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660_22 | Between 1936 and 1940 the construction of the Patuxent Research Refuge displaced all residents along the southeast section of the road. The construction of I-295 cut off access to the road, and its remaining sections were renamed. The cut-off-road sections were used to train troops and tank operators during WWII, and were returned to the wildlife research center in 1991.
After WWII, Israel Kroop operated Kroop's Goggles on Whiskey Bottom behind the racetrack. He developed innovative semi-disposable vented goggles that have become the standard for jockeys and skydivers. The business continued after Kroop's death in 1991; the family sold it in 2008, and its product remains locally produced in Savage, Maryland.
In 1959, the plans for construction of the I-95 highway that eventually bisected Whiskey Bottom Road were met with protests. |
660_23 | On the northwest corner of U.S. Route 1 and Whiskey Bottom Road, Crickett's California Inn hosted live bands from the 1960s until its relocation in 2008. The bar hosted various formats, switching to country in the 1990s and karaoke in the first decade of the 21st century. The bar was previously known as Randy's California Inn, and The California Inn. |
660_24 | The Edy's Ice Cream plant on the northeast corner of U.S. Route 1 and Whiskey Bottom Road is the second-largest ice cream manufacturing facility in the world. A smaller plant was originally built by Clifford Y. Stephens at the site in 1961. The factory packaged goods for High's Dairy Stores. In 1987 the facility was acquired by Southland and later by Nestle, which owns the Edy's and Dreyer's brands. In 2003 a $210 million expansion was built on land previously operated as Pfister's mobile home park. Seventy three families were moved out of the trailer park that had operated since World War II. Prior to that, the land was operated as a chicken farm. The adjoining office complex once occupied by High's management is now the Phillip's School for Contemporary Education. |
660_25 | In 1958, Melville W. Beardsley founded National Research Associates company and settled on Whiskey Bottom Road in 1961. NRA developed and tested over 30 air cushion vehicles, with the Air Gem Air cushion vehicle produced as their first product. NRA also sold Disney's Flying Saucers attraction under license. The Company went out of business in 1963.
In 1962, were rezoned at the corner of Whiskey Bottom and All Saint's Road to form the Whiskey Bottom Apartments, the first development along the road.
The New Millennium
The 2001 Maryland, Virginia, and Washington, D.C. tornado outbreak brought an F3 tornado on a direct path crossing Whiskey Bottom Road. The tornado lifted momentarily and set back down on the other side of the road. Nearby buildings just a few hundred feet North and South of the road showed significant tornado damage. |
660_26 | In 2009, the primary entrance to the North Laurel Community Center was realigned to Whiskey Bottom Road. A Leed Silver certified community center and park was built at the location and opened on June 3, 2011. It features amenities similar to the Glenwood Community Center in Northern Howard County. The funding and takeover of the various undeveloped properties through eminent domain was a multi-decade effort. The project has been supported by local leaders and community groups, with some criticism over the environmental impact, effect on adjoining properties, and the safety of the road entrance. |
660_27 | Namesake distillery
In 1899 a large monopoly, The Distilling Company of America, pooled $125 million to buy all the distilleries on the east coast, and consolidate the production to a few sites, effectively wiping out all large Maryland Rye Distilleries. The path that is now Whiskey Bottom Road, would have included settlements, farms and plantations spanning from Davidsonville to Highland, any of which commonly produced whiskey in small quantities. One resident's recollection from the late 1800s noted the "Maryland Rye" distillery was near the Laurel Mill, which used wagons to get the product to "Whiskey Bottom". |
660_28 | In the 1879 book History of Tama County, Iowa, the author states that after a prohibition vote in April 1855, the residents drank the first barrel of pure whiskey delivered by a man named Rouse living on Whiskey Bottom Road. "The road was named from this circumstance". The Iowa Meskwaki Reservation shares an area with the uncommon Whiskey Bottom name. The Maryland road was named about the same time, under similar circumstances, and a family named Rouse also played an influential role in the area. Due to unflattering connotations, the Meskwaki reservation eventually changed its Whiskey Bottom Road name to "Battlefield Road".
