A botánica is a retail store that sells folk medicine, religious candles and statuary and other products regarded as magical or as alternative medicine. They carry oils, perfumes, scented sprays and various brand name health care products; these stores are common in many Hispanic American countries and communities of Latino people elsewhere. As such: Botánicas now can be found in any United States city that has a sizable Latino/a population those with ties to the Caribbean; the number of botánicas found outside of New York and Miami has grown tremendously in the last ten years. The name botánica is Spanish and translates as "botany" or "plant" store, referring to these establishments' function as dispensaries of medicinal herbs. Medicinal herbs may be sold fresh, prepackaged or in bulk. Botánica always feature a variety of products used in Roman Catholic religious practice such as rosary beads, holy water, images of saints. Among the latter, the Virgin of Guadalupe and other devotional figures with a Latin American connection are well represented.
The Catholic Church prohibits magic and other religions. However, most botánica have products associated with other spiritual practices such as candomblé, espiritismo and santería. Alternative medical treatments found in botánicas are used to treat such varied conditions as arthritis, hair loss, menstrual pain and diabetes. There are products that are designed to attract love, bring good luck and financial prosperity, deflect jealousy and so on. According to researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago: Most Latin American immigrants to the United States participate in the dominant health care system. Oftentimes, while utilizing this health care system, they continue to use their own culturally appropriate health care practices In curanderismo, santería, espiritismo, the practitioners assess the patient and, depending on diagnosis, prepares a healing remedy or a variety of healing remedies. A remedy is any combination of medicinal herbs, religious amulets, and/or other products used for the prevention, treatment, or palliation of folk and somatic illnesses.
It is administered by the practitioner and may involve several sessions. In other cases, a curandero, espiritista, or santero will provide his/her client with a list of herbs and/or religious amulets needed for the remedy; the client will go to the botánica with this "shopping list," purchase the product, return to the healer for preparation and administration of the remedy. If the remedy is to be administered over a long period of time, he/she may be instructed to administer the remedy at home. Besides being a place to obtain goods, "Botánicas serve as unique sites for the performance of religious culture. … Botánicas create a visible cultural gathering place in the public sphere."In some cases, stores without a direct connection to Latin American spiritual and alternative medical practices, such as a shop catering to the practice of Vodou or to New Age beliefs, will use the term botánica as well. Robert T. Trotter II/Trotter II, Robert T. Juan Antonio Chavira/Chavira, Juan Antonio. Curanderismo: Mexican American Folk Healing.
University of Georgia Press, Second Edition, October 1997. Rose-Rodriguez, L. Botanicas in Connecticut: Implications for Allopathic Practitioners. Unpublished master's thesis. University of Connecticut, Storrs. Botanica Los Orishas Artesania de Madera
Peartree railway station is a railway station serving the areas of Pear Tree and Osmaston in the city of Derby, England. It is one of three stations remaining open in the city, is situated about one mile south of Derby station on the main line to Birmingham. For a short period Derby - Birmingham local services called at Peartree, but it is now served by two trains each way on Mondays to Saturdays on the Crewe to Derby Line, a community rail line known as the North Staffordshire line; the station is managed by East Midlands Railway. Called Pear Tree and Normanton, it was one of the original stations of the Birmingham and Derby Junction Railway, opening on 12 August 1839. In 1868, a branch line to Melbourne was opened, diverging from the main line at Melbourne Junction south of the station; this branch had been wholly closed to passenger traffic by 1930, the diminished importance of Pear Tree and Normanton station as a result contributed to its closure on 4 March 1968. On 4 October 1976, the branch line was reopened as far as Sinfin in order to transport workers to and from the Rolls-Royce plant there.
As a result, the newly renamed Peartree station was once again in use. Whereas Sinfin North was within Rolls-Royce property and hence accessible only to employees and Sinfin Central had public access. Although the Sinfin branch was closed to passengers in 1998, Peartee has remained open as a result of its location on the main line; as a small suburban halt, main line services stop here and the station is little used by passengers. Access to the platforms is from Osmaston Park Road, which crosses the line to the south of the station via locked gates which are opened for passengers who use the provided intercom. There are no station buildings or shelter, the entrances were badly overgrown. In January 2007, the station was without signage denoting the location and the platforms were in an exceedingly poor state of repair, but by April 2009 it had been refurbished with new lighting and new signs installed; as the station is unstaffed and with no ticket vending machines, passengers must purchase the ticket on board.
Peartree is served by three trains per weekday towards Crewe and two trains towards Derby as well as two trains per day in each direction on Saturdays. There is no Sunday service. Trains on the Cross Country Route from Birmingham to Derby do not stop at Peartree though some stop at Willington. Mitchell, Vic. Derby to Stoke-on-Trent. West Sussex: Middleton Press. Figs. 8-10. ISBN 9781908174932. OCLC 954271104. Train times and station information for Peartree railway station from National Rail
André Antoine is a Belgian politician and mayor. He has been a member of the francophone cdH since 1980, he was elected to the presidency of the Wallon parliament on 22 July 2014. André Antoine was born in Leuven/Louvain, he comes from a farming family. He achieved his Licentiate in Law at the University of Louvain in Louvain-la-Neuve in 1983, his degree in Higher European Studies followed a year later. His political career began in 1980 when he joined the Christian Socialist Party, becoming a special advisor to the party presidency. In 1983 he started to work as a cabinet assistant for the Belgian Minister for Scientific Policy and Panning, Philippe Maystadt, moving on to work as an "attaché" to the party president in 1984/85. Antoine was a member of the municipal council in Ramillies between 1988 and 1994. Since 1994 he has been a councillor in nearby Perwez where he has served as the mayor since 2000. From 1991 till 1994 he served as a county councillor for Brabant serving as cabinet chief to Michel Lebrun.
In October 1985 he was selected as a PSC representative for the Nivelles Arrondissement, a mandate he retained till 1991. In 1995 he became a member of the newly renamed and reconfigured Parliament of Wallonia in Namur, the Parliament of the French Community, which for most purposes is the name used for the same parliament when convening in Brussels as part of the national legislative structure. Re-elected to the Wallon parliament in 1999, he became the leader of the PSC group in it. In 2003 Joëlle Milquet appointed Antoine a vice-president of the renamed cdH, hitherto the PSC; the next year, 2004, he attained ministerial office, becoming the regional Minister for Housing and Regeneration. His wide palette of responsibilities included general and school transport, energy policy and land use, zoning and railway investment. In 2009 he became regional Minister for the Budget, Employment and Sport. Despite the chan ge of post, he retained responsibility for airports policy in Wallonia, which under an EU directive from 2002 gives him the power to place a ban on night takes-offs and landings.
However, it is not a power he exercised: there are few night time take-offs and landings in Wallonia. Re-elected to the assembly again in 2014, he became president of the Wallon parliament on 22 July 2014
Spider Baby is a 1968 black comedy horror film and directed by Jack Hill. It stars Lon Chaney, Jr. as Bruno, the chauffeur and caretaker of three orphaned siblings who suffer from "Merrye Syndrome", a genetic condition starting in early puberty that causes them to regress mentally and physically. Jill Banner, Carol Ohmart, Quinn Redeker, Beverly Washburn, Sid Haig, Mary Mitchel, Karl Schanzer and Mantan Moreland star; the film was released to relative obscurity, but achieved cult status. Three children of the Merrye family live in a decaying rural mansion with their protector and chauffeur, Bruno; the children suffer from "Merrye Syndrome", a genetic affliction unique to members of their family, which causes them to mentally and physically regress down the evolutionary ladder, starting in late childhood. Two distant relatives arrive with their lawyer and his secretary in order to examine and claim the property as rightful heirs. Bruno's shaky control over the children deteriorates; the siblings, Ralph and Elizabeth, are inbred and dangerous.
These overgrown children exhibit playful innocence mixed with feral madness. Virginia is known as "Spider Baby" because of her obsession with spiders, she eats bugs, moving with a strange and spider-like grace. She enjoys trapping unsuspecting victims in her rope "web", "stinging" them to death using two butcher knives. After murdering an innocent delivery man, Virginia cuts off one of his ears, which she keeps in a match box. Ralph is a sexually advanced, but mentally deficient simpleton who moves through the house via the dumb-waiter. Unable to speak, Ralph communicates with only leers, he becomes sexually aroused with the arrival of the two visiting women. The mysterious Aunt Clara, Aunt Martha, Uncle Ned, who have regressed further than the Merrye siblings, live in the cellar; the skeleton of the family's dead father is kissed goodnight by Virginia. Bruno, the children's sworn and loving protector, has been able to maintain control and keep the family secrets hidden, but when the snooping, greedy cousin Emily and her brother Peter arrive to take possession of the property, the bizarre behavior of the Merrye clan is revealed.
Peter, their lawyer Schlocker, his assistant Ann Morris insist on staying at the house. Dinner is served after Ralph kills a cat for the main course; the revolting meal includes insects, a garden salad made of weeds. Bruno leaves on an errand. Despite warning the children to "behave", events spiral downhill as the Merrye kids run merrily amok. Virginia and Elizabeth murder Schlocker and dump his body into the basement, where the demented beastly relatives eat him; the basement dwellers are unleashed. Meanwhile, Emily models some black lingerie as Ralph peeks in. After being chased and raped by Ralph, Emily becomes sexually aggressive and murderous. Bruno returns and realizes that he has lost control of the children and of their secret unsavory lives, he lights a bundle of dynamite, blowing the house and the children to bits. This seems to kill all carriers of "Merrye Syndrome". Smug surviving cousin Peter, who managed to escape the house with Ann, is recounting the story as the movie comes to a close.
Addressing the audience, he explains that, as the sole remaining heir, he inherited the Merryes' vast family fortune, married Ann and wrote a book on the strange "Merrye Syndrome" phenomenon. He adds. However, the camera cuts to Peter's young daughter, who eerily resembles Virginia, admiring a spider in its web. Lon Chaney Jr. as Bruno Carol Ohmart as Emily Quinn K. Redeker as Peter Beverly Washburn as Elizabeth Jill Banner as Virginia Sid Haig as Ralph Mary Mitchel as Ann Karl Schanzer as Schlocker Mantan Moreland as Messenger The location chosen was the Smith Estate in the Highland Park neighborhood of Los Angeles; the film was shot between August and September 1964. However, due to the original producer's bankruptcy, the film was not released until December 24, 1967. Spider Baby suffered from poor marketing as well as a series of title changes, being billed alternatively as The Liver Eaters, Attack of the Liver Eaters, Cannibal Orgy, The Maddest Story Ever Told. Although these alternate titles have little or no relation to the plot, the latter two appear in the lyrics of the title song sung by Chaney: "This cannibal orgy is strange to behold in the maddest story told."
The opening titles of the film dub it Spider Baby or, The Maddest Story Ever Told. The cinematographer was Alfred Taylor, who had worked on the film The Atomic Brain; the entire production cost about $65,000, took only 12 days to shoot in black and white. In 1999, a DVD of the film's original laserdisc transfer was released, including a cast and crew reunion and a commentary track by Hill. In 2007, Dark Sky Films released a version featuring Hill's director's cut, a new commentary with co-star Haig and multiple documentaries on the making of the film. In 2015, British home video distributor Arrow Films released a director-approved Blu-ray/DVD combo special edition of the film. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 92% based on 13 reviews, with a weighted average rating of 7.16/10. Author and film critic Leonard Maltin awarded the film two and a half out of a possible four stars, calling the film "At its best it's both scary and funny." A musical version of Spider Baby played small community theaters.
It opened at the Empty Space theat
Second Aeon was a British literary periodical published from late 1966 to early 1975. It was edited by Peter Finch. A spin-off of the magazine was Second Aeon Publications, a series of booklets and bound volumes that reached 100 in number. Late 1966 Peter Finch June, 1967 Wes Magee, Adrian Mitchell, others September, 1967 Stephen Morris, Anna Scher, others early 1968 Brian Wake, Peter Hoida, Paul Green, others mid 1968 Adrian Henri, Mike Horovitz, Chris Torrance, others late 1968 David Roberts, Jim Burns, J. Gwyn Griffiths, Bob Cobbing, Allen Ginsberg, Raymond Garlick, Alan Jackson, Umberto Saba early 1969 d a levy, Brian Patten, Leroi Jones, John Fairfax, Tony Curtis and others mid 1969 William Wantling, Pablo Neruda, Iain Sinclair, Doug Blazek, Roger McGough, Martin Booth, Alan Sillitoe December, 1969 Edwin Morgan, Peter Mayer, Harry Guest, Gene Fowler, Alan Bold, Barry MacSweeney, Alan Perry, Gary Snyder, Paul Evans, others. 1970 Jeff Nuttall, John Ormond, James Blish, Owen Davis, Pete Hoida, others 1970 Dannie Abse, George Barker, Frances Horovitz, Peter Redgrove, Tom Raworth, John Tripp, Paul Brown, Henri Chopin, others.
1971 Robert Bly, Charles Bukowski, Emyr Humphreys, John James, George Macbeth, Yukio Mishima, Penelope Shuttle, David Tipton, Tristan Tzara, Herbert Williams, Jennifer Pike, Ian Robinson, others 1972 Alan Bold, Tom Phillips, Bill Butler, Roy Fuller, Marilyn Hacker, D. M. Thomas, Octavio Paz, Leslie Norris, Susan Musgrave, Edward Lucie-Smith, Federico García Lorca, Kris Hemensley and others 1973 Michael Butterworth, Cid Corman, D. M. Black, Robert Desnos, John Digby, Clayton Eshleman, Ruth Feldman, Raymond Garlick, Paul Gogarty, Harry Guest, Adrian Henri, Dick Higgins, John James, Eric Mottram, Cesare Pavese, Miklos Radnoti, R. S. Thomas, Gael Turnbull, Philip Whalen, others. 1973 Antipater of Sidon, William S. Burroughs, William Cox, Theodore Enslin, Duncan Glen, Yannis Goumas, Bill Griffiths, Peter Jay, Peter Levi, Theodore Weiss, William Sherman, John Riley, Tom Pickard, Alexis Lykiard, others. 1974 Tom Phillips, Paul Celan, Stéphane Mallarmé, Tristan Tzara, Cesare Pavese, David Black, Tony Conran, Gavin Ewart, Jack Hirschman, Alan Jackson, James Kirkup, John Wain, Charles Plymell, Thomas Tessier, others 1975 Antonin Artaud, Paul Auster, Harry Bell, Keith Bosley, René Char, Larry Eigner, Robin Fulton, Philip Holmes, Pierre Joris, John Montague, Susan Musgrave, Robert Nye, Benjamin Péret, William Rowe, Matt Simpson, David Tipton, Tomas Tranströmer, John Welch, J. L. Wilkinson, others History of Second Aeon Second Aeon page, Poetry Library, Southbank Centre
Marie Euphrosyne Spartali Stillman, was a British Pre-Raphaelite painter of Greek descent, arguably the greatest female artist of that movement. During a sixty-year career, she produced over one hundred and fifty works, contributing to exhibitions in Great Britain and the United States. Maria Spartali was the eldest daughter of Michael Spartali, a wealthy merchant, principal of the firm Spartali & Co and Greek consul-general based in London from 1866 to 1879, he had moved to London around 1828. In London, he married the daughter of a Greek merchant from Genoa; the family lived in their Georgian country house with a marble-pillared circular hallway, on Clapham Common, known as'The Shrubbery' with a huge garden and views over the Thames and Chelsea. In the summer months, they moved to their country house on the Isle of Wight where her father developed the cultivation of grapes on his lands. In London, her father was fond of lavish garden parties where he invited up and coming young writers and artists of his day.
She and her cousins Maria Zambaco and Aglaia Coronio were known collectively among friends as "the Three Graces", after the Charites of Greek mythology, as all three were noted beauties of Greek heritage. It was in the house of the Greek businessman A. C. Ionides at Tulse Hill, in south London, that Marie and her sister Christine met Whistler and Swinburne for the first time, they were dressed in white with blue ribbon sashes. Swinburne was so overcome that he said of Spartali: "She is so beautiful that I want to sit down and cry". Marie was an imposing figure, around 1.9 metres tall and, in her years, dressed in long flowing black garments with a lace hood, attracting much attention throughout her life. Spartali studied under Ford Madox Brown for several years from 1864, with his children Lucy and Oliver. Rossetti, on hearing that she was to become a pupil to Madox Brown, wrote to him on 29 April 1864, "I just heard that Miss Spartali is to be your pupil, of which I am glad. I hear now too that she is the same with a marvelous beauty of whom I have heard much talk.
So box her up and don't let fellows see her, as I mean to have first shy at her in the way of sitting." She first sat for him in 1867. He wrote to Jane Morris on 14 August 1869, "I find her head the most difficult I drew, it depends not so much on real form as on a subtle charm of life which one cannot recreate." She was the most intellectual of his models. She modelled. In 1871, against her parents' wishes, she married American journalist and painter William J. Stillman, she was his first having committed suicide two years before. The couple had posed for Rossetti in his famous Dante pictures, though it is not certain if, how they first met, he first worked for The Crayon. His job was a foreign correspondent for The Times; this resulted in the couple dividing their time between London and Florence, from 1878 to 1883, Rome from 1889 to 1896. She travelled to America, was the only Britain-based Pre-Raphaelite artist to work in the United States; the couple had three children together and Marie helped to raise William's three children from his first marriage.
William Stillman died in 1901. Marie Spartali died in March 1927 in Ashburn Place in South Kensington, four days shy of her 83rd birthday. Spartali Stillman was cremated at Brookwood Cemetery, near Woking, is interred there with her husband; the grave is marked by a simple lawn headstone. Her last will and testament contains a letter where Marie wrote, "It seems rather absurd to make a will when one has neither possessions nor money to leave", she left various personal items, including some mementos from her life as an artist. The subjects of her paintings were typical of the Pre-Raphaelites: female figures, she exhibited at the Dudley Gallery at the Grosvenor Gallery and its successor, the New Gallery. Stillman exhibited her work at the Palace of Fine Arts at the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago, Illinois. A retrospective show of her work took place in the United States in 1982, another one at the Delaware Art Museum in 2015; the latter show transferred to the UK in 2016, opening at the Watts Gallery at Compton near Guildford in Surrey on 1 March 2016 until 5 June 2016.
David Elliott lists more than 170 works in his book. The following are the better-known works, as determined by their mention in other books which discuss the artist; the Lady Prays – Desire Mariana Portrait of a young woman Forgetfulness La Pensierosa Self-Portrait Self-Portrait in Medieval Dress Gathering Orange Blossoms The Meeting of Dante and Beatrice on All Saints' Day Madonna Pietra degli Scrovigni Love's Messenger A Florentine Lily The May Feast at the House of Folco Portinari, 1274 Dante at Verona Upon a Day Came Sorrow unto Me A Florentine Lily