1.
London
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London /ˈlʌndən/ is the capital and most populous city of England and the United Kingdom. Standing on the River Thames in the south east of the island of Great Britain and it was founded by the Romans, who named it Londinium. Londons ancient core, the City of London, largely retains its 1. 12-square-mile medieval boundaries. London is a global city in the arts, commerce, education, entertainment, fashion, finance, healthcare, media, professional services, research and development, tourism. It is crowned as the worlds largest financial centre and has the fifth- or sixth-largest metropolitan area GDP in the world, London is a world cultural capital. It is the worlds most-visited city as measured by international arrivals and has the worlds largest city airport system measured by passenger traffic, London is the worlds leading investment destination, hosting more international retailers and ultra high-net-worth individuals than any other city. Londons universities form the largest concentration of education institutes in Europe. In 2012, London became the first city to have hosted the modern Summer Olympic Games three times, London has a diverse range of people and cultures, and more than 300 languages are spoken in the region. Its estimated mid-2015 municipal population was 8,673,713, the largest of any city in the European Union, Londons urban area is the second most populous in the EU, after Paris, with 9,787,426 inhabitants at the 2011 census. The citys metropolitan area is the most populous in the EU with 13,879,757 inhabitants, the city-region therefore has a similar land area and population to that of the New York metropolitan area. London was the worlds most populous city from around 1831 to 1925, Other famous landmarks include Buckingham Palace, the London Eye, Piccadilly Circus, St Pauls Cathedral, Tower Bridge, Trafalgar Square, and The Shard. The London Underground is the oldest underground railway network in the world, the etymology of London is uncertain. It is an ancient name, found in sources from the 2nd century and it is recorded c.121 as Londinium, which points to Romano-British origin, and hand-written Roman tablets recovered in the city originating from AD 65/70-80 include the word Londinio. The earliest attempted explanation, now disregarded, is attributed to Geoffrey of Monmouth in Historia Regum Britanniae and this had it that the name originated from a supposed King Lud, who had allegedly taken over the city and named it Kaerlud. From 1898, it was accepted that the name was of Celtic origin and meant place belonging to a man called *Londinos. The ultimate difficulty lies in reconciling the Latin form Londinium with the modern Welsh Llundain, which should demand a form *lōndinion, from earlier *loundiniom. The possibility cannot be ruled out that the Welsh name was borrowed back in from English at a later date, and thus cannot be used as a basis from which to reconstruct the original name. Until 1889, the name London officially applied only to the City of London, two recent discoveries indicate probable very early settlements near the Thames in the London area
2.
Paris
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Paris is the capital and most populous city of France. It has an area of 105 square kilometres and a population of 2,229,621 in 2013 within its administrative limits, the agglomeration has grown well beyond the citys administrative limits. By the 17th century, Paris was one of Europes major centres of finance, commerce, fashion, science, and the arts, and it retains that position still today. The aire urbaine de Paris, a measure of area, spans most of the Île-de-France region and has a population of 12,405,426. It is therefore the second largest metropolitan area in the European Union after London, the Metropole of Grand Paris was created in 2016, combining the commune and its nearest suburbs into a single area for economic and environmental co-operation. Grand Paris covers 814 square kilometres and has a population of 7 million persons, the Paris Region had a GDP of €624 billion in 2012, accounting for 30.0 percent of the GDP of France and ranking it as one of the wealthiest regions in Europe. The city is also a rail, highway, and air-transport hub served by two international airports, Paris-Charles de Gaulle and Paris-Orly. Opened in 1900, the subway system, the Paris Métro. It is the second busiest metro system in Europe after Moscow Metro, notably, Paris Gare du Nord is the busiest railway station in the world outside of Japan, with 262 millions passengers in 2015. In 2015, Paris received 22.2 million visitors, making it one of the top tourist destinations. The association football club Paris Saint-Germain and the rugby union club Stade Français are based in Paris, the 80, 000-seat Stade de France, built for the 1998 FIFA World Cup, is located just north of Paris in the neighbouring commune of Saint-Denis. Paris hosts the annual French Open Grand Slam tennis tournament on the red clay of Roland Garros, Paris hosted the 1900 and 1924 Summer Olympics and is bidding to host the 2024 Summer Olympics. The name Paris is derived from its inhabitants, the Celtic Parisii tribe. Thus, though written the same, the name is not related to the Paris of Greek mythology. In the 1860s, the boulevards and streets of Paris were illuminated by 56,000 gas lamps, since the late 19th century, Paris has also been known as Panam in French slang. Inhabitants are known in English as Parisians and in French as Parisiens and they are also pejoratively called Parigots. The Parisii, a sub-tribe of the Celtic Senones, inhabited the Paris area from around the middle of the 3rd century BC. One of the areas major north-south trade routes crossed the Seine on the île de la Cité, this place of land and water trade routes gradually became a town
3.
France
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France, officially the French Republic, is a country with territory in western Europe and several overseas regions and territories. The European, or metropolitan, area of France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, Overseas France include French Guiana on the South American continent and several island territories in the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian oceans. France spans 643,801 square kilometres and had a population of almost 67 million people as of January 2017. It is a unitary republic with the capital in Paris. Other major urban centres include Marseille, Lyon, Lille, Nice, Toulouse, during the Iron Age, what is now metropolitan France was inhabited by the Gauls, a Celtic people. The area was annexed in 51 BC by Rome, which held Gaul until 486, France emerged as a major European power in the Late Middle Ages, with its victory in the Hundred Years War strengthening state-building and political centralisation. During the Renaissance, French culture flourished and a colonial empire was established. The 16th century was dominated by civil wars between Catholics and Protestants. France became Europes dominant cultural, political, and military power under Louis XIV, in the 19th century Napoleon took power and established the First French Empire, whose subsequent Napoleonic Wars shaped the course of continental Europe. Following the collapse of the Empire, France endured a succession of governments culminating with the establishment of the French Third Republic in 1870. Following liberation in 1944, a Fourth Republic was established and later dissolved in the course of the Algerian War, the Fifth Republic, led by Charles de Gaulle, was formed in 1958 and remains to this day. Algeria and nearly all the colonies became independent in the 1960s with minimal controversy and typically retained close economic. France has long been a centre of art, science. It hosts Europes fourth-largest number of cultural UNESCO World Heritage Sites and receives around 83 million foreign tourists annually, France is a developed country with the worlds sixth-largest economy by nominal GDP and ninth-largest by purchasing power parity. In terms of household wealth, it ranks fourth in the world. France performs well in international rankings of education, health care, life expectancy, France remains a great power in the world, being one of the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council with the power to veto and an official nuclear-weapon state. It is a member state of the European Union and the Eurozone. It is also a member of the Group of 7, North Atlantic Treaty Organization, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, the World Trade Organization, originally applied to the whole Frankish Empire, the name France comes from the Latin Francia, or country of the Franks
4.
English people
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The English are a nation and an ethnic group native to England, who speak the English language. The English identity is of medieval origin, when they were known in Old English as the Angelcynn. Their ethnonym is derived from the Angles, one of the Germanic peoples who migrated to Great Britain around the 5th century AD, England is one of the countries of the United Kingdom. Collectively known as the Anglo-Saxons, they founded what was to become England along with the later Danes, Normans, in the Acts of Union 1707, the Kingdom of England was succeeded by the Kingdom of Great Britain. Over the years, English customs and identity have become closely aligned with British customs. The English people are the source of the English language, the Westminster system and these and other English cultural characteristics have spread worldwide, in part as a result of the former British Empire. The concept of an English nation is far older than that of the British nation, many recent immigrants to England have assumed a solely British identity, while others have developed dual or mixed identities. Use of the word English to describe Britons from ethnic minorities in England is complicated by most non-white people in England identifying as British rather than English. In their 2004 Annual Population Survey, the Office for National Statistics compared the ethnic identities of British people with their national identity. They found that while 58% of white people in England described their nationality as English and it is unclear how many British people consider themselves English. Following complaints about this, the 2011 census was changed to allow respondents to record their English, Welsh, Scottish, another complication in defining the English is a common tendency for the words English and British to be used interchangeably, especially overseas. In his study of English identity, Krishan Kumar describes a common slip of the tongue in which people say English, I mean British. He notes that this slip is made only by the English themselves and by foreigners. Kumar suggests that although this blurring is a sign of Englands dominant position with the UK and it tells of the difficulty that most English people have of distinguishing themselves, in a collective way, from the other inhabitants of the British Isles. In 1965, the historian A. J. P. Taylor wrote, When the Oxford History of England was launched a generation ago and it meant indiscriminately England and Wales, Great Britain, the United Kingdom, and even the British Empire. Foreigners used it as the name of a Great Power and indeed continue to do so, bonar Law, by origin a Scotch Canadian, was not ashamed to describe himself as Prime Minister of England Now terms have become more rigorous. The use of England except for a geographic area brings protests and this version of history is now regarded by many historians as incorrect, on the basis of more recent genetic and archaeological research. The 2016 study authored by Stephan Schiffels et al, the remaining portion of English DNA is primarily French, introduced in a migration after the end of the Ice Age
5.
French people
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The French are an ethnic group and nation who are identified with the country of France. This connection may be legal, historical, or cultural, modern French society can be considered a melting pot. To be French, according to the first article of the French Constitution, is to be a citizen of France, regardless of origin, race. The debate concerning the integration of this view with the underlying the European Community remains open. A large number of foreigners have traditionally been permitted to live in France, indeed, the country has long valued its openness, tolerance and the quality of services available. Application for French citizenship is often interpreted as a renunciation of previous state allegiance unless a dual citizenship agreement exists between the two countries, the European treaties have formally permitted movement and European citizens enjoy formal rights to employment in the state sector. Seeing itself as a nation with universal values, France has always valued. However, the success of such assimilation has recently called into question. There is increasing dissatisfaction with, and within, growing ethno-cultural enclaves, the 2005 French riots in some troubled and impoverished suburbs were an example of such tensions. However they should not be interpreted as ethnic conflicts but as social conflicts born out of socioeconomic problems endangering proper integration, the name France etymologically derives from the word Francia, the territory of the Franks. The Franks were a Germanic tribe that overran Roman Gaul at the end of the Roman Empire, in the pre-Roman era, all of Gaul was inhabited by a variety of peoples who were known collectively as the Gaulish tribes. Gaul was militarily conquered in 58-51 BCE by the Roman legions under the command of General Julius Caesar, the area then became part of the Roman Empire. Over the next five centuries the two cultures intermingled, creating a hybridized Gallo-Roman culture, the Gaulish vernacular language disappeared step by step to be replaced everywhere by Vulgar Latin, which would later develop under Frankish influence into the French language in the North of France. With the decline of the Roman Empire in Western Europe, a federation of Germanic peoples entered the picture, the Franks were Germanic pagans who began to settle in northern Gaul as laeti, already during the Roman era. They continued to filter across the Rhine River from present-day Netherlands, at the beginning, they served in the Roman army and reached high commands. Their language is spoken as a kind of Dutch in northern France. Another Germanic people immigrated massively to Alsace, the Alamans, which explains the Alemannic German spoken there and they were competitors of the Franks, thats why it became at the Renaissance time the word for German in French, Allemand. By the early 6th century the Franks, led by the Merovingian king Clovis I and his sons, had consolidated their hold on much of modern-day France, the Vikings eventually intermarried with the local people, converting to Christianity in the process
6.