Road name controversy |
660_29 | Whiskey Bottom or Patuxent
Long-time residents associate the Whiskey Bottom name with a former whiskey distillery, a whiskey cart trail, and in later years with speakeasys and stills that were hosted in various farmhouses along the road. For some, the perceived negative connotation of alcohol or alcoholism prompted attempts to hide, or change the road's name. Proponent W.R. Skeels took the connotation more seriously, declaring Whisky as the "Water of degradation and death".
Name change efforts were publicized as far away as Florida in an Ocala Star-Banner newspaper article from May 3, 1955, titled "Battle of Whiskey Bottom Road Rages". |
660_30 | In the 1950s, a lawyer named W.O. Skeels petitioned a Maryland Congressman Steele to rename the street Patuxent Drive. Resident W.R. Shauck complained to the press that he was told by a realtor that he was on Old Annapolis Road when he purchased the land a decade earlier, and it had to be changed. The change was passed without notice to the residents. A 1950 Washington Post article proclaimed that the new Patuxent Drive was now "dignified". In 1954 the matter was brought to the Maryland State Roads Commission. Markers for Patuxent Drive were placed at US Route 1. In the ensuing battle of county vs. state rights, Howard County sided with the name of Whiskey Bottom. Residents in this time would address their mail to both street names depending on their preference, but Patuxent Drive fell out of use over time. C.H. Lamparter, owner of "Randy's California Inn" noted that "The name was changed when nobody was even looking"..."When the petitions are finished going around, we will still be |
660_31 | calling the road what we always have called it." |
660_32 | Whiskey and school |
660_33 | In October 1962, the Laurel Planning and Redevelopment Corporation gave Howard County 27 acres of woodland to build the Whiskey Bottom Road Elementary School within a proposed high-density development seeking zoning approval. The name was chosen in a 1972 board meeting. There were concerns about the name from the first hearings, but board members believed the historical value outweighed any negative connotations. The new "open layout" school opened in 1973. Although the property reached to Whiskey Bottom Road, the school entrance and address was on North Laurel Road. The name was later shortened to Whiskey Bottom Elementary School. In 1991 a student movement considered the name unsuitable due to associations with alcohol and being considered ranked at "The Bottom". The new name for the school was Laurel Woods Elementary due to its proximity to the largest remaining stand of woods in Laurel. The majority of these woods were cleared in 2010 for the North Laurel Community Center. |
660_34 | Whiskey or Whisky
The road name has been spelled Whisky Bottom Road and more recently, Whiskey Bottom Road. Although both are valid spellings, the later name associates it with liquor distilled in America or Ireland rather than Canada, Japan or Wales.
Scaggsville or Rocky Gorge
Western sections of the original road ran past the farm of the Scaggs family, in Scaggsville, Maryland, and have the name Scaggsville Road. Just like Whiskey Bottom, the name Scaggsville was considered distasteful enough to warrant a name change by some in 2002, but did not have enough public support to proceed. In 1899, the post office dropped rural service to Scaggsville's other name, "Hells Corner". |
660_35 | Whiskey themes
The name "Whiskey Bottom Road" has inspired adjoining roads, schools, developments and businesses to adopt the whiskey theme or the entire name. The region is better known for producing a rye based Whiskey, "Maryland Rye", but that name has not been adopted in the neighborhoods. Nearby Bourbon street is based on another whiskey variation, Bourbon, that has a corn base.
A partial list of local items that have adopted the theme:
Although most of the Whiskey Bottom Road neighborhoods consist of single family homes fronting the street, the various developments of Canterbury Riding, The Seasons Apartments and Whiskey Bottom Town homes, form a well defined neighborhood frequently called Whiskey Bottom or the "Whiskey Bottom Area".
Traffic control |
660_36 | The heavily traveled Baltimore-Washington corridors that Whiskey Bottom Road crosses have been the site of fatal accidents since automobiles were introduced. The introduction of traffic lights improved safety, but increasing volume of traffic has kept the intersections on many "Most Dangerous" lists.
