, and tvOS.

Additionally, stations continue to report the disparate impacts from COVID-19 that exist within communities with previous notable coverage including WTVD-TV Raleigh-Durham's broadcast of a half hour report called The Racial Divide on the financial, health, and educational disparities resulting from the pandemic (5/7/20), WABC-TV New York’s “Upclose with Bill Ritter” that recently featured New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy, “Tiempo” and “Here and Now” public affairs programs, and WPVI-TV Raleigh-Durham's story on uncovering the challenges in the Latinx community.

For more information, follow ABC News PR on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

-- ABC –

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oliveratlanta · 5 years ago

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First look: Pratt Pullman District developer is selling portion of site to apartment builder

Part of the proposal, with facades that would face Rogers Street (top and bottom), submitted to the City of Atlanta’s Urban Design Commission. | Images: Brock Hudgins Architects, via Alliance Residential

More than 350 rentals are now planned for new buildings at the historic Kirkwood property’s south end

The owner and developer of the historic rail depot formerly known as Pratt-Pullman Yard is offloading about six acres of the Kirkwood site to a residential developer.

Adam Rosenfelt, property owner and head of development group (and production company) Atomic Entertainment, tells Curbed Atlanta national developer Alliance Residential is under contract to purchase a piece of land on the southernmost section of the 27-acre site, now called Pratt Pullman District.

Plans call for three apartment buildings housing a total of 355 units—10 percent of which are expected to be affordable units priced at 80 percent of the area median income—according to Noah Randall, Alliance Residential development director.

That piece of the defunct rail yard—part of which abuts Rogers Street, where the entrance to the site would be—is currently vacant and devoid of historic, protected buildings.

OCX

An earlier vision for the Pratt Pullman District. The apartment buildings are proposed now at far right.

Construction of Alliance’s rental project is scheduled to kick off next spring, and the buildings could be complete and tenant-ready by early 2022, Randall said.

As proposed, the venture would have no parking deck but hundreds of spaces for surface parking, mostly tucked back from the street.

Rosenfelt said Atomic was approached by a handful of residential developers from around the country who were interested in being part of the revitalization of Pullman Yard, but Alliance was picked because “they seemed to have a good sense of what we believe is progressive urban design.”

“There are no calls for a parking deck,” he added. “There are calls for surface parking. We did that on purpose because we didn’t want them to build a parking deck; we want to be able to build here. We don’t know what parking is going to look like [in the future]. If you build a parking deck, that’s going to limit our ability to add density and more buildings.”

For the time being, Rosenfelt said, Alliance would be given an easement to use Atomic’s land for its parking needs.

According to early sketches Alliance shared with Curbed, architecture firm Brock Hudgins is aiming to design at least one apartment building in a way that pays homage to the historic structures farther north on the redevelopment site.

Alliance’s plans are expected to go before the City of Atlanta’s Urban Design Commission on November 13, Randall said. Neighborhood groups are scheduled to weigh in this week.

Below are early looks at proposed elevations.

source https://atlanta.curbed.com/atlanta-development/2019/11/5/20948185/pratt-pullman-district-yard-atlanta-atomic-kirkwood-alliance-residential

#OliverAtlanta

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cloverorgan83-blog · 5 years ago

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The 1833 Saul Alley Mansion - 6 Washington Square North

Between 1790 and 1797 the City purchased 13-acres of land near Greenwich Village as the site of a burying ground and execution site. The potter's field was the final destination of paupers and criminals. During periods of epidemic wooden coffins were stacked in trenches sometimes three or more deep. Although the hangings stopped on July 8, 1819, the surrounding area was by no means affable. That all changed in 1826 when Mayor Philip Hone renovated the potter's field into a parade and drill ground named in honor of George Washington. Before long the tens of thousands of interred bodies were forgotten. In 1828 George Rogers erected his elegant Federal-style country house on the northern edge of the Square. In doing so, he knocked over a domino which would result in one of the most exclusive residential enclaves in Manhattan. The land on the north side of the Square between Fifth Avenue and University Place had been part of Captain Robert Richard Randall's 24-acre summer estate. Upon his death in 1801 he donated that land for the formation of an "Asylum or Marine Hospital to be called the Sailors's Snug Harbor." The organization was formed; however Randall's family established the hospital and grounds on Staten Island, instead. The institution wisely retained ownership of the Washington Square land. In 1831 three prominent businessmen, John Johnston, John Morrison and James Boorman embraced the potential of the Square and planned a row of high-end speculative residences. To do so, they leased the plots from Sailors' Snug Harbor. Completed in 1833, the nearly matching mansions were faced in brick and trimmed in marble. Designed in the rising Greek Revival style, they exuded refinement, wealth and taste.

The project began at the corner of Fifth Avenue and ran eastward. photograph by the author

John Johnston erected two of the homes--Nos. 6 and 7. He moved his family into the slightly wider house and sold the leasehold of No. 6 to the prominent Quaker merchant and politician, Saul Alley. Alley's new home was an ample 27-feet wide. Three stories tall plus a squat attic floor, its wide marble stoop rose to a Doric-columned portico. The exquisite Greek Revival fencing wore generously-sized anthemia, or palmettes. Alley had begun his career as a partner with another Quaker, Preserved Fish, and Moses Grinnell in the shipping firm of Fish, Grinnell & Co. In 1816 Alley and Fish formed the commission merchant firm of Fish & Alley. The two would continue working together when they were named commissioners of the newly-incorporated East River Fire Insurance Company of the City of New-York in April 1833. Alley's name was well-known for a number of other reasons. He was a Director in the Bank of the United States, a water commissioner (a highly important post at a time when the massive Croton Aqueduct project was forming), and in 1839 was a commissioner of the Custom House. Saul and his wife, the former Mary Underhill, had seven children. Both 20-year-old Mary Anna and 8-year old Josephine died in 1841. Son John was still living in the house when he opened his law office at No. 38 Wall Street around 1846. He died in the house in 1851. George, who was just two-years-old when the family moved in to No. 6, would become a prominent banker and close friend of William H. Vanderbilt. William would go on to become a partner in the banking firm of Alley, Dowd & Co.

The graceful sweep of the staircase takes a gentle bend at the second floor. photograph by the author

Alley added to his resume (and fortune) in 1842 when he became a director of the New-York and Erie Railroad Company. The population of No. 6 was reduced by one on May 4, 1848 when Lydia married George Catlin, Jr. She would not go far, however. The wealthy Catlin family lived just three door away at No. 9, and Lydia and her groom moved in with her new in-laws. Lydia's brother George was married to Louisa Ann Smith Johnson on April 19, 1852. The bride was the great granddaughter of former U.S. President John Adams. Six months later, on October 21, Saul Alley died in his Washington Square mansion. The Alley family held on to the leasehold of the house until the death of Mary in 1868. Although there were still five years left in its term, it was auctioned "by order of the executors of Saul Ally [sic]" on April 9 that year.

At each turn of the staircase a niche was provided for statuary or flowers. photograph by the author

The auction announcement offered "The Lease of the lot, with the handsome three story, attic and basement brick House, No. 6 Washington square, northside" and noted it was "in complete order." Included was the two story stable in the rear.

The marble Greek Revival mantel in the back parlor is an exact match to the one in the front. photograph by the author

The leasehold was purchased for $36,000 (about $640,000 today) by Goold Hoyt Redmond. The millionaire bachelor, son of William Redmond, Sr. and the former Sabina E. Hoyt, would not be living alone. Of his ten siblings, his sisters Emily, Matilda and Frances (known familiarly as Fannie) were listed in the house with Goold. Immensely wealthy, Goold was listed as a "gentleman," which simply meant he did not work. He preferred sports and society and was a member of the Metropolitan, Union, Knickerbocker, and Racquet and Tennis Clubs, as well as the Tuxedo Club among others. The Redmond sisters were no doubt distraught when their Scotch Terrier, Sam, disappeared a few months later. Wearing his new red leather collar, he went missing on May 10, 1869. When he did had not returned five days later, they offered a $5 reward (nearly $95 today). Sam was replaced by Rowdy, a white Bull Terrier with a black spot around his eye. Another $5 reward was offered when he, too, went astray in March 1873. Matilda married English-born railroad mogul and banker Richard James Cross on June 3, 1872, and in 1881 Frances married Henry Beekman Livingston. In June the same year of Frances's wedding, Goold hired architect G. L. Baxter to add a one-story extension to the rear. Costing about $42,000 in today's money, it would create a new dining room. Although it was now just Emily and Goold in the house; the expanded space would soon be necessary.

The dining room extension featured a barrel-vaulted ceiling. photo by Wurts Bros. from the collection of the Museum of the City of New York

It serves as a conference room today. photograph by the author

Tragically, Matilda died in 1883, just months after the birth of her sixth child, Eliot. Her bereaved husband Richard James Cross accepted the invitation to move into No. 6 where Emily could care for the children. Two years later Richard married his sister-in-law, Annie Redmond. The family continued on in the house with Goold and Emily--creating a population of 10 not including servants. It prompted Goold to enlarge the house again. In June 1883 he brought G. L. Baxter back to add a second story to the dining room extension, providing additional bedrooms.

The front parlor as it appeared after the turn of the century. photo by Wurts Bros. from the collection of the Museum of the City of New York

The space as it appears today. photograph by the author

There was still room, apparently, for one more. On June 15 1894 William Redmond was granted an "absolute divorce" from his wife, Margaret, whom he had married on May 1, 1889. Newspapers reported "She did not defend the case," intimating that she had been caught in a dalliance. William moved into No. 6 Washington Square. The Redmonds and Crosses were highly visible in society as well as political and social causes. Mary Cross held anti-Tammany meetings in the drawing room in 1894 and was also a member of the Washington Square Auxiliary. The couple gave financial backing to the erection of the Washington Arch in 1890. In the meantime, Emily, William and Goold often moved about society together. They shared a cottage in Newport, for instance, and traveled to Europe together. Goold's unmarried status made him sought-after guest by Newport socialites. The Sun mentioned on July 4, 1897 that by his arrival "the ranks of the bachelor contingent have increased...which encourages the givers of dinner parties." If there were any hopes of marriage in the minds of wealthy matrons, however, they would never come to pass. William Redmond died in the Washington Square house on December 6, 1898 at about 50 years of age. Emily and Goold continued traveling and entertaining together. On May 6, 1900 the New-York Tribune noted "Goold H. Redmond and Miss Redmond, of No. 6 Washington Square North have arranged to sail for Europe on Tuesday next in the steamship Kaiser Wilhelm der Grosse. They will remain abroad for several months." And the siblings leased the Bishop Potter mansion in Newport together every season starting about 1901.

In the last years of the Cross-Redmond residency, there were no lions on the newels, suggesting they were added by the Morrons after 1919. photo by Wurts Bros. from the collection of the Museum of the City of New York

Following her brother's death on December 21, 1906, Emily continued to live on with the Cross family in the only home she had ever known. (She would, incidentally, outlive all ten of her siblings, dying at the age of 90 on January 9, 1934.) The Redmond estate sold the leasehold to No. 6 to Henry W. Kent on March 14, 1913. Kent lived nearby at No. 80 Washington Square East. He soon transferred it to Robert de Forest, who lived in the former Johnston house at No. 7. The eagerness of neighbors to keep control of the leasehold may have had much to do with the changing nature of the lower Fifth Avenue district. The owners of those mansions were fleeing northward to newly-fashionable neighborhoods. The Washington Square denizens, however, were adamant about preserving the patrician tone of their enclave. In February 1914 De Forest leased the house to George Dallas Yeomans, attorney for the Brooklyn Rapid Transit Co. The timing could not have been better--the debut of Isabel S. Yeomans was on the near horizon. On November 25, 1915 the New-York Tribune reported on Isabel's coming-out reception in the house. "The debutante had a record number of girls receiving with her. There were forty-six in line." The astoundingly long list of those in the receiving line included the names of some of the wealthiest families in New York--Alexander, Platt, Riker and Cushman among them. Following the reception young male guests arrived for dinner and dancing. In May 1919 De Forest renewed the leasehold to No. 6 and immediately leased the house to John Reynolds Morron. The industrialist was president of both the Peter Cooper Gelatin Co. and the Chicago-based Atlas Portland Cement Company, and was a director of the First National Bank of New York, the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, Pullman, Inc. and the International Rubber Company. Before he and his wife, the former Belle Goodridge Burch, moved in Morron made renovations to the house. He hired architect James Gamble Rogers to install an elevator within the house and to create a two-story "brick studio" in the rear. The total cost topped a quarter of a million in today's dollars.

John Reynolds Morron, United States Passport photograph 1925

Morron's residency here was not without upheaval. In 1922 he went on trial accused of cement price-fixing. On the stand he denied that there had ever been "an agreement or understanding between his company and any other" for fixing prices or controlling distribution of cement.

Another view of the front parlor taken when the Cross family was here shows no chandelier, suggesting it was Belle Morron who installed the antique crystal fixtures in place today. Note the gas sconces stationed strangely enough on the columns. photo by Wurts Bros. from the collection of the Museum of the City of New York

The opening between the front and back parlor was necessarily narrowed to accommodate Morron's 1919 elevator (hidden within the walls separating the two parlors and entered from the hallway). photograph by the author

And then in June the following year a witness jotted down the license plate number of the get-away car used in the holdup of Joseph Szabo. The three perpetrators had robbed the businessman of $887. Unfortunately, the plate number came back to John R. Morron. On July 19 detectives entered Morron's garage and examined his automobile. The New York Times reported that it "had not left the garage in at least a week, and that the plates gave no evidence of having been temporarily removed." The witness had apparently incorrectly remembered the tag number. A few weeks earlier Morron's name had been linked with another run-in with the law; although this one was much less serious. Proud of his aristocratic residence, Morron hired Connecticut artist Ozias Dodge to make a sketch of the house. On May 17, 1923 he began, but, according to The New York Times, "He found he could not get far enough back from the house to get all the trees of the Morrin [sic] home in the perspective of his drawing without climbing over the fence of Washington Square Park." The Morron butler kindly brought a chair from the house for the artist to use. Washington Square in 1923, however, was far different from today. Park goers were expected to stay on the pathways and the grass was strictly off limits. But Dodge had been promised a permit to "work on the forbidden ground" by his friend, the Secretary of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Dodge's mistake was that in his hurry he did not bother getting that permit. The artist needed only five minutes on the grass to complete the sketch and had been there three minutes when he was ordered to move by Patrolman Harry J. Booth. Dodge refused. "He said he had worked all over New York and even in Paris without being treated that way before." Patrolman Booth lost his patience and arrested him.

The bronze lions, seen here in 1932, were later stolen. Only one was recovered. The plaster copies made from it now grace the newels and the original is kept safely inside an NYU building. photograph by Gottscho-Schleisner, Inc from the collection of the Museum of the City of New York

At the Essex Market Court Dodge pleaded guilty "but contended that the policeman had not shown common sense." He was given a suspended sentence and advised not to go back to the same spot to complete the sketch. Belle died around 1945 and John died at his summer residence in Littleton, New Hampshire on June 25, 1950. He was 82. No. 6 was acquired by New York University later that year. It now held the leases on Nos. 1 through 6. Gently renovated for office space, it was joined internally to Nos. 5 and 7 by doorways placed in unobtrusive locations on different floors.

A second floor bedroom as it appeared when Emily Redmond and the Cross family occupied the house. photo by Wurts Bros. from the collection of the Museum of the City of New York

A doorway accessing No. 5 Washington Square can be seen to the right of the window today. photograph by the author

Today the former Saul Alley mansion is home to the the administrations for both NYU's Graduate School of Arts and Science, and the Faculty of Arts and Science. The university deserves high praise for carefully preserving so much of the historic interiors. Many thanks to NYU associate Dale Rejtmar for his invaluable input.

Source: http://daytoninmanhattan.blogspot.com/2019/02/the-1833-saul-alley-mansion-6.html

#read more #see more #check it out #interesting #learn more

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