John Barry (composer)
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John Barry Prendergast, OBE was an English composer and conductor of film music. He composed the scores for 11 of the James Bond films between 1963 and 1987, and also arranged and performed the James Bond Theme to the first film in the series, in 1999, he was appointed OBE at Buckingham Palace for services to music. Born in York, Barry spent his years working in cinemas owned by his father. During his national service with the British Army in Cyprus, Barry began performing as a musician after learning to play the trumpet, upon completing his national service, he formed his own band in 1957, The John Barry Seven. He later developed an interest in composing and arranging music, making his début for television in 1958. He came to the notice of the makers of the first James Bond film Dr. No and this started a successful association between Barry and Eon Productions which lasted for 25 years. He received many awards for his work, including five Academy Awards, two for Born Free, and one each for The Lion in Winter, Dances with Wolves and Out of Africa. He also received ten Golden Globe Award nominations, winning once for Best Original Score for Out of Africa in 1986, Barry completed his last film score, Enigma, in 2001 and recorded the successful album Eternal Echoes the same year. He then concentrated chiefly on live performances and co-wrote the music to the musical Brighton Rock in 2004 alongside Don Black and he was made a Fellow of the British Academy of Film and Television Arts in 2005. Barry was married four times and had four children and he moved to the United States in 1975 and lived there for the remainder of his life until his death in 2011. Barry was born John Barry Prendergast, in York, England, and was the son of an English mother and his mother was a classical pianist. His father, John Xavier Jack Prendergast, from Cork, was a projectionist during the silent film era, who later owned a chain of cinemas across northern England. As a result of his fathers work, Barry was raised in and around cinemas in northern England and he stated that this childhood background influenced his musical tastes. Barry was educated at St Peters School, York, and also received lessons from Francis Jackson. Serving in the British Army, Barry spent his national service playing the trumpet, the career breakthrough for Barry was the BBC television series Drumbeat, when he appeared with the John Barry Seven. He was employed by EMI from 1959 until 1962 arranging orchestral accompaniment for the singers, including Adam Faith, he also composed songs. When Faith made his first film, Beat Girl, Barry composed, arranged and conducted the score and his music was later released as the UKs first soundtrack album. Barry also composed the music for another Faith film, Never Let Go, orchestrated the score for Mix Me a Person, in 1962, Barry transferred to Ember Records, where he produced albums as well as arranging them
7.
Serge Gainsbourg
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Serge Gainsbourg was a French singer, songwriter, pianist, film composer, poet, painter, screenwriter, writer, actor, and director. His lyrical work incorporated a vast amount of word play to hoodwink the listener, often for humorous, provocative. Common types of play in his songs include mondegreen, onomatopoeia, rhyme, spoonerism, dysphemism, paraprosdokian. Through the course of his career, Gainsbourg wrote over 550 songs, since his death, Gainsbourgs music has reached legendary stature in France. He has also gained a following in the English-speaking world. Born in Paris, France, Gainsbourg was the son of Jewish Ukrainian migrants, Joseph Ginsburg and Olga, who fled to Paris after the 1917 Russian Revolution. Joseph Ginsburg was a trained musician whose profession was playing the piano in cabarets and casinos, he taught his children - Gainsbourg. Gainsbourgs childhood was affected by the occupation of France by Germany in World War II. The identifying yellow star Jews were required to wear haunted Gainsbourg, during the occupation, the Jewish Ginsburg family was able to make their way from Paris to Limoges, traveling under false papers. Limoges was in the Zone libre under the administration of the collaborationist Vichy government, after the war, Gainsbourg obtained work teaching music and drawing in a school outside of Paris, in Mesnil-Le-Roi. The school was set up under the auspices of local rabbis, here Gainsbourg heard the accounts of Nazi persecution and genocide, stories that resonated for Gainsbourg far into the future. Before he was 30 years old, Gainsbourg was a disillusioned painter, Gainsbourg changed his first name to Serge, feeling that this was representative of his Russian background and because, as Jane Birkin relates, Lucien reminded him of a hairdressers assistant. He chose Gainsbourg as his last name, in homage to the English painter Thomas Gainsborough and he married Elisabeth Lize Levitsky on 3 November 1951 and divorced in 1957. He married a second time on 7 January 1964, to Françoise-Antoinette Béatrice Pancrazzi and he divorced Béatrice in February 1966. In late 1967 he had a short but ardent love affair with Brigitte Bardot, to whom he dedicated the song, in mid-1968 Gainsbourg fell in love with the younger English singer and actress Jane Birkin, whom he met during the shooting of the film Slogan. Their relationship lasted over a decade, in 1971 they had a daughter, the actress and singer Charlotte Gainsbourg. Although many sources state that they were married, according to their daughter Charlotte this was not the case. Birkin remembers the beginning of her affair with Gainsbourg, he first took her to a nightclub, then to a transvestite club, Birkin left Gainsbourg when pregnant with her third daughter Lou by the film director Jacques Doillon
8.
Charlotte Gainsbourg
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Charlotte Lucy Gainsbourg is a British-French actress and singer. She is the daughter of English actress Jane Birkin and French singer and songwriter Serge Gainsbourg, after making her musical debut with her father on the song Lemon Incest at the age of 12, she released an album with her father at the age of 15. More than 20 years passed before she released three albums as an adult to commercial and critical success, Gainsbourg has also appeared in many films, including several directed by Lars von Trier, and has received both a César Award and the Cannes Film Festival Best Actress Award. Gainsbourg was born in London, to English actress and singer Jane Birkin and French actor, Gainsbourg was born at the height of her parents fame, they had made headlines several years earlier with the sexually explicit song Je taime. Moi non plus and by that point had become notorious for their turbulent relationship, as a result, her birth and childhood were well publicised. Her maternal grandmother was actress Judy Campbell, and her uncle is screenwriter Andrew Birkin and she is a cousin of theatre and opera director Sophie Hunter. Her father was Jewish, and her mother is from a Protestant background, Gainsbourg attended École Active Bilingue Jeannine Manuel in Paris and Collège Alpin International Beau Soleil in Switzerland. French is Gainsbourgs first language, but she is fluent in English. Gainsbourg was raised in Paris alongside her half-sister from her mothers marriage to composer John Barry, Kate Barry, according to Birkin, both parents were somewhat neglectful, often spending their nights going out to parties and drinking. She has a brother, Lucien Lulu Gainsbourg, born in 1986 from her fathers relationship with Bambou. On her fathers side she also had two siblings born from his second marriage to Françoise-Antoinette Béatrice Pancrazzi. By 1980, her parents relationship had dissolved and her left her father for the director Jacques Doillon. Her half sister Lou Doillon was born in 1982 as a result of the union, Gainsbourg would go on to work with her stepfather in the film The Temptation of Isabelle in 1985 and later in Amoureuse in 1992, which also starred her spouse Yvan Attal. In 1987 she was the target of a bungled kidnapping, after her parents separated, Gainsbourgs father descended into alcoholism, eventually dying of a heart attack in 1991. Gainsbourg remained devoted to preserving his legacy and preserved his home and she eventually abandoned the project and decided to maintain the house as a private residence instead. On 5 September 2007, Gainsbourg was rushed to a Paris hospital where she underwent surgery for a cerebral hemorrhage and she had been experiencing headaches since a waterskiing accident in the United States several weeks earlier. Gainsbourg grew up on film sets, as both of her parents were involved in the film industry, in 1986, Gainsbourg won a César Award for Most Promising Actress for Leffrontée. That same year Gainsbourg appeared in the film Charlotte for Ever about a man who develops incestuous desires for his daughter after his wife dies
9.
Lou Doillon
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Lou Doillon is a French model, singer, and actress. Her father is director Jacques Doillon and her mother is British actress, Doillon was born in Neuilly-sur-Seine, France. On her mothers side, she is the half-sister of Charlotte Gainsbourg and Kate Barry, Doillon began her acting career as her mothers daughter in Kung-Fu Master. Her father then cast her in her first leading role in the film Trop dAmour and she also played in Mauvaises Fréquentations. She became a model because of her beauty and is now a well-known face in European cinema. In 2001, Doillon starred in Carrément à louest, a movie by Jacques Doillon, Doillon also starred in Saint Ange, aka House of Voices. In 2007, she played a part in Go Go Tales by Abel Ferrara. She played the character in Gigola alongside Marie Kremer and Thierry Lhermitte. In 2012, she played one of the characters in Un enfant de toi. As a model Doillon has appeared in the one-time Gap, Inc. publication Individuals and is the face and she also modelled for the 2007 Pirelli Calendar. In 2007 the heritage jeans brand Lee Cooper made her its creative partner but after a year of great reviews closed the line citing bankruptcy, in 2014, Doillon starred in the Spring-Summer advertising campaign for fashion house Chloé. In 2006 Doillon began writing music with friend and musician Chris Brenner, a song they wrote together, The Girl Is Gone, was featured on the Visionaire Magazine special music issue and picture disk in 2007. Doillon sings, plays guitar, and writes lyrics, she released her first EP with Brenner, musician John Mitchell, the album is titled Places and her first single is I. C. U. Doillon told Interview Magazine I wrote that because I was desperately in love someone that I hadnt seen. I wandered for months in the street looking for him, the album receives rave reviews and Doillon won the Best Female Artist at the 2013 Victoires de la Musique. Doillon gave birth to her first child in 2002 and she parted company with his father, musician Thomas-John Mitchell, less than a year later and moved to New York. Lou Doillon at the Internet Movie Database Lou Doillon Style Photo Gallery
10.
Judy Campbell
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Judy Campbell, originally Judy Mary Gamble was an English actress and playwright, widely known to be Noël Cowards muse. Campbell was born in Grantham, Lincolnshire on 31 May 1916, daughter of John Arthur Campbell and his wife Mary, both her parents were on the stage, her father was also the author of several plays under his professional name of J. A. Campbell made her debut in 1935 as a Guest in The Last of Mrs. Cheyney at the Theatre Royal, Grantham. She insisted that she could neither sing nor dance, but she had an ability to invest a song with theatrical grace. In 2002 she lent her patrician presence to a remake of The Forsyte Saga. In 1941 she had a role in the stage musical Lady Behave and she also appeared with him in twice-weekly troop concerts. In fact, he was just trying to keep his hands warm in a theatre during fuel rationing. In 1981 she appeared in Andrew Birkins BAFTA winning and Academy Award nominated short film, Sredni Vashtar and it was her last major film role, although she appeared regularly on British television throughout the remainder of her career. In December 2002, at the end of a 67-year career as a actress and chanteuse. A nostalgic garland of songs, memories and scenes from plays, accompanied by Stefan Bednarczyk at the piano, Judy finally recorded Nightingale in September 2003, as part of a cabaret performance with Sheridan Morley and Michael Law at Pizza on the Park. After her death in 2004 her name was commemorated on the actresses dressing-room door at the Jermyn Street Theatre and she was married to Lieutenant-Commander David Birkin, DSC RNVR, until his death in 1991. She died in London on 6 June 2004, ’Guest’ in The Last of Mrs
11.
Anno Birkin
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Alexander Kingdom Nik-o Anno Birkin was an English poet and musician. His grandparents on his fathers side were Judy Campbell and Lt Cdr David Birkin, Birkin named himself Anno when he was three, after his favourite book, Annos Journey by Mitsumasa Anno. Birkins first band, called Midstream, formed in 1994 with his school-friends Billy Scherer and JS Rafaeli, durango 95 was put together that same year, but split up in 1997. For the next two years, Birkin composed and played on his own as well as worked with Scherer, while visiting his father on the film set of The Messenger, The Story of Joan of Arc in 1998, Birkin fell in love with the actress Milla Jovovich. Anno and Milla wrote and recorded a number of songs together and she later wrote, I remember the absolute wonder I felt when he first wrote to me. I was bowled over by his choices, his words and his fiancée Honeysuckle Weeks wrote, I think what Anno was doing in his writing as well as in life was trying to separate the pure from the sordid. Like a lot of boys, he felt guilty about his own desires. During the summer of 1999, Birkin wrote and recorded a number of songs and they turned it down and in August formed Flying Mango Attack with bassist Lee Citron and drummer Christian Smith-Pancorvo and recorded the album Karmageddon. They briefly broke up after various drummers came and went, and once again Birkin, in September 2000, Birkin, Scherer, and Citron met the Italian drummer Alberto Mangili and formed Kicks joy Darkness. KjD began performing in late 2000 and in December, recorded an EP Ark, the following spring, he travelled around India with his brother David Birkin, writing poetry and songs. He returned to England in April and embarked on a series of gigs with KjD, the band decided to record Method One – their first studio album – in Bergamo, where Mangili had a recording studio. They gave their farewell gig at the Dublin Castle in London before heading off to Italy at the end of August, Birkin wrote to Weeks, Everything has fallen into place around my skull thanks to this opportunity. For the first time in my life I feel like I know what Im doing, the fear and anxiety and excitement Im feeling at the moment is bursting me. On 8 November 2001, after the band had spent the day rehearsing, Birkin, Citron, Birkin was a month and a day short of his 21st birthday. Birkin had created a website for the band in August 2001, following his death, the site has provided a forum for his friends and fans. In 2003, Dreams of Waking – a 2-CD album of songs by Birkin, Rock Sound called it an art-rock adventure with hints of early Radiohead and Sonic Youth. … Annos lyrics are poetic masterpieces in their own right, later that year, a selection of Birkins poetry – Who Said the Race Is Over. – was published and sold over 4,000 copies. Tom Payne reviewed it in the Daily Telegraph as this proud, … Yet for all their brilliance, the poems feel unfinished
12.
Order of the British Empire
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There is also the related British Empire Medal, whose recipients are affiliated with, but not members of, the order. Recommendations for appointments to the Order of the British Empire were at first made on the nomination of the United Kingdom, the self-governing Dominions of the Empire, nominations continue today from Commonwealth countries that participate in recommending British honours. Most members are citizens of the United Kingdom or the Commonwealth realms that use the Imperial system of honours and awards. Honorary knighthoods are appointed to citizens of nations where the Queen is not head of state, occasionally, honorary appointees are, incorrectly, referred to as Sir or Dame – Bill Gates or Bob Geldof, for example. In particular, King George V wished to create an Order to honour many thousands of those who had served in a variety of non-combatant roles during the First World War, when first established, the Order had only one division. However, in 1918, soon after its foundation, it was divided into Military. The Orders motto is For God and the Empire, at the foundation of the Order, the Medal of the Order of the British Empire was instituted, to serve as a lower award granting recipients affiliation but not membership. In 1922, this was renamed the British Empire Medal, in addition, the BEM is awarded by the Cook Islands and by some other Commonwealth nations. The British monarch is Sovereign of the Order, and appoints all members of the Order. The next most senior member is the Grand Master, of whom there have been three, Prince Edward, the Prince of Wales, Queen Mary, and the current Grand Master, the Duke of Edinburgh. The Order is limited to 300 Knights and Dames Grand Cross,845 Knights and Dames Commander, and 8,960 Commanders. There are no limits applied to the number of members of the fourth and fifth classes. Foreign recipients, as members, do not contribute to the numbers restricted to the Order as full members do. Though men can be knighted separately from an order of chivalry, women cannot, and so the rank of Knight/Dame Commander of the Order is the lowest rank of damehood, and second-lowest of knighthood. Because of this, Dame Commander is awarded in circumstances in which a man would be created a Knight Bachelor, for example, by convention, female judges of the High Court of Justice are created Dames Commander after appointment, while male judges become Knights Bachelor. The Order has six officials, the Prelate, the Dean, the Secretary, the Registrar, the King of Arms, the Bishop of London, a senior bishop in the Church of England, serves as the Orders Prelate. The Dean of St Pauls is ex officio the Dean of the Order, the Orders King of Arms is not a member of the College of Arms, as are many other heraldic officers. From time to time, individuals are appointed to a higher grade within the Order, thereby ceasing usage of the junior post-nominal letters
13.
Michelangelo Antonioni
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Michelangelo Antonioni, Cavaliere di Gran Croce OMRI, was an Italian film director, screenwriter, editor, and short story writer. He produced enigmatic and intricate pieces and rejected action in favor of contemplation, focusing on image and design over character. His films defined a cinema of possibilities and he is one of three directors to have won the Palme dOr, the Golden Lion and the Golden Bear, and the only director to have won these three and the Golden Leopard. Antonioni was born into a family of landowners in Ferrara, Emilia Romagna. He was the son of Elisabetta and Ismaele Antonioni, the director explained to Italian film critic Aldo Tassone, My childhood was a happy one. Was a warm and intelligent woman who had been a laborer in her youth and my father also was a good man. Born into a family, he succeeded in obtaining a comfortable position through evening courses. My parents gave me free rein to do what I wanted, with my brother, curiously enough, our friends were invariably proletarian, and poor. The poor still existed at that time, you recognized them by their clothes, but even in the way they wore their clothes, there was a fantasy, a frankness that made me prefer them to boys of bourgeois families. I always had sympathy for women of working-class families, even later when I attended university, they were more authentic. While still a child, Antonioni was fond of drawing and music, a precocious violinist, he gave his first concert at the age of nine. Although he abandoned the violin with the discovery of cinema in his teens, I have never drawn, even as a child, either puppets or silhouettes but rather facades of houses and gates. One of my favorite games consisted of organizing towns, ignorant in architecture, I constructed buildings and streets crammed with little figures. These childhood happenings - I was eleven years old - were like little films, upon graduation from the University of Bologna with a degree in economics, he started writing for the local Ferrara newspaper Il Corriere Padano in 1935 as a film journalist. In 1940, Antonioni moved to Rome, where he worked for Cinema, however, Antonioni was fired a few months afterward. Later that year he enrolled at the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia to study film technique and he was drafted into the army afterwards. During the war Antonioni survived being condemned to death for his membership in the resistance, in 1942, Antonioni co-wrote A Pilot Returns with Roberto Rossellini and worked as assistant director on Enrico Fulchignonis I due Foscari. In 1943, he travelled to France to assist Marcel Carné on Les visiteurs du soir and then began a series of films with Gente del Po
14.
Blowup
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Blowup, or Blow-Up, is a 1966 British-Italian film directed by Michelangelo Antonioni about a fashion photographer, played by David Hemmings, who believes he has unwittingly captured a murder on film. It was Antonionis first entirely English-language film, the film also stars Vanessa Redgrave, Sarah Miles, John Castle, Jane Birkin, Tsai Chin and Gillian Hills as well as sixties model Veruschka. The screenplay was by Antonioni and Tonino Guerra, with English dialogue by British playwright Edward Bond, the film was produced by Carlo Ponti, who had contracted Antonioni to make three English-language films for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. The film was scored by jazz pianist Herbie Hancock, the music is diegetic, as Hancock noted, Its only there when someone turns on the radio or puts on a record. Nominated for several awards at the Cannes Film Festival, Blowup won the Grand Prix, the American release of the counterculture-era film with its explicit sexual content by a major Hollywood studio was in direct defiance of the Production Code. Its subsequent outstanding critical and box office success proved to be one of the events that led to the final abandonment of the code in 1968 in favour of the MPAA film rating system. In 2012, Blowup was ranked No.144 in the Sight & Sound critics poll of the worlds greatest films, the plot is a day in the life of a glamorous fashion photographer, Thomas, inspired by the life of an actual Swinging London photographer, David Bailey. He grows bored and walks off, leaving the models and production staff in the lurch, as he leaves the studio, two teenage girls who are aspiring models ask to speak with him, but the photographer drives off to look at an antiques shop. Wandering into Maryon Park, he takes photos of two lovers, the woman is furious at being photographed. The photographer then meets his agent for lunch, and notices a man following him, back at his studio, the woman arrives asking for the film, but he deliberately hands her a different roll. She in turn writes down a telephone number to give to him. His many enlargements of the black and white film are grainy but seem to show a body in the grass. He is disturbed by a knock on the door, but it is the two again, with whom he has a romp in his studio and falls asleep. Awakening, he finds they hope he will photograph them but he tells them to leave, saying, Tomorrow. As evening falls, the photographer goes back to the park and finds the body of a man, the photographer returns to his studio to find that all the negatives and prints are gone except for one very grainy blowup showing the body. A buzz in Becks amplifier angers him so much he smashes his guitar on stage, then throws its neck into the crowd, the photographer grabs the neck and runs out of the club before anyone can snatch it from him. Then he has thoughts about it, throws it on the pavement. A passer-by picks up the neck and throws it back down, however, the photographer cannot put across what he has photographed
15.
Jane Birkin/Serge Gainsbourg
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Jane Birkin/Serge Gainsbourg is an album featuring duets and solo performances by Serge Gainsbourg and his then lover, Jane Birkin. It was released in 1969 and included the worldwide hit Je taime. Moi non plus, which achieved notoriety for its salacious lyrics with a backing of ecstatic female moaning, culminating in an apparent orgasm at the songs finale. )This album was reissued for the first time in the US on Light in the Attic Records on August 24,2010. The reissued version includes Chanson de Slogan as the 12 track, allmusic noted that the album includes kitsch masterpieces like 69 Annee Erotique and Jane Birkin and Serge Gainsbourgs chart-topping Je taime. Moi non plus, in a procession of jazzy instrumentals accompanied by Gainsbourgs throaty, Gitanes-coated vocals, words and music by Serge Gainsbourg Je taime. It was recorded as a duet with Brigitte Bardot on 10 December 1967 at Studio Hoche, lanamour - was originally created for Françoise Hardy in November 1968 for her album Now. Sous le soleil exactement - originally created for Anna Karina for the French TV ORTF telefilm first broadcast on 13 January 1967, Jane B - lyrics influenced by Vladimir Nabokovs text from Lolita and the music inspired by Prélude No.4 in E minor by Frédéric Chopin. Elisa - music first created for the film LHorizon, the music was by Serge Gainsbourg and Michel Colombier, lyrics by Serge Gainsbourg. Le canari est sur le balcon - music first created for the Édouard Luntz film Les Coeurs Verts as My Green Heart, the music was reused as Help Camionneur for Jane Birkins debut album, Di doo dah
16.
Je t'aime moi non plus (film)
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For the song, see Je taime. For the album, see Jane Birkin Serge Gainsbourg, the movie is a classic love triangle drama. Frail and love-starved girl Johnny works in a truckstop café in the middle of nowhere, one day enter two truckers, manly and worldwise Krassky and his lover Padovan, young and handsome, but immature and rather a handful. Krassky, tired of taking care of Padovan who keeps getting into trouble, discovers himself an attraction for this boyish girl, and she falls head over heels for him. They start a relationship, and even if at first Krasskys body hesitates before the meager feminine graces of curveless Johnny, he ends up being charmed by her naive and unconditional love. She is ready to accept anything out of love for him, including sex, though quite inexperienced at this. In the end, the back of Krasskys dirty garbage truck will be the theatre of their union, furiously jealous Padovan however, to win Krassky back, will shrink at nothing, including murder. And at the sight of this passionate jealousy, Krassky returns to his first love and leaves him, abandoning little skinny Johnny in her café, brokenhearted. Je taime moi non plus was the first film directed by Gainsbourg, Jane Birkin was his partner at that time. It includes elements of symbolism recurrent in Gainsbourgs work, passion to the death, depardieu has a few short appearances, playing a passing cynical gay local. Serge Gainsbourg Je taime moi non plus at the Internet Movie Database Sargent, hot, Hard Cocks and Tight, Tight Unlubricated Assholes, Transgression, Sexual Ambiguity and Perverse Pleasures in Serge Gainsbourgs Je taime moi non plus
17.
Agatha Christie
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Dame Agatha Mary Clarissa Christie, Lady Mallowan, DBE was an English crime novelist, short story writer and playwright. She is best known for her 66 detective novels and 14 short story collections, particularly revolving around her fictional detectives Hercule Poirot. She also wrote the worlds longest-running play, a mystery, The Mousetrap. In 1971 she was made a Dame for her contribution to literature, Christie was born into a wealthy upper-middle-class family in Torquay, Devon. She served in a hospital during the First World War before marrying and starting a family in London and she was initially an unsuccessful writer, but The Mysterious Affair at Styles was published in 1920 featuring Hercule Poirot. Guinness World Records lists Christie as the best-selling novelist of all time and her novels have sold roughly 2 billion copies, and her estate claims that her works come third in the rankings of the worlds most-widely published books, behind only Shakespeares works and the Bible. According to Index Translationum, she remains the most-translated individual author – having been translated into at least 103 languages. And Then There Were None is Christies best-selling novel, with 100 million sales to date, making it the worlds best-selling mystery ever, in 1955 Christie was the first recipient of the Mystery Writers of Americas highest honour, the Grand Master Award. Later the same year, Witness for the Prosecution received an Edgar Award by the MWA for Best Play, in 2013, The Murder of Roger Ackroyd was voted the best crime novel ever by 600 fellow writers of the Crime Writers Association. Most of her books and short stories have been adapted for television, radio, video games and comics, Agatha Mary Clarissa Miller was born on 15 September 1890, into a wealthy upper middle-class family in Ashfield, Torquay, Devon. Her mother, Clara Boehmer, was an Englishwoman who was born in Belfast in 1854 to Captain Frederick Boehmer and Mary Ann West, Clara Boehmer had four brothers, one of whom died young. Captain Boehmer was killed in an accident while stationed on Jersey in April 1863. Under financial strain, she sent Clara to live with her aunt Margaret Miller, the couple lived in Prinsted, West Sussex. Clara stayed with Margaret, and there she met her husband, an American stockbroker named Frederick Alvah Miller. Christies father Frederick was a member of the American upper class and he was considered personable and friendly by those who knew him. He soon developed a relationship with Clara, and they were married in April 1878. Clara soon purchased a villa in Torquay named Ashfield in which to raise her family, Christie described her childhood as very happy. She was surrounded by a series of strong and independent women from an early age
18.
Death on the Nile (1978 film)
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Death on the Nile is a 1978 British mystery film based on Agatha Christies 1937 novel of the same name, directed by John Guillermin and adapted by Anthony Shaffer. It takes place in Egypt, mostly on a paddle steamer on the Nile River. Many of the highlights of Egypt are also featured in the film, such as the Great Pyramids, the Sphinx. The boat trip starts in Aswan, follows to Karnak and then to Abu Simbel which is upstreams from Aswan, furthermore, it was never possible to go by boat from Aswan to Abu Simbel, even before the Aswan Dam was built because of the cataracts near Aswan. Death on the Nile won the Academy Award for Best Costume Design at the 51st Academy Awards, the film begins with a meeting between wealthy heiress Linnet Ridgeway and her close friend Jacqueline de Bellefort. Jackie wants her fiancé, Simon Doyle, to work for Linnet, while honeymooning in Egypt, they are continually hounded by the jilted Jackie. In an attempt to get away, the Doyles pretend to go to the Cairo Railway Station before backtracking to board their cruise on a Nile paddle steamer. When the passengers venture on-shore to examine a nearby temple, a stone is pushed off a pillar and narrowly misses Simon. They again encounter Jackie, who boards the ship having ignored the warnings of detective Hercule Poirot to stay away and that night, Jackie confronts Simon in a drunken rage and shoots him in the leg. The next morning, Linnet is found dead from a wound to the head. A J written in blood on the wall above her bed appears to implicate Jackie, andrew Pennington, Linnets American trustee, was anxious to prevent her from discovering that he embezzled from the Ridgeway estate. Mrs. van Schuyler, an elderly American socialite suffering from kleptomania, Miss Bowers, Mrs. van Schuylers nurse and traveling companion, blamed Linnets family for forcing her father into financial ruin and condemning her to a life of servitude. Salome Otterbourne, a romance novelist, was being sued for libel due to a likeness between Linnet and one of her characters. Rosalie Otterbourne, Mrs. Otterbournes daughter, was anxious to protect her mother, james Ferguson, an outspoken Communist traveler, resented Linnets vast wealth and affluent lifestyle. Ludwig Bessner, a Swiss psychiatrist, faced exposure by Linnet concerning his seemingly unorthodox methods, soon a bundle is found in the Nile. The missing pistol is wrapped in Mrs. van Schuylers stole, a handkerchief was also included, stained with blood. Linnets pearls are also discovered to be missing, when interrogated, Mrs. van Schuyler denies ever having touched them. Shortly after this, the pearls are found on Linnets body, while Poirot and Race conduct their investigation, the maid Louise is murdered
19.
Evil Under the Sun (1982 film)
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Evil Under the Sun is a 1982 British mystery film based on the 1941 novel of the same name by Agatha Christie. It was directed by Guy Hamilton, and stars Peter Ustinov in his theatrical appearance as the Belgian detective Hercule Poirot. A hiker finds a woman on the Yorkshire moors, the victim. Shortly afterwards, Belgian detective Hercule Poirot examines a diamond belonging to millionaire industrialist Sir Horace Blatt, assured that Sir Horace gave a real diamond to his mistress and she later returned the fake to him, Poirot accompanies Sir Horace to confront her at an exclusive island resort. The hotel is the summer palace of the reigning King of Tyrania, now owned by Daphne Castle. Sir Horaces former mistress is actress Arlena Stuart Marshall, who is on holiday with her husband Kenneth, Arlena is emotionally abusive to her stepdaughter, Linda, and flirts with handsome young Patrick Redfern, who is himself married to the meek Christine. Patrick is on the island only because Arlena arranged it, Kenneth turns to his old friend, Daphne, who reviles the way that Arlena treats both him and Linda. Arlena has also caused problems for Odell and Myra Gardener by walking out of a major play. Writer Rex Brewster has already spent the royalties advanced to him for a biography of Arlena. Early one morning, Arlena takes a paddle-boat to Ladder Bay, Patrick and Myra go for a boat trip around the island and see a body lying motionless on the beach. Patrick approaches the body and recognizes Arlena, announcing that she has been strangled, Poirot must determine which of his eight fellow guests—or Daphne—is the murderer. Daphne had heard Kenneth in his room typing at the time of the murder, Sir Horace argued with Arlena about the diamond at Ladder Bay at 11,30, which is confirmed by his yacht crew and by Daphne. Arlena kept the diamond, promising an explanation that evening, Patrick left at 11,30 with Myra, seeing Sir Horaces yacht coming, and hearing the noon cannon. Rex met Linda entering Gull Cove at 12,00, Odell was seen reading by Daphne and her staff. He claims low water pressure hindered his 12,15 wash before tennis, assembling the suspects together, Poirot accuses Christine and Patrick of the crime, Christine knocked out Arlena and hid her in the nearby grotto, and Patrick strangled the helpless Arlena later. Christine posed as Arlena with self-tanning lotion, Arlenas swimsuit and large red hat, but Poirot had smelled Arlenas perfume in the grotto. Christine set Lindas watch twenty minutes fast, suggested a swim cap to muffle the noon cannon and she tossed out the lotion bottle, almost hitting Rex, and bathed off her tan, thus depriving the leaky hotel water system of pressure. Poirot suspects that Patrick switched Sir Horaces jewel with a one
20.
A Soldier's Daughter Never Cries (film)
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A Soldiers Daughter Never Cries is a 1998 drama film directed by James Ivory and written by James Ivory and Ruth Prawer Jhabvala. It stars Kris Kristofferson, Barbara Hershey, Leelee Sobieski and Jesse Bradford, the film is a fictionalized account of the family life of writer James Jones and is based on Kaylie Jones novel by the same name. Structured as a novel, the film is divided into three segments each named after a different protagonist. The plot follows an expatriate American family living in Paris during the 1960s and 1970s until their return and adjustment to life in New England, Bill Willis, a successful American novelist and World War II veteran, is living in Paris in the 1960s with his family. He is much loved by his free-spirited unpredictable wife Marcella, the couple, popular at the Paris cocktail party circuit, has a six-year-old daughter Channe. Marcella yearns to have child, but a series of miscarriages has made that difficult. However, the family circle expands when a six-year old French boy, having feared rejection, the little boy is surprised by the love he receives in his new surroundings. After Benoit becomes acclimated to his new family, he asks that his name be changed to Billy after his adopted father, Billys presence prompts the young Channe to turn to her protective Portuguese nanny, Candida. Initially jealous of her new brother, Channe quickly warms up to Billy inviting him to share her bed after he has wet his, Marcella physically confronts a stern teacher for the punitive measures she has taken against her son. A strong friendship develops between Channe and Francis Fortescue, a flamboyantly effeminate youth with a passion for opera, the fatherless Francis lives with his eccentric expatriate British mother. He helps Channe test her wings as a nonconformist, fear of love makes Candida rejects a proposal of marriage from her long time suffering African boyfriend, Mamadou. As Channe begins to be interested in boys, she distances herself from Francis who confesses to her that he had a little crush on her. Their future is threatened by Bills declining health, Marcellas alcoholism, Billy, awkward and very reserved, is bullied at school. Channe drifts from boy to boy giving sex in exchange for acceptance until she falls for Keith, immersed in the writing of a new novel, Bill is worried about the future of his family when he would be gone. The irregularity of Billys adoption comes to haunt him, the boys biological mother had him at fifteen from a relationship with a cousin and wrote a diary while pregnant. Bill has kept the diary all these years in anticipation of the day when his son would want to know the truth about his origins. Channes relationship with Keith fades away as she helps her father write his novel. Bills death affects his wife and children deeply, Billy comes out of his reserve to take care of the house and helps his grief-stricken mother
21.
Academy Awards
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The various category winners are awarded a copy of a golden statuette, officially called the Academy Award of Merit, which has become commonly known by its nickname Oscar. The awards, first presented in 1929 at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel, are overseen by AMPAS, the awards ceremony was first broadcast on radio in 1930 and televised for the first time in 1953. It is now live in more than 200 countries and can be streamed live online. The Academy Awards ceremony is the oldest worldwide entertainment awards ceremony and its equivalents – the Emmy Awards for television, the Tony Awards for theater, and the Grammy Awards for music and recording – are modeled after the Academy Awards. The 89th Academy Awards ceremony, honoring the best films of 2016, were held on February 26,2017, at the Dolby Theatre, in Los Angeles, the ceremony was hosted by Jimmy Kimmel and was broadcast on ABC. A total of 3,048 Oscars have been awarded from the inception of the award through the 88th, the first Academy Awards presentation was held on May 16,1929, at a private dinner function at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel with an audience of about 270 people. The post-awards party was held at the Mayfair Hotel, the cost of guest tickets for that nights ceremony was $5. Fifteen statuettes were awarded, honoring artists, directors and other participants in the industry of the time. The ceremony ran for 15 minutes, winners were announced to media three months earlier, however, that was changed for the second ceremony in 1930. Since then, for the rest of the first decade, the results were given to newspapers for publication at 11,00 pm on the night of the awards. The first Best Actor awarded was Emil Jannings, for his performances in The Last Command and he had to return to Europe before the ceremony, so the Academy agreed to give him the prize earlier, this made him the first Academy Award winner in history. With the fourth ceremony, however, the system changed, for the first six ceremonies, the eligibility period spanned two calendar years. At the 29th ceremony, held on March 27,1957, until then, foreign-language films had been honored with the Special Achievement Award. The 74th Academy Awards, held in 2002, presented the first Academy Award for Best Animated Feature, since 1973, all Academy Awards ceremonies always end with the Academy Award for Best Picture. The Academy also awards Nicholl Fellowships in Screenwriting, see also § Awards of Merit categories The best known award is the Academy Award of Merit, more popularly known as the Oscar statuette. The five spokes represent the branches of the Academy, Actors, Writers, Directors, Producers. The model for the statuette is said to be Mexican actor Emilio El Indio Fernández, sculptor George Stanley sculpted Cedric Gibbons design. The statuettes presented at the ceremonies were gold-plated solid bronze
22.
Short film
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A short film, is a cinema format, denoting any film not long enough to be considered a feature film. The term featurette originally applied to a longer than a short subject. The increasingly rare term short subject means approximately the same thing and it is an industry term which carries more of an assumption that the film is shown as part of a presentation along with a feature film. Short is an abbreviation for either term, Short films are often screened at local, national, or international film festivals and made by independent filmmakers for non profit, either with a low budget or no budget at all. They are usually funded by grants, non profit organizations. Short films are used by filmmakers to gain experience or prove their talent in order to gain funding for future films from private investors, entertainment companies. Longer and shorter films coexisted with similar popularity throughout the days of film. However, comedy films were produced in large numbers compared to lengthy features such as D. W. Griffiths The Birth of a Nation. By the 1920s, a ticket purchased a varied program including a feature and several supporting works from such as second feature, short comedy, 5–10 minute cartoon, travelogue. Short comedies were popular, and typically came in a serial or series. Even though there was no set release schedule, these series could be considered somewhat like a modern TV sitcom – lower in status than feature films. Animated cartoons came principally as short subjects, in the 1930s, the distribution system changed in many countries owing to the Great Depression. Instead of the cinema owner assembling a program of their own choice, the studios sold a package centered on a main and supporting feature, with the rise of the double feature, two reel shorts went into decline as a commercial category. Hal Roach, for example, moved Laurel and Hardy full-time into feature films after 1935, by the mid-1950s, with the rise of television, the commercial live-action short was virtually dead, The Three Stooges being the last major series of 2-reelers, ending in 1959. Short films had become a medium for student, independent and specialty work, cartoon shorts had a longer life, due in part to the implementation of lower-cost limited animation techniques, but also declined in this period. Warner Bros. one of the most prolific of the golden era, the Pink Panther was the last regular theatrical cartoon short series, having begun in 1964 and ended in 1980. By the 1960s, the market for animated shorts had largely shifted to television, a few animated shorts continue within mainstream commercial distribution. For instance, Pixar has screened a short along with each of its feature films during its theatrical run since 1995
23.
Birkin bag
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The Birkin bag is a personal accessory of luggage or a tote by Hermès that is handmade in leather and named after actress and singer Jane Birkin. The bag is currently in fashion as a symbol of wealth due to its high price and its prices range from £7,500 to £100,000. Costs escalate according to the type of leather and if exotic skins were used, the bags are distributed to Hermès boutiques on unpredictable schedules and in limited quantities, creating artificial scarcity and exclusivity. Small versions may be considered a handbag or purse, in 1983, Hermès chief executive Jean-Louis Dumas was seated next to Jane Birkin on a flight from Paris to London. She had just placed her straw travelling bag in the compartment for her seat. Birkin explained to Dumas that it had been difficult to find a leather bag she liked. In 1984, he created a black supple leather bag for her, based on a 1982 design. She used the bag initially, but changed her mind because she was carrying too many things in it, “What’s the use of having a second one. ”“You only need one, i’m going to have to have an operation for tendonitis in the shoulder. Nevertheless, since that time, the bag has become a status symbol, a significantly lower cost was reported for the rubber totes, being comparable to typical leather handbags. Birkin bags are sold in a range of sizes, each one may be made to order with different customer-chosen hides, colour, and hardware fixtures. There are other options, such as diamond-encrusting. The bag also comes in a variety of such as calf leather, lizard. Among the most expensive used to be saltwater crocodile skin and bags with smaller scales cost more than those with larger scales, in 2015, however, Jane Birkin asked Hermès to stop using her name for the crocodile version due to ethical concerns. Each bag is lined with goat-skin, the colour of the matching the exterior. Prices for the Birkin bag depend on type of skin, the colour, sizes range from 25-, 30-, 35-, to 40-centimeters, with travelling bags of 50- and 55-centimeters. It also comes in a variety of such as black, brown, golden tan, navy blue, olive green, orange, pink, powder blue, red. * The bag has a lock and keys, the keys are enclosed in a leather lanyard known as a clochette, carried by looping it through a handle. The bag is locked by closing the top flaps over buckle loops, wrapping the buckle straps, early locks only bore one number on the bottom of the lock
24.
Marylebone
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Marylebone is an affluent inner-city area of central London, England, located within the City of Westminster and part of the West End. It is sometimes written as St. Marylebone, Marylebone is roughly bounded by Oxford Street to the south, Marylebone Road to the north, Edgware Road to the west and Great Portland Street to the east. The area east of Great Portland Street up to Cleveland Street and this stream rose further north in what is now Swiss Cottage, eventually running along what is now Marylebone Lane, which preserves its curve within the grid pattern. The church and the area later became known as St Mary at the Bourne which, over time, became shortened to its present form. It is a common misunderstanding that the name is a corruption of Marie la Bonne, the manor of Tyburn is mentioned in the Domesday Book as a possession of Barking Abbey valued at 52 shillings, with a population no greater than 50. Early in the 13th century it was held by Robert de Vere, 3rd Earl of Oxford. Tyburn manor remained with the Crown until the part was sold in 1611 by James I, who retained the deer park, to Edward Forest. Forests manor of Marylebone then passed by marriage to the Austen family, the deer park, Marylebone Park Fields, was let out in small holdings for hay and dairy produce. The Harley heiress Lady Margaret Cavendish Harley married William, 2nd Duke of Portland, such place names in the neighbourhood as Cavendish Square and Portland Place reflect the Dukes of Portland landholdings and Georgian-era developments there. In 1879 the fifth Duke died without issue and the estate passed through the line to his sister, Lucy Joan Bentinck. A large part of the area directly to the west was constructed by the Portman family and is known as the Portman Estate, both estates have aristocratic antecedents and are still run by members of the aforementioned families. The Crown repurchased the northern part of the estate in 1813, mansfield Street is a short continuation of Chandos Street built by the Adam brothers in 1770, on a plot of ground which had been underwater. Most of its houses are fine buildings with exquisite interiors, which if put on the market now would have a price in excess of £10 million. Immediately across the road at 61 New Cavendish Street lived Natural History Museum creator Alfred Waterhouse, Queen Anne Street is an elegant cross-street which unites the northern end of Chandos Street with Welbeck Street. The painter JMW Turner moved to 47 Queen Anne Street in 1812 from 64 Harley Street, now divided into numbers 22 and 23, the building is one of the finest surviving Adam houses in London, and now lets rooms. Wimpole Street runs from Henrietta Place north to Devonshire Street, becoming Upper Wimpole en route – the latter where Arthur Conan Doyle opened his practice at number 2 in 1891. Today, at the end of Wimpole at Wigmore can be found a sandwich shop named Barretts. Bentinck Street leaves Welbeck Street and touches the middle of winding Marylebone Lane, more recently, Cambridge spies Anthony Blunt and Guy Burgess lived at 5 Bentinck Street during the Second World War
25.
Royal Navy
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The Royal Navy is the United Kingdoms naval warfare force. Although warships were used by the English kings from the medieval period. The modern Royal Navy traces its origins to the early 16th century, from the middle decades of the 17th century and through the 18th century, the Royal Navy vied with the Dutch Navy and later with the French Navy for maritime supremacy. From the mid 18th century it was the worlds most powerful navy until surpassed by the United States Navy during the Second World War. The Royal Navy played a key part in establishing the British Empire as the world power during the 19th. Due to this historical prominence, it is common, even among non-Britons, following World War I, the Royal Navy was significantly reduced in size, although at the onset of the Second World War it was still the worlds largest. By the end of the war, however, the United States Navy had emerged as the worlds largest, during the Cold War, the Royal Navy transformed into a primarily anti-submarine force, hunting for Soviet submarines, mostly active in the GIUK gap. The Royal Navy is part of Her Majestys Naval Service, which includes the Royal Marines. The professional head of the Naval Service is the First Sea Lord, the Defence Council delegates management of the Naval Service to the Admiralty Board, chaired by the Secretary of State for Defence. The strength of the fleet of the Kingdom of England was an important element in the power in the 10th century. English naval power declined as a result of the Norman conquest. Medieval fleets, in England as elsewhere, were almost entirely composed of merchant ships enlisted into service in time of war. Englands naval organisation was haphazard and the mobilisation of fleets when war broke out was slow, early in the war French plans for an invasion of England failed when Edward III of England destroyed the French fleet in the Battle of Sluys in 1340. Major fighting was confined to French soil and Englands naval capabilities sufficed to transport armies and supplies safely to their continental destinations. Such raids halted finally only with the occupation of northern France by Henry V. Henry VII deserves a large share of credit in the establishment of a standing navy and he embarked on a program of building ships larger than heretofore. He also invested in dockyards, and commissioned the oldest surviving dry dock in 1495 at Portsmouth, a standing Navy Royal, with its own secretariat, dockyards and a permanent core of purpose-built warships, emerged during the reign of Henry VIII. Under Elizabeth I England became involved in a war with Spain, the new regimes introduction of Navigation Acts, providing that all merchant shipping to and from England or her colonies should be carried out by English ships, led to war with the Dutch Republic. In the early stages of this First Anglo-Dutch War, the superiority of the large, heavily armed English ships was offset by superior Dutch tactical organisation and the fighting was inconclusive
26.
Lieutenant commander
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Lieutenant commander is a commissioned officer rank in many navies. The rank is superior to a lieutenant and subordinate to a commander, the corresponding rank in most armies and air forces is major, and in the Royal Air Force and other Commonwealth air forces is squadron leader. The NATO rank code is mostly OF-3, a lieutenant commander is a senior department officer or the executive officer on many warships and smaller shore installation, or the commanding officer of a smaller ship/installation. They are also senior department officers in naval aviation squadrons, most Commonwealth and other navies address lieutenant commanders by their full rank or the positions they occupy. The United States Navy, however, addresses officers by their rank or the higher grade of the rank. For example, oral communications in formal and informal situations, a Lieutenant is abbreviated as Lieutenant, Lieutenants were commonly put in command of smaller vessels not warranting a commander or captain. Such a lieutenant was called a lieutenant commanding or lieutenant commandant in the United States Navy, the USN settled on lieutenant commander in 1862 and made it a distinct rank. The RN followed suit in March 1914, the insignia worn by a Royal Navy lieutenant commander is two medium gold braid stripes with one thin gold stripe running in between, placed upon a navy blue/black background. The top stripe has the ubiquitous loop used in all RN officer rank insignia, the RAF follows this pattern with its equivalent rank of squadron leader. This distinction was abolished when the rank of lieutenant commander was introduced, throughout much of its existence, the British Royal Observer Corps maintained a rank of observer lieutenant commander. The ROC wore a Royal Air Force uniform and their rank insignia appeared similar to that of an RAF squadron leader except that the stripes were shown entirely in black, prior to the renaming, the rank had been known as observer lieutenant. In the Royal Canadian Navy, the rank is the naval rank equal to Major in the army or air force and is the first senior officer rank, Lieutenant Commanders are senior to Lieutenants and to army and air force Captains, and are junior to Commanders and Lieutenant Colonels. There are two insignia used by USN and USCG Lieutenant Commanders, in all dress uniforms, they wear sleeve braid or shoulder boards bearing a single gold quarter-inch stripe between two gold half-inch strips. Above or inboard of the stripes, they wear their speciality insignia and this rank is also used on in Pakistan Navy. The rank of lieutenant commander is used in the Irish Naval Service. The majority of commanders in the Irish Naval Service hold the rank of lieutenant commander, with a commander being a senior. The corresponding rank in the German Navy, Italian Navy, Argentine Navy, Brazilian Navy, French Navy, Spanish Navy and most other French and Spanish-speaking countries is corvette captain. The insignia of kapteeniluutnantti, the rank immediately below the former, is one thin stripe between two wider ones, which could cause confusion among the naval personnel of other nations
27.
World War II
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World War II, also known as the Second World War, was a global war that lasted from 1939 to 1945, although related conflicts began earlier. It involved the vast majority of the worlds countries—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing alliances, the Allies and the Axis. It was the most widespread war in history, and directly involved more than 100 million people from over 30 countries. Marked by mass deaths of civilians, including the Holocaust and the bombing of industrial and population centres. These made World War II the deadliest conflict in human history, from late 1939 to early 1941, in a series of campaigns and treaties, Germany conquered or controlled much of continental Europe, and formed the Axis alliance with Italy and Japan. Under the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact of August 1939, Germany and the Soviet Union partitioned and annexed territories of their European neighbours, Poland, Finland, Romania and the Baltic states. In December 1941, Japan attacked the United States and European colonies in the Pacific Ocean, and quickly conquered much of the Western Pacific. The Axis advance halted in 1942 when Japan lost the critical Battle of Midway, near Hawaii, in 1944, the Western Allies invaded German-occupied France, while the Soviet Union regained all of its territorial losses and invaded Germany and its allies. During 1944 and 1945 the Japanese suffered major reverses in mainland Asia in South Central China and Burma, while the Allies crippled the Japanese Navy, thus ended the war in Asia, cementing the total victory of the Allies. World War II altered the political alignment and social structure of the world, the United Nations was established to foster international co-operation and prevent future conflicts. The victorious great powers—the United States, the Soviet Union, China, the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union and the United States emerged as rival superpowers, setting the stage for the Cold War, which lasted for the next 46 years. Meanwhile, the influence of European great powers waned, while the decolonisation of Asia, most countries whose industries had been damaged moved towards economic recovery. Political integration, especially in Europe, emerged as an effort to end pre-war enmities, the start of the war in Europe is generally held to be 1 September 1939, beginning with the German invasion of Poland, Britain and France declared war on Germany two days later. The dates for the beginning of war in the Pacific include the start of the Second Sino-Japanese War on 7 July 1937, or even the Japanese invasion of Manchuria on 19 September 1931. Others follow the British historian A. J. P. Taylor, who held that the Sino-Japanese War and war in Europe and its colonies occurred simultaneously and this article uses the conventional dating. Other starting dates sometimes used for World War II include the Italian invasion of Abyssinia on 3 October 1935. The British historian Antony Beevor views the beginning of World War II as the Battles of Khalkhin Gol fought between Japan and the forces of Mongolia and the Soviet Union from May to September 1939, the exact date of the wars end is also not universally agreed upon. It was generally accepted at the time that the war ended with the armistice of 14 August 1945, rather than the formal surrender of Japan
28.
Espionage
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Espionage is the obtaining of information considered secret or confidential without the permission of the holder of the information. Espionage can be committed by an individual or a spy ring, in the service of a government or a company, the practice is inherently clandestine, as it is by definition unwelcome and in many cases illegal and punishable by law. Espionage is a subset of intelligence gathering, which includes espionage as well as information gathering from public sources, Espionage is often part of an institutional effort by a government or commercial concern. However, the term is associated with state spying on potential or actual enemies primarily for military purposes. Spying involving corporations is known as industrial espionage, one of the most effective ways to gather data and information about the enemy is by infiltrating the enemys ranks. This is the job of the spy, Spies can bring back all sorts of information concerning the size and strength of enemy forces. They can also find dissidents within the forces and influence them to defect. In times of crisis, spies can also be used to steal technology, counterintelligence operatives can feed false information to enemy spies, protecting important domestic secrets, and preventing attempts at subversion. Nearly every country has strict laws concerning espionage, and the penalty for being caught is often severe. However, the benefits that can be gained through espionage are generally great enough that most governments, events involving espionage are well documented throughout history. The Old Testament of the Christian Bible, which is based primarily on the Hebrew Bible, speaks about Joshua and Caleb, the ancient writings of Chinese and Indian military strategists such as Sun-Tzu and Chanakya contain information on deception and subversion. Chanakyas student Chandragupta Maurya, founder of the Maurya Empire in India, made use of assassinations, spies and secret agents, the ancient Egyptians had a thoroughly developed system for the acquisition of intelligence, and the Hebrews used spies as well, as in the story of Rahab. Spies were also prevalent in the Greek and Roman empires, during the 13th and 14th centuries, the Mongols relied heavily on espionage in their conquests in Asia and Europe. Feudal Japan often used ninjas to gather intelligence, aztecs used Pochtecas, people in charge of commerce, as spies and diplomats, and had diplomatic immunity. Many modern espionage methods were established by Francis Walsingham in Elizabethan England, in 1585, Mary, Queen of Scots was placed in the custody of Sir Amias Paulet, who was instructed to open and read all of Marys clandestine correspondence. In a successful attempt to expose her, Walsingham arranged a single exception, Mary was misled into thinking these secret letters were secure, while in reality they were deciphered and read by Walsinghams agents. He succeeded in intercepting letters that indicated a conspiracy to displace Elizabeth I with Mary, in foreign intelligence, Walsinghams extensive network of intelligencers, who passed on general news as well as secrets, spanned Europe and the Mediterranean. While foreign intelligence was a part of the principal secretarys activities, Walsingham brought to it flair and ambition
29.
Sophie Hunter
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Sophie Irene Hunter is an English avant-garde theatre and opera director, playwright, and former performer. In August 2015, Hunter directed Phaedra and The Turn of the Screw to critical acclaim for the Happy Days Enniskillen International Beckett Festival and Aldeburgh Music, Hunter is the daughter of Anna Katharine and Charles Rupert. She has two brothers, Timothy and Patrick as well as two half-siblings from her fathers second marriage. She is a niece of pianist Julius Drake and her maternal grandfather is the General Sir Michael James Gow GCB, who worked with Prince Henry, Duke of Gloucester in the 1950s and was Aide-de-Camp General to the Queen from 1981 to 1984. Hunters maternal great-great grandfather was World War I politician J. E. B, Hunter attended St Pauls Girls School in Hammersmith before studying Modern Languages with a concentration in French and Italian at Oxford University. After graduating from Oxford, Hunter resided in Paris to study avant-garde theatre for two years at the LÉcole Internationale de Théâtre Jacques Lecoq and she then trained at the Saratoga International Theatre Institute in New York City under theatre and opera director Anne Bogart. Hunter co-founded the Lacuna Theatre Company, and was a director at Royal Court Theatre in the West End. She is the co-founder and artistic director of theatre company Boileroom, in addition, she also serves as collaborating director and dramaturge on marionette and puppetry production with the Phantom Limb Company. Known for her plays, Hunter has directed, performed and conceived theatre productions throughout Europe. She directed the experimental play 69° South, the New York City performance art titled Lucretia based on Benjamin Brittens opera The Rape of Lucretia and she was a member of the performance collective Militia Canteen. In collaboration with music director Andrew Staples, Hunter directed mezzo-soprano Ruby Philogene in Phaedra at the Happy Days Enniskillen International Beckett Festival in Northern Ireland. The production was met with praise with The Guardian saying it is realized, The Stage hailing it as creative brilliance. She has also staged Benjamin Brittens The Turn of the Screw in Suffolk, Hunter worked on the transfer of Punchdrunks Sleep No More to New York City in 2011 while serving as creative director for the theatre company Emursive. She has also directed the companys theatrical experiences The Forgotten and Dont Major in Debt Student House, in 2013, she developed Loma Lights, one of the largest public arts programs in New York City. In 2005, Hunter recorded a French-language music album titled The Isis Project in collaboration with songwriter Guy Chambers, in 2011, she released an English-language EP titled Songs for a Boy, again with Chambers. Hunter has also collaborated with Armin van Buuren for the song Virtual Friend which was included in Buurens 2010 album Mirage, earlier in her career, Hunter has acted in film and television. She has had supporting roles in the television series Midsomer Murders, Keen Eddie, Mumbai Calling, in 2004, she played Maria Osborne in the costume drama film Vanity Fair starring Reese Witherspoon and played Annabel Blythe-Smith in the 2009 thriller film Burlesque Fairytales. The couple split in early 2010, on 14 February 2015, she married actor Benedict Cumberbatch at St. Peter and St. Paul Church on the Isle of Wight followed by a reception at Mottistone Manor
30.
Chelsea, London
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Chelsea is an affluent area in West London, bounded to the south by the River Thames. Its frontage runs from Chelsea Bridge along the Chelsea Embankment, Cheyne Walk, Lots Road and its eastern boundary was once defined by the River Westbourne, which is now in a pipe above Sloane Square tube station. The modern eastern boundary is Chelsea Bridge Road and the half of Sloane Street. To the north and northwest, the area fades into Knightsbridge and Brompton, the football club Chelsea F. C. is based at Stamford Bridge in neighbouring Fulham. From 1900, and until the creation of Greater London in 1965, the exclusivity of Chelsea as a result of its high property prices has historically resulted in the term Sloane Ranger being used to describe its residents. Since 2011, Channel 4 has broadcast a reality show called Made in Chelsea. Moreover, Chelsea is home to one of the largest communities of Americans living outside the United States, the word Chelsea originates from the Old English term for landing place for chalk or limestone. Abbot Gervace subsequently assigned the manor to his mother, and it passed into private ownership, the modern-day Chelsea hosted the Synod of Chelsea in 787 AD. King Henry VIII acquired the manor of Chelsea from Lord Sandys in 1536, in 1609 James I established a theological college, King Jamess College at Chelsey on the site of the future Chelsea Royal Hospital, which Charles II founded in 1682. By 1694, Chelsea – always a popular location for the wealthy, Kings Road, named for Charles II, recalls the Kings private road from St Jamess Palace to Fulham, which was maintained until the reign of George IV. One of the important buildings in Kings Road, the former Chelsea Town Hall. Part of the building contains the Chelsea Public Library and this is no longer the case, although housing trusts and Council property do remain. The areas to the west also attract very high prices and this former fashionable village was absorbed into London during the eighteenth century. Many notable people of 18th century London, such as the bookseller Andrew Millar, were married and buried in the district. The memorials in the churchyard of Chelsea Old Church, near the river and these include Lord and Lady Dacre, Lady Jane Cheyne, Francis Thomas, director of the china porcelain manufactory, Sir Hans Sloane, Thomas Shadwell, Poet Laureate. Sir Thomas Mores tomb can also be found there, in 1718, the Raw Silk Company was established in Chelsea Park, with mulberry trees and a hothouse for raising silkworms. At its height in 1723, it supplied silk to Caroline of Ansbach, Chelsea once had a reputation for the manufacture of Chelsea buns, made from a long strip of sweet dough tightly coiled, with currants trapped between the layers, and topped with sugar. The Chelsea Bun House sold these during the 18th century and was patronised by the Georgian royalty, at Easter, great crowds would assemble on the open spaces of the Five Fields – subsequently developed as Belgravia
31.
Isle of Wight
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The Isle of Wight /ˈaɪl əv ˈwaɪt/ is a county and the largest and second-most populous island in England. It is located in the English Channel, about 4 miles off the coast of Hampshire, the island has resorts that have been holiday destinations since Victorian times, and is known for its mild climate, coastal scenery, and verdant landscape of fields, downland and chines. The island has been home to the poets Swinburne and Tennyson and to Queen Victoria and it has a maritime and industrial tradition including boat building, sail making, the manufacture of flying boats, the hovercraft, and Britains space rockets. The island hosts annual festivals including the Isle of Wight Festival. It has well-conserved wildlife and some of the richest cliffs and quarries for dinosaur fossils in Europe, the Isle was owned by a Norman family until 1293 and was earlier a kingdom in its own right. Rural for most of its history, its Victorian fashionability and the affordability of holidays led to significant urban development during the late 19th. The island was part of Hampshire until 1890 when it became its own administrative county, apart from a shared police force, there is now no administrative link with Hampshire, although a combined local authority with Portsmouth and Southampton is being considered. Until 1995 the island had a governor, the quickest public transport link to the mainland is the hovercraft from Ryde to Southsea, while three ferry and two catamaran services cross the Solent to Southampton, Lymington and Portsmouth. During the Ice Age, sea levels were lower and the Solent was part of a river flowing south east from current day Poole Harbour towards mid-Channel. As sea levels rose, the valley became flooded. The first inhabitants are assumed to have been hunter-gatherers migrating by land during the Paleolithic or Old Stone Age period, as the ice age began to recede. From the Neolithic era onwards, there are indications that the island had wide trading links, with a port at Bouldnor, evidence of Bronze Age tin trading, caesar reported that the Belgae took the Isle of Wight in about 85 BC and gave its name as Vectis. The Roman historian Suetonius mentions that the island was captured by the commander Vespasian, the Romans built no towns or roads on the island, but the remains of at least seven Roman villas have been found, indicating the prosperity of local agriculture. During the Dark Ages the island was settled by Jutes as the kingdom of Wihtwara under King Arwald. In 685 it was invaded by Caedwalla, who tried to replace the inhabitants with his own followers and it suffered especially from Viking raids, and was often used as a winter base by Viking raiders when they were unable to reach Normandy. Later, both Earl Tostig and his brother Harold Godwinson held manors on the island, the Norman Conquest of 1066 created the position of Lord of the Isle of Wight, the island being given by William the Conqueror to his kinsman William FitzOsbern. Carisbrooke Priory and the fort of Carisbrooke Castle were then founded, allegiance was sworn to FitzOsbern rather than the king, the Lordship was subsequently granted to the de Redvers family by Henry I, after his succession in 1100. For nearly 200 years the island was a semi-independent feudal fiefdom, the final private owner was the Countess Isabella de Fortibus, who, on her deathbed in 1293, was persuaded to sell it to Edward I
32.
Los Angeles
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Los Angeles, officially the City of Los Angeles and often known by its initials L. A. is the cultural, financial, and commercial center of Southern California. With a census-estimated 2015 population of 3,971,883, it is the second-most populous city in the United States, Los Angeles is also the seat of Los Angeles County, the most populated county in the United States. The citys inhabitants are referred to as Angelenos, historically home to the Chumash and Tongva, Los Angeles was claimed by Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo for Spain in 1542 along with the rest of what would become Alta California. The city was founded on September 4,1781, by Spanish governor Felipe de Neve. It became a part of Mexico in 1821 following the Mexican War of Independence, in 1848, at the end of the Mexican–American War, Los Angeles and the rest of California were purchased as part of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, thereby becoming part of the United States. Los Angeles was incorporated as a municipality on April 4,1850, the discovery of oil in the 1890s brought rapid growth to the city. The completion of the Los Angeles Aqueduct in 1913, delivering water from Eastern California, nicknamed the City of Angels, Los Angeles is known for its Mediterranean climate, ethnic diversity, and sprawling metropolis. Los Angeles also has an economy in culture, media, fashion, science, sports, technology, education, medicine. A global city, it has been ranked 6th in the Global Cities Index, the city is home to renowned institutions covering a broad range of professional and cultural fields, and is one of the most substantial economic engines within the United States. The Los Angeles combined statistical area has a gross metropolitan product of $831 billion, making it the third-largest in the world, after the Greater Tokyo and New York metropolitan areas. The city has hosted the Summer Olympic Games in 1932 and 1984 and is bidding to host the 2024 Summer Olympics and thus become the second city after London to have hosted the Games three times. The Los Angeles area also hosted the 1994 FIFA mens World Cup final match as well as the 1999 FIFA womens World Cup final match, the mens event was watched on television by over 700 million people worldwide. The Los Angeles coastal area was first settled by the Tongva, a Gabrielino settlement in the area was called iyáangẚ, meaning poison oak place. Gaspar de Portolà and Franciscan missionary Juan Crespí, reached the present site of Los Angeles on August 2,1769, in 1771, Franciscan friar Junípero Serra directed the building of the Mission San Gabriel Arcángel, the first mission in the area. The Queen of the Angels is an honorific of the Virgin Mary, two-thirds of the settlers were mestizo or mulatto with a mixture of African, indigenous and European ancestry. The settlement remained a small town for decades, but by 1820. Today, the pueblo is commemorated in the district of Los Angeles Pueblo Plaza and Olvera Street. New Spain achieved its independence from the Spanish Empire in 1821, during Mexican rule, Governor Pío Pico made Los Angeles Alta Californias regional capital
33.
Swinging London
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The term Swinging London refers to a youth-driven cultural revolution that took place in London during the mid-to-late 1960s. The Swinging London also reached British cinema, which saw a surge in formal experimentation, freedom of expression, colour, and comedy. During this period, creative types of all kinds gravitated to the capital, from artists and writers to publishers, photographers, advertisers, film-makers. During this era, London from a gloomy, grimy post-War capital into a bright, the phenomenon was caused by the large number of young people in the city and the postwar economic boom. The swinging scene also served as a consumerist counterpart to the countercultural British underground of the same period, Swinging London was a youth-oriented phenomenon that emphasized the new and modern. It was a period of optimism and hedonism, and a cultural revolution, one catalyst was the recovery of the British economy after post-World War II austerity which lasted through much of the 1950s. It swings, it is the scene, and celebrated in the name of the radio station, Swinging Radio England. However, swinging in the sense of hip or fashionable had been used since the early 1960s, in 1965, Diana Vreeland, editor of Vogue magazine, said London is the most swinging city in the world at the moment. Later that year, the American singer Roger Miller had a hit record with England Swings, psychedelic rock from artists such as Pink Floyd, Cream, Procol Harum, the Jimi Hendrix Experience and Traffic grew significantly in popularity. During the time of Swinging London, fashion and photography were featured in Queen magazine, mod-related fashions such as the miniskirt stimulated fashionable shopping areas such as Carnaby Street and Kings Road, Chelsea. The model Jean Shrimpton was another icon and one of the worlds first supermodels and she was the worlds highest paid and most photographed model during this time. Shrimpton was called The Face of the 60s, in which she has been considered by many as the symbol of Swinging London, other popular models of the era included Veruschka, Peggy Moffitt, and Penelope Tree. The model Twiggy has been called the face of 1966 and the Queen of Mod, the British flag, the Union Jack, became a symbol, assisted by events such as Englands home victory in the 1966 World Cup. The Mini-Cooper car was used by a fleet of mini-cab taxis highlighted by advertising that covered their paintwork, the Jaguar E-Type sports car was another British icon of the 1960s. The phenomenon was featured in films of the time, including Darling. The comedy films Austin Powers, International Man of Mystery and Austin Powers, The Spy Who Shagged Me resurrected the imagery, the ITV spy-fi series The Avengers, particularly after it began broadcasting in colour, reveled in its Swinging London setting. In the 1967 episode, Dead Mans Treasure, Emma Peel arrives in the archetypal English village of Swingingdale, in the episode Beauty is an Ugly Word of BBCs Adam Adamant Lives. Adamant, an Edwardian adventurer suspended in time since 1902, was told, jigsaw Man, a 1968 episode of the detective series Man in a Suitcase, opened with the announcement, This is London
34.
Counterculture of the 1960s
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Many key movements related to these issues were born or advanced within the counterculture of the 1960s. This embracing of creativity is particularly notable in the works of British Invasion bands such as the Beatles, in addition to the trendsetting Beatles, many other creative artists, authors, and thinkers, within and across many disciplines, helped define the counterculture movement. Several factors distinguished the counterculture of the 1960s from the movements of previous eras. Post-war affluence allowed many of the generation to move beyond a focus on the provision of the material necessities of life that had preoccupied their Depression-era parents. The counterculture era essentially commenced in earnest with the assassination of John F. Kennedy in November 1963, poor outcomes from some of these activities set the stage for disillusionment with, and distrust of, post-war governments. In the US, President Dwight D, the Partial Test Ban Treaty divided the establishment within the US along political and military lines. In the UK, the Profumo Affair also involved establishment leaders being caught in deception, leading to disillusionment and serving as a catalyst for liberal activism. The Cuban Missile Crisis, which brought the world to the brink of war in October 1962, was largely fomented by duplicitous speech. The assassination of US President John F. Kennedy in November 1963, many social issues fueled the growth of the larger counterculture movement. On college and university campuses, student activists fought for the right to exercise their constitutional rights, especially freedom of speech. The availability of new and more effective forms of control was a key underpinning of the sexual revolution. With this change in attitude, by the 1990s the ratio of children out of wedlock rose from 5% to 25% for Whites. The end of censorship resulted in a reformation of the western film industry. Communes, collectives, and intentional communities regained popularity during this era, Some of these self-sustaining communities have been credited with the birth and propagation of the international Green Movement. The emergence of an interest in expanded spiritual consciousness, yoga, occult practices, in 1957, 69% of US residents polled by Gallup said religion was increasing in influence. By the late 1960s, polls indicated less than 20% still held that belief, the Generation Gap, or the inevitable perceived divide in worldview between the old and young, was perhaps never greater than during the counterculture era. Ultimately, practical and comfortable casual apparel, namely updated forms of T-shirts, many began to live largely clandestine lives because of their choice to use such drugs and substances, fearing retribution from their governments. The confrontations between college students and law enforcement officials became one of the hallmarks of the era, many younger people began to show deep distrust of police, and terms such as fuzz and pig as derogatory epithets for police reappeared, and became key words within the counterculture lexicon
35.
Psychedelic art
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Psychedelic art is any art or visual displays inspired by psychedelic experiences and hallucinations known to follow the ingestion of psychoactive drugs such as LSD and psilocybin. The word psychedelic means mind manifesting, by that definition, all artistic efforts to depict the inner world of the psyche may be considered psychedelic. In common parlance psychedelic art refers above all to the art movement of the late 1960s counterculture, psychedelic visual arts were a counterpart to psychedelic rock music. Fantastic, metaphysical and surrealistic subject matter Kaleidoscopic, fractal or paisley patterns Bright and/or highly contrasting colors Extreme depth of detail or stylization of detail, also so called Horror vacui style. The psychedelic art movement is similar to the surrealist movement in that it prescribes a mechanism for obtaining inspiration, whereas the mechanism for surrealism is the observance of dreams, a psychedelic artist turns to drug induced hallucinations. Both movements have strong ties to important developments in science, whereas the surrealist was fascinated by Freuds theory of the unconscious, the psychedelic artist has been literally turned on by Albert Hofmanns discovery of LSD. The early examples of art are literary rather than visual, although there are some examples in the Surrealist art movement, such as Remedios Varo. It should also be noted that these came from writers involved in the Surrealist movement, antonin Artaud writes of his peyote experience in Voyage to the Land of the Tarahumara. Henri Michaux wrote Misérable Miracle, to describe his experiments with mescaline, aldous Huxleys The Doors of Perception and Heaven and Hell remain definitive statements on the psychedelic experience. Albert Hofmann and his colleagues at Sandoz Laboratories were convinced immediately after its discovery in 1943 of the power, for two decades following its discovery LSD was marketed by Sandoz as an important drug for psychological and neurological research. Hofmann saw the potential for poets and artists as well. Early artistic experimentation with LSD was conducted in a clinical context by Los Angeles–based psychiatrist Oscar Janiger, Janiger asked a group of 50 different artists to each do a painting from life of a subject of the artists choosing. They were subsequently asked to do the painting while under the influence of LSD. The two paintings were compared by Janiger and also the artist, the artists almost unanimously reported LSD to be an enhancement to their creativity. Ultimately it seems that psychedelics would be most warmly embraced by the American counterculture, beatnik poets Allen Ginsberg and William S. Burroughs became fascinated by psychedelic drugs as early as the 1950s as evidenced by The Yage Letters. They knew that altered states of consciousness played a role in Eastern Mysticism and they were hip to psychedelics as psychiatric medicine. LSD was the perfect catalyst to electrify the eclectic mix of ideas assembled by the Beats into a cathartic, mass-distributed panacea for the soul of the succeeding generation. Leading proponents of the 1960s psychedelic art movement were San Francisco poster artists such as, Rick Griffin, Victor Moscoso, Bonnie MacLean, Stanley Mouse & Alton Kelley and their psychedelic rock concert posters were inspired by Art Nouveau, Victoriana, Dada, and Pop Art
36.
Wonderwall (film)
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The film is best remembered for its soundtrack, composed by then-Beatle George Harrison. The reclusive, eccentric scientist Oscar Collins has two neighbours, a pop photographer and his girlfriend/model Penny Lane. Discovering a beam of light streaming through a hole in the wall between them, Collins follows the light and spots Penny modelling for a photo shoot, intrigued, he begins to make more holes as days go by and they do more photo sessions. Oscar gradually becomes infatuated with the girl, and feels a part of the couples lives, when they quarrel and the couple splits, Penny takes an overdose of pills and passes out, but Oscar comes to her rescue. Cast notes, Suki Potier and Anita Pallenberg had small roles uncredited in the film as girls at a party, the soundtrack was composed by Beatle George Harrison, whom Massot approached specially for the project. Harrison had never done a soundtrack, and told Massot he did not know how to do it. Timing the segments with a stopwatch as he watched the unfinished film, the soundtrack album, the first solo Beatles record, was released in November 1968 by Apple Records as the companys first LP. Wonderwall Music also appeared on disc in 1992, during reissues of the Apple catalogue. The film premiered at the Cannes Film Festival on 17 May 1968, with George Harrison, his wife Pattie, Ringo Starr, his wife Maureen, the premiere in London was on 12 January 1969. The film won an award, but did not gain a distribution deal. A print did finally appear on the American midnight movies circuit in the 1970s, in 1998, thirty years after the films release, and with Massot an established film director, he decided to restore and re-release his first film. Harrisons search for master recordings turned up a song, In the First Place by the Remo Four. In the First Place was released as a single in 1999, Harrison is believed to have not only produced it, but sung and played on it, although he asked to be credited only as producer. Massot was happy to include the song in the film, which was released to critical acclaim the second time around. The restored version of Wonderwall, both in theatrical and Directors Cut versions, is available on DVD through Shout. Factory in the United States, with bonus features, notes Wonderwall at the Internet Movie Database Wonderwall at AllMovie Wonderwall at TCM. com
37.
Je t'aime... moi non plus
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Je taime… moi non plus is a French duet written by Serge Gainsbourg. It was written for and sung with Brigitte Bardot in 1967, in 1969, Gainsbourg recorded a version with his lover, Jane Birkin. It reached number one in the UK, and number two in Ireland, but was banned in several countries owing to its sexual content, the song has been covered by many different artists. The song was written for and recorded with Gainsbourgs girlfriend, Brigitte Bardot, Bardot asked him to write the most beautiful love song he could imagine and that night he wrote Je taime and Bonnie and Clyde. They recorded an arrangement of Je taime by Michel Colombier at a Paris studio in a session in a small glass booth. However, news of the reached the press and Bardots husband, German businessman Gunter Sachs, was angry. Bardot pleaded with Gainsbourg not to release it and he complied but observed The music is very pure. For the first time in my life, I write a love song, in 1968, Gainsbourg and English actress Jane Birkin began a relationship when they met on the set of the film Slogan. After filming, he asked her to record the song with him, Birkin had heard the Bardot version and thought it so hot. She said, I only sang it because I didnt want anybody else to sing it, Gainsbourg asked her to sing an octave higher than Bardot, so youll sound like a little boy. It was recorded in an arrangement by Arthur Greenslade in a studio at Marble Arch. Birkin said she got a bit carried away with the heavy breathing – so much so, in fact, that I was told to calm down, if you listen to the record now, you can still hear that little gap. It was released in February 1969, the single had a plain cover, with the words Interdit aux moins de 21 ans, and the record company changed the label from Philips to Fontana. Gainsbourg also asked Marianne Faithfull to record the song with him, she said, others approached included Valérie Lagrange and Mireille Darc. Bardot regretted not releasing her version, and her friend Jean-Louis Remilleux persuaded her to contact Gainsbourg, the title was inspired by a Salvador Dalí comment, Picasso is Spanish, me too. Picasso is a genius, me too, Picasso is a communist, me neither. Gainsbourg claimed it was a song about the desperation and impossibility of physical love. The lyrics are written as a dialogue between two lovers during sex, the lyrics are sung, spoken and whispered over a baroque organ and guitar track in C major, with a languid, almost over pretty, chocolate box melody
38.
Brigitte Bardot
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Brigitte Anne-Marie Bardot is a French actress, singer and fashion model, who later became an animal rights activist. She was one of the best known sex symbols of the 1950s and 1960s and was referred to by her initials. She started her career in 1952. After appearing in 16 routine comedy films that had limited international release, Bardot caught the attention of French intellectuals. She later starred in Jean-Luc Godards 1963 film Le Mépris, for her role in Louis Malles 1965 film Viva Maria. Bardot was nominated for a BAFTA Award for Best Foreign Actress, from 1969 to 1978, Bardot was the official face of Marianne to represent the liberty of France. Bardot retired from the entertainment industry in 1973, during her career in show business, she starred in 47 films, performed in several musical shows and recorded over 60 songs. She was awarded the Legion of Honour in 1985 but refused to accept it, after her retirement, she established herself as an animal rights activist. During the 2000s, she generated controversy by criticizing immigration and Islam in France and has been fined five times for inciting racial hatred, Bardot was born in Paris, the daughter of Louis Bardot and Anne-Marie Toty Bardot. Louis had a degree and worked with his father, Charles Bardot. Louis and Anne-Marie married in 1933, Bardot grew up in an upper middle-class Roman Catholic observant home. When she was seven she was admitted to the Cours Hattemer and she went to school three days a week, and otherwise studied at home. This gave time for lessons at Madame Bourgets dance studio three days a week, Brigittes mother also enrolled Brigittes younger sister, Marie-Jeanne, in dance. Marie-Jeanne eventually gave up dancing lessons and did not tell her mother, in 1947, Bardot was accepted to the Conservatoire de Paris. For three years she attended classes by Russian choreographer Boris Knyazev. One of her classmates was Leslie Caron, the other ballerinas nicknamed Bardot Bichette. At the invitation of an acquaintance of her mother, she modelled in a show in 1949. In the same year, she modelled for a fashion magazine Jardin des Modes managed by journalist Hélène Lazareff, aged 15, she appeared on an 8 March 1950 cover of Elle and was noticed by a young film director, Roger Vadim, while babysitting
39.
Histoire de Melody Nelson
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Histoire de Melody Nelson is a 1971 concept album by French songwriter Serge Gainsbourg. Produced by Jean-Claude Desmarty, the album was released in March 1971 through Philips Records, Histoire de Melody Nelson is considered by many critics and fans to be Gainsbourgs most influential and accomplished work, as well as one of the greatest French-language albums in popular music. After the release of the album, a video was made for each song. This release also includes a full color booklet of liner notes in both French and English, upon its release in 1971, Histoire de Melody Nelson received critical acclaim and praise. At Metacritic, which assigns a rating out of 100 to reviews from critics, the album received an average score of 96. Club wrote, It’s a true tale of innocence lost. Tom Ewing of Pitchfork stated, The bookend tracks of Melody Nelson are a trip through far more hostile territories and he also praised the originality of the record, describing its sound as similar to nothing else in rock. Histoire de Melody Nelson is regarded by critics and fans to be Gainsbourgs magnum opus and his most influential release. E. M. Portishead based its style on the albums mixture of orchestrations with dusty drums, while Beck paid homage to the albums style on his song Paper Tiger, on his 2002 album. French electronic music act Air was also influenced by the album and it made me think that I had a lot to learn. The songs on Histoire de Melody Nelson were covered and sampled by artists of different genres. British rock band Placebo recorded a version of The Ballad of Melody Nelson. Portishead also covered the song in French, collaborating with Jane Birkin, mick Harvey of Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds also released two Gainsbourg tribute albums, Intoxicated Man and Pink Elephants, the latter featuring a cover of the song. Michael Stipe covered Lhôtel particulier under the name LHotel on a 2006 Gainsbourg tribute album Monsieur Gainsbourg Revisited, hip hop act De La Soul sampled Ah. Melody on their song, Held Down from AOI, Bionix, mirwais, a French producer who is known for his work for Madonna, sampled Cargo Culte on his album, Production. David Holmes used a sample of Melody on his track, Dont Die Just Yet from his 1997 album, the album was also referenced in non-musical fields. Melody is the author name and Nelson is the default password in Six Aparts Movable Type weblog software. An open source fork of Movable Type carries the characters first name, Vannier performed the album in its entirety alongside his own solo album LEnfant assassin des mouches
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Lolita
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Lolita is a 1955 novel written by Russian American novelist Vladimir Nabokov. Lolita is his nickname for Dolores. The novel was written in English and first published in Paris in 1955 by Olympia Press. Later it was translated into Russian by Nabokov himself and published in New York in 1967 by Phaedra Publishers, Lolita quickly attained a classic status. Today it is regarded as one of the achievements in 20th century literature. The novel was adapted into a film by Stanley Kubrick in 1962 and it has also been adapted several times for the stage and has been the subject of two operas, two ballets, and an acclaimed but commercially unsuccessful Broadway musical. Its assimilation into popular culture is such that the name Lolita has been used to imply that a girl is sexually precocious. Lolita is included on TIME magazines list of the 100 best English-language novels published from 1923 to 2005, a European literary scholar writing his memoir under the name Humbert Humbert narrates his life from his Paris childhood to his present incarceration. Growing up in a family, Humbert meets his childhood sweetheart. Annabels family moves away, and she dies shortly after from typhus, as an adult, Humbert develops a hebephilic fixation with girls aged 9–14, whom he refers to as nymphets. After a misadventure when he requests an underage girl from a pimp, Humbert marries a woman, Valeria. His marriage with Valeria dissolves after she admits to having an affair, after another visit to a psychiatric ward after a mental breakdown, he moves to America to write. Upon his arrival in Ramsdale, however, he discovers that their house has burned down, a landlady named Charlotte Haze offers to accommodate him instead, and Humbert visits her residence out of politeness. Initially planning to decline the widowed Charlottes offer, Humbert agrees to rent when he sees her 12-year-old daughter and he quickly becomes infatuated with Dolores, in part because of her resemblance to Annabel, and privately nicknames her Lolita. Humbert starts a diary in which he records his obsessive and sexual thoughts about Dolores, and also hateful comments towards Charlotte, Charlotte and Dolores argue intensely and often, and Humbert finds himself growing closer to Dolores. One day, when alone with her, Humbert has her sit on his lap. To continue living near Dolores, Humbert returns Charlottes adorations and the two are soon married, after Charlotte voices her plan to send Dolores to a boarding school when she returns from camp, Humbert contemplates murdering her to remain close to Dolores, but stops before carrying it out. A few days later, Charlotte finds and reads his diary and furiously confronts him, Charlotte runs out of the house with the letters that she had just written, but is killed by a passing car before she can mail them