The B&O Railroad crossing also was a frequent historical source of accidents with carts and pedestrians. A steep curving bridge was first built over the railroad tracks reducing train collisions, but occasionally creating its own hazardous driving conditions. In 1990, a long-standing home pottery business was removed to regrade a modern bridge over the railroad. Pedestrians still travel along the tracks despite the improvements, with occasional deaths in the same place. |
660_37 | In 1950 Whiskey Bottom Road was straightened, widened, and Macadamized. By the end of the 20th century, the amount of transient traffic as well as local traffic from developments reached the point where residents of the street facing homes could not safely turn into and out of their driveways. The occasional auto accidents where vehicles struck houses became commonplace. Traffic surveys concluded that the majority of accidents were from vehicles striking turning vehicles from behind. The traffic engineering departments of Anne Arundel and Howard Counties took two different approaches to the issue. In 1993 the Anne Arundel section adopted a road widening approach, taking eminent domain of properties and adding a shared center left-hand turn lane down the middle of the road. This was partially funded by the pending Russett development as a condition of zoning approval. Howard County planned to follow suit in 2002 but opted to explore traffic calming after 98% of roadside residents |
660_38 | petitioned against widening the road. A series of narrow choking islands, and roundabouts were placed along the roadway with the intention of physically restricting the maximum speed of a vehicle to the limit. Transient drivers have objected to the obstacles. Howard County engineers defend their usefulness in controlling reckless driving without the need for increased traffic patrols. |
660_39 | Howard County Project J4229 plans to modify Whiskey Bottom Road from U.S. Route 1 to the Anne Arundel County Line in 2011 to prepare for future BRAC-related development traffic.
Development
The population of residents along the road has increased substantially. In 1939 the number of roadside houses totaled nine. By 1950, only 30 families lived along the road.
Adjacent developed properties include:
Emerson Corporate Commons , Est. 2008
Kings Woods
Kings Arms, Est. 1999 – Built on land grants of Sappington's Sweep, and 50 acres of Davis's Hills patented to Thomas Davis Sr. on 2 November 1737.
Whiskey Bottom Apartments, Est. 1962
Lilac Park, Est. 1996
Northgate, 76 homes Est. 1981 by Ryan Homes
Fieldstone, by Polm Companies, LTD , Est. 2009
Koch Homes/Hogan Co's, 17-acre townhome community, Est. 2012
Laurel Highlands
Russett, Est. 1992 |
660_40 | In 1994, an effort to redevelop land occupied by the Laurel Racetrack and its adjacent properties would have placed a new Washington Redskins Stadium at the crossroads of Whiskey Bottom Road and Brock Bridge Road. Citizens and clergy launched a successful effort that killed the proposal. A lack of sufficient parking space was a significant factor in the decision.
Crime
Crime along Whiskey Bottom Road is on par with the region and times. Newsworthy crime incidents provide a historical context of this quiet rural road's transition to a dense suburban thoroughfare. |
660_41 | One of the first recorded incidents occurred on the road itself. On July 6, 1892, Rebecca Cager (Hensin) was found shot in the head by Dr. Hunt alongside "Whisky Bottom Road". The earliest mention of carjacking occurred in 1959 with the abduction of two separate women at gunpoint ending at Whiskey Bottom Road. The community of Bacontown was targeted for cross burnings in the 1950s followed by drug dealing issues in the 1980s. Lifelong residents Audrey Garnett and Lenore Carter worked with the community to drive out crime. Occasionally a body is still found along the road.
The busy intersections of Whiskey Bottom Road with US Route 1 and Maryland 198 have a decades long history of prostitution. Over the years police have made efforts to reduce the problem, but it persists to present times. One-day prostitution stings are held several times a year with 16–40 arrests a day. |
660_42 | In 2013, A string of arson attacks occurred up and down the wooded areas of the Patuxent river valley in Laurel. The Fieldstone development, and the historic Duvall Farm were burned from large brush fires.
In fiction
In the 2006 fiction book, Borrow Trouble by Mary Monroe and Victor McGlothin, the character Franchetta wound up in a small tick on the map called "Whiskey Bottom, Maryland" at the age of 18 hawking boxes of popcorn.
In music
A local Blues Band in Portsmouth, Hampshire, United Kingdom took up the moniker "Whiskey Bottom Road".
The Hitman Blues Band published a song named Whiskey Bottom Road in 1999 on their debut album "Blooztown" about being down and out.
Notes
Roads in Anne Arundel County, Maryland
Roads in Howard County, Maryland
Laurel, Maryland |
661_0 | Fifty Foot Hose is an American underground rock band that formed in San Francisco in the late 1960s, and reformed in the 1990s. They were one of the first bands to fuse rock and experimental music. Like a few other acts of the time (most notably the United States of America), they consciously tried to combine the contemporary sounds of rock with electronic instruments and avant-garde compositional ideas.
1960s – original group
The original group comprised three core members: founder and bassist Louis "Cork" Marcheschi, guitarist David Blossom, and his wife, vocalist Nancy Blossom, augmented by Kim Kimsey (drums) and Larry Evans (guitar). |
661_1 | Cork Marcheschi (born 1945) grew up in Burlingame, California. In his teens, he performed with the Ethix, who played R&B music in clubs around San Francisco and in Las Vegas, and released one experimental and wildly atonal single, "Bad Trip", in 1967, with the intention that the record could be played at any speed. Interested in the ideas of experimental composers like Edgard Varèse, John Cage, Terry Riley, and George Antheil, he constructed his own custom-made electronic instrument from a combination of elements like theremins, fuzzboxes, a cardboard tube, and a speaker from a World War II bomber. |
661_2 | David and Nancy Blossom brought both psychedelic and jazz influences to the band. Together, the trio recorded a demo which led to a deal with Limelight Records, a subsidiary of Mercury Records. They released one album, Cauldron, in December 1967. It contained eleven songs, including "Fantasy", "Red the Sign Post" and "God Bless the Child", a cover of a Billie Holiday number. It was an intriguing mix of jazzy psychedelic rock tunes with fierce and advanced electronic sound effects. "I don't know if they are immature or premature", said critic Ralph J. Gleason. |
661_3 | The record sold few copies at the time, although the group had a small but intense following in San Francisco and also toured with other acts including Blue Cheer, Chuck Berry and Fairport Convention, when the band was augmented by Robert Goldbeck (bass). They broke up in late 1969, when most of its members joined the musical Hair, Nancy Blossom becoming the lead in the San Francisco production and later singing in Godspell. Larry Evans returned to his hometown of Muncie, Indiana, where he fronted several club groups until his death in 2008.
1990s – reformation
Interest in Fifty Foot Hose resurfaced in the 1990s, as they became recognized as precursors to the electronic rock sounds of groups like Pere Ubu, Chrome and Throbbing Gristle, and Cauldron was reissued on CD. By this time, Marcheschi had become a respected sculptor, specializing in public work using neon, plastic, and kinetic characteristics. |
661_4 | In 1995, Marcheschi reformed the group for live performances in San Francisco, with a new set of musicians. These performances led to the release of the album Live & Unreleased, which was followed in 1997 by a new studio album, Sing Like Scaffold. On the latter album, Fifty Foot Hose essentially comprised Marcheschi (on echolette, twin audio generators, squeaky stick, white noise generator, theremin, spark gap, and saw blades), Walter Funk III (jokers Ulysses and Cupid constructed by Fred 'Spaceman' Long, Bug (Tom Nunn), vocoder, Hologlyphic Funkaliser, and other electronix), Reid Johnston (guitube, guitar, tools, horns, harmonium, hardware, bikewheel), Lenny Bove (bass, electronics, vocals), Elizabeth Perry (vocals), and Dean Cook (drums).
Funk and Johnston subsequently formed the avant-garde electronic band Kwisp, the first of whose two albums also featured Marcheschi. |
661_5 | In 2006, Marcheschi, Funk, Johnston, and Konstantine Baranov (producer of Sing Like Scaffold), known as CWRK Musical Environments, installed a public sound installation in an atrium in Hong Kong.
Discography
Cauldron (1968, Limelight Records)
...Live... And Unreleased (1997, Captain Trip Records)
Ingredients (1997, Del Val)
Sing Like Scaffold (1998, Weasel Disc Records)
References
External links
Cork Marcheschi website
1994 interview with Marcheschi about Fifty Foot Hose
1997 interview following reformation of group
American experimental rock groups
Musical groups from San Francisco
Psychedelic rock music groups from California
Mercury Records artists |
662_0 | Portugal is a coastal nation in western Europe, located at the western end of the Iberian Peninsula, bordering Spain (on its northern and eastern frontiers: a total of ). The Portuguese territory also includes a series of archipelagos in the Atlantic Ocean (the Azores and Madeira), which are strategic islands along the North Atlantic. The extreme south is not too far from the Strait of Gibraltar, leading to the Mediterranean Sea. In total, the country occupies an area of of which is land and water.
Despite these definitions, the Portugal-Spain border remains an unresolved territorial dispute between the two countries. Portugal does not recognise the border between Caia and Ribeira de Cuncos River deltas, since the beginning of the 1801 occupation of Olivenza by Spain. This territory, though under de facto Spanish occupation, remains a de jure part of Portugal, consequently no border is henceforth recognised in this area.
Physical |
662_1 | Portugal is located on the western coast of the Iberian Peninsula and plateau, that divides the inland Mediterranean Sea from the Atlantic Ocean. It is located on the Atlantic coast of this plateau and crossed by several rivers which have their origin in Spain. Most of these rivers flow from east to west disgorging in the Atlantic; from north to south, the primary rivers are the Minho, Douro, Mondego, Tagus and the Guadiana.
Coastline
The continental shelf has an area of , although its width is variable from in the north to in the south. Its strong relief is marked by deep submarine canyons and the continuation of the main rivers. The Estremadura Spur separates the Iberian Abyssal and Tagus Abyssal Plains, while the continental slope is flanked by sea-mounts and abuts against the prominent Gorringe Bank in the south. Currently, the Portuguese government claims a depth, or to a depth of exploitation. |
662_2 | The Portuguese coast is extensive; in addition to approximately along the coast of continental Portugal, the archipelagos of the Azores (667 km) and Madeira (250 km) are primarily surrounded by rough cliff coastlines. Most of these landscapes alternate between rough cliffs and fine sand beaches; the region of the Algarve is recognized for its sandy beaches popular with tourists, while at the same time its steep coastlines around Cape St. Vincent is well known for steep and forbidding cliffs. An interesting feature of the Portuguese coast is Ria Formosa with some sandy islands and a mild and pleasant climate characterized by warm but not very hot summers and generally mild winters. |
662_3 | Alternatively, the Ria de Aveiro coast (near Aveiro, referred to as "The Portuguese Venice"), is formed by a delta (approximately length and a maximum width) rich in fish and seabirds. Four main channels flow through several islands and islets at the mouth of the Vouga, Antuã, Boco, and Fontão Rivers. Since the 16th century, this formation of narrow headlands formed a lagoon, that, due to its characteristics allowed the formation and production of salt. It was also recognized by the Romans, whose forces exported its salt to Rome (then seen as a precious resource).
The Azores are also sprinkled with both alternating black sand and boulder-lined beaches, with only a rare exception, is there white sand beach (such as on the island of Santa Maria in Almagreira. The island of Porto Santo is one of the few extensive dune beaches in Portugal, located in the archipelago of Madeira. |
662_4 | Tidal gauges along the Portuguese coast have identified a rise in sea levels, causing large estuaries and inland deltas in some major rivers to overflow.
As a result of its maritime possessions and long coastline, Portugal has an Exclusive Economic Zone of . This is the 3rd largest EEZ of all countries in the European Union and the 20th in the world. The sea-zone, over which Portugal exercises special territorial rights over the economic exploration and use of marine resources encircles an area of (divided as: Continental Portugal 327,667 km2, Azores Islands 953,633 km2, Madeira Islands 446,108 km2).
Continent |
662_5 | The Portuguese territory came into existence during the history of Gondwana and became aligned with European landforms after the super-continent Pangea began its slow separation into several smaller plates. The Iberian plate was formed during the Cadomian Orogeny of the late Neoproterozoic (about 650-550 Ma), from the margins of the Gondwana continent. Through collisions and accretion a group of island arcs (that included the Central Iberian Plate, Ossa-Morena Plate, South Portuguese Plate) began to disintegrate from Gondwana (along with other European fragments). These plates never separated substantially from each other since this period. By the Mesozoic, the three "Portuguese plates" were a part of the Northern France Armoric Plate until the Bay of Biscay began to separate. Following the separation of the Iberian Abyssal Plain, Iberia and Europe began to drift progressively from North America, as the Mid-Atlantic fracture zone pulled the three plates away from the larger continent. |
662_6 | Eventually, Iberia collided with southern France attaching the region into a peninsula of Europe (during the Cenozoic). Since the late Oligocene, the Iberian plate has been moving as part of the Eurasian plate, with the boundary between Eurasia and Africa situated along the Azores–Gibraltar fracture zone. |
662_7 | The Iberian peninsula, defined by its coastline, is due to a fragment of the Variscan tectonic fracture zone, the Iberian-Hesperian Massif, which occupies the west-central part of the plateau. This formation is crossed by the Central System, along an east-northeast to west-southwest alignment, parallel to the European Baetic Chain (an aspect of the Alpine Chain). The Central Cordillera is itself divided into two blocks, while three main river systems drain the differing geomorphological terrains:
the Northern Meseta (with a mean altitude of ) is drained by the Douro River (running east to west);
the Southern Meseta (within a range of altitude) is drained by the Tagus River (running east to west) from Spain, and the Guadiana River (running north to south), comprising the Lower Tagus and Sado Basins.
To the north the landscape is mountainous in the interior areas with plateaus, cut by four breakings lines that allow the development of more fertile agricultural areas. |
662_8 | The south down as far as the Algarve features mostly rolling plains with a climate somewhat warmer and drier than the cooler and rainier north. Other major rivers include the Douro, the Minho and the Guadiana, similar to the Tagus in that all originate in Spain. Another important river, the Mondego, originates in the Serra da Estrela (the highest mountains in mainland Portugal at 1,993 m). |
662_9 | No large natural lakes exist in Continental Portugal, and the largest inland water surfaces are dam-originated reservoirs, such as the Alqueva Reservoir with , the largest in Europe. However, there are several small freshwater lakes in Portugal, the most notable of which are located in Serra da Estrela, Lake Comprida (Lagoa Comprida) and Lake Escura (Lagoa Escura), which were formed from ancient glaciers. Pateira de Fermentelos is a small natural lake near Aveiro, it is one of the largest natural lakes in the Iberian Peninsula and is rich in wildlife. In the Azores archipelago lakes were formed in the caldera of extinct volcanoes. Lagoa do Fogo and Lagoa das Sete Cidades (two small lakes connected by a narrow way) are the most famous lakes in São Miguel Island.
Lagoons in the shores of the Atlantic exist. For instance, the Albufeira Lagoon and Óbidos Lagoon (near Foz do Arelho, Óbidos).
Archipelagos |
662_10 | In addition to continental Europe, Portugal consists of two Autonomous Regions in the Atlantic Ocean, consisting of the archipelagos of Madeira and Azores. Madeira is located on the African Tectonic Plate, and comprises the main island of Madeira, Porto Santo and the smaller Savage Islands. The Azores, which are located between the junction of the African, European and North American Plates, straddle the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. There are nine islands in this archipelago, usually divided into three groups (Western, Central and Eastern) and several smaller Formigas (rock outcroppings) located between São Miguel and Santa Maria Islands. Both island groups are volcanic in nature, with historic volcanology and seismic activity persisting to the present time. In addition, there are several submarine volcanos in the Azores (such as Dom João de Castro Bank), that have erupted historically (such as the Serrata eruption off the coast of Terceira Island). The last major volcanic event occurred in |
662_11 | 1957-58 along the western coast of Faial Island, which formed the Capelinhos Volcano. Seismic events are common in the Azores. |
662_12 | The Azores are occasionally subject to very strong earthquakes, as is the continental coast. Wildfires occur mostly in the summer in mainland Portugal and extreme weather in the form of strong winds and floods also occurs mainly in winter. The Azores are occasionally stricken by tropical cyclones such as Hurricane Jeanne (1998) and Hurricane Gordon (2006). |
662_13 | Climate
Most of Portugal has a warm Mediterranean climate according to the Köppen climate classification: "Csa" in most of the lands south of the Tagus River, inland Douro Valley in the Norte Region, eastern Azores and the Madeira archipelago. The "Csb" pattern can be found north of that same river and in Costa Vicentina in coastal Southern Portugal. Most of the Azores have a humid subtropical climate or "Cfa", while a small region in inland Alentejo has Bsk or semi-arid climate. The Savage Islands are the only region to have an arid climate. The sea surface temperatures in these islands vary from in winter to in the summer, occasionally reaching . |
662_14 | The annual average temperature in mainland Portugal varies from in the mountainous interior north to in the south (in general the south is warmer and drier than the north). The Madeira and Azores archipelagos have a narrower temperature range. Extreme temperatures occur in the mountains in the interior North and Centre of the country in winter, where they may fall below or in rare occasions below , particularly in the higher peaks of Serra da Estrela, and in southeastern parts in the summer, sometimes exceeding . The official absolute extreme temperatures are in Penhas da Saúde on 4 February 1954 and Miranda do Douro, and in Amareleja in the Alentejo region, on 1 August 2003. There are, however, unofficial records of on 4 August 1881 in Riodades, São João da Pesqueira and on 6 July 1949 in Figueira da Foz in an apparent heat burst (see the Highest temperature recorded on Earth). Such temperatures are not validated since these were measured in enclosures that were much more |
662_15 | susceptible to solar radiation and/or in enclosed gardens which tend to heat up a lot more than in the open where temperatures should be measured. There are also records of from a Polytechnic Institute in Bragança, and below in Serra da Estrela, which have no official value since they were not recorded by IPMA. Such values are however perpetuated by weather enthusiasts who are fond of extremes. The annual average rainfall in continental Portugal varies from a bit more than in the mountains in the north to less than in southern parts of Alentejo, however in Macaronesia, Pico Island holds the record with over and the Savage Islands around . Portugal as a whole is amongst the sunniest areas in Europe, with around 2300–3200 hours of sunshine a year, an average of 4-6h in winter and 10-12h in the summer. The sea surface temperature is higher in the south coast where it varies from in January to in August, occasionally reaching ; on the west coast the sea surface temperature is |
662_16 | around in winter and in the summer. |
662_17 | Seasons in Portugal
Weather phenomena recorded in previous years in Portugal
*Tornados - counted for last 5 years
Whole year UV Index table for Portugal
Environment
Environment - current issues:
soil erosion; air pollution caused by industrial and vehicle emissions; water pollution, especially in coastal areas
Environment - international agreements:
party to:
Air Pollution, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Desertification, Endangered Species, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Marine Dumping, Marine Life Conservation, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship Pollution, Tropical Timber 83, Tropical Timber 94, Wetlands
signed, but not ratified:
Air Pollution-Persistent Organic Pollutants, Air Pollution-Volatile Organic Compounds, Climate Change-Kyoto Protocol, Environmental Modification, Nuclear Test Ban
Terrain:
Mountainous and hilly north of the Tagus River, rolling plains in south |
662_18 | Elevation extremes:
lowest point:
Atlantic Ocean 0 m
highest point:
Ponta do Pico (Pico or Pico Alto) on Ilha do Pico in the Azores 2,351 m
Natural resources:
fish, forests (cork), tungsten, iron ore, uranium ore, marble, arable land, hydroelectric power
Land use:
arable land:
26%
permanent crops:
9%
permanent pastures:
9%
forests and woodland:
36%
other:
20% (1993 est.)
Irrigated land:
6,300 km2 (1993 est.)
See also
Cabo da Roca
Forests of the Iberian Peninsula
References
Sources
in
External links
Visible Earth. NASA-Goddard Space Flight Center. . A collection of satellite images of Portugal and the surrounding region. |
663_0 | The Zuo Zhuan (; ), generally translated The Zuo Tradition or The Commentary of Zuo, is an ancient Chinese narrative history that is traditionally regarded as a commentary on the ancient Chinese chronicle Spring and Autumn Annals (Chunqiu 春秋). It comprises 30 chapters covering a period from 722 to 468BC, and focuses mainly on political, diplomatic, and military affairs from that era. |
663_1 | For many centuries, the Zuo Zhuan was the primary text through which educated Chinese gained an understanding of their ancient history. Unlike the other two surviving Annals commentariesthe Gongyang and Guliang commentariesthe Zuo Zhuan does not simply explain the wording of the Annals, but greatly expounds upon its historical background, and contains many rich and lively accounts of Spring and Autumn period (771476) history and culture. The Zuo Zhuan is the source of more Chinese sayings and idioms than any other classical work, and its concise, flowing style came to be held as a paragon of elegant Classical Chinese. Its tendency toward third-person narration and portraying characters through direct speech and action became hallmarks of Chinese narrative in general, and its style was imitated by historians, storytellers, and ancient style prose masters for over 2000 years of subsequent Chinese history. |
663_2 | The Zuo Zhuan has long been regarded as "a masterpiece of grand historical narrative", but its early textual history is largely unknown, and the nature of its original composition and authorship have been widely debated. The "Zuo" of the title was traditionally believed to refer to one "Zuo Qiuming"an obscure figure of the 5th century BC described as a blind disciple of Confuciusbut there is little actual evidence to support this. Most scholars now generally believe that the Zuo Zhuan was originally an independent work composed during the 4th century BC that was later rearranged as a commentary to the Annals.
Textual history |
663_3 | Creation |
663_4 | Despite its prominent position throughout Chinese history as the paragon of Classical Chinese prose, little is known of the Zuo Zhuan′s creation and early history. Bamboo and silk manuscripts excavated from late Warring States period (c. 300) tombscombined with analyses of the Zuo Zhuan′s language, diction, chronological references, and philosophical viewpointssuggest that the composition of the Zuo Zhuan was largely complete by 300. However, no pre-Han dynasty (202AD220) source indicates that the Zuo Zhuan had to that point been organized into any coherent form, and no texts from this period directly refer to the Zuo Zhuan as a source, though a few mention its parent text Spring and Autumn Annals (Chunqiu 春秋). The Zuo Zhuan seems to have had no distinct title of its own during this period, but was simply called Annals (Chunqiu) along with a larger group of similar texts. In the 3rd century AD, the Chinese scholar Du Yu intercalated it with the Annals so that each Annals entry was |
663_5 | followed by the corresponding narrative from the Zuo Zhuan, and this became the received format of the Zuo Zhuan that exists today. Today, most scholars believe that the Zuo Zhuan was originally an independent work composed during the latter half of the 4th century BCthough probably incorporating some older materialthat was later rearranged as a commentary to the Annals. |
663_6 | Authorship
China's first dynastic history Records of the Grand Historian, written by Sima Qian in the early 1st century BC, refers to the Zuo Zhuan as "Master Zuo's Spring and Autumn Annals" (Zuoshi Chunqiu ) and attributes it to a man named "Zuo Qiuming" (or possibly "ZuoqiuMing"). According to Sima Qian, after Confucius' death his disciples began disagreeing over their interpretations of the Annals, and so Zuo Qiuming gathered together Confucius' scribal records and used them to compile the Zuo Annals in order to "preserve the true teachings." |
663_7 | This "Zuo Qiuming" whom Sima Qian references was traditionally assumed to be the Zuo Qiuming who briefly appears in the Analects of Confucius when Confucius praises him for his moral judgment. Other than this brief mention, nothing is concretely known of the life or identity of the Zuo Qiuming of the Analects, nor of what connection he might have with the Zuo Zhuan. But this traditional assumption that the title's "Master Zuo" refers to the Zuo Qiuming of the Analects is not based on any specific evidence, and was challenged by scholars as early as the 8th century. Even if he is the "Zuo" referenced in the Zuo Zhuan′s title, this attribution is questionable because the Zuo Zhuan describes events from the late Spring and Autumn period (c. 771–476) that the Zuo Qiuming of the Analects could not have known. |
663_8 | Alternatively, a number of scholars, beginning in the 18th century, have suggested that the Zuo Zhuan was actually the product of one Wu Qi (; d. 381 or 378BC), a military leader who served in the State of Wei and who, according to the Han Feizi, was from a place called "Zuoshi". In 1792, the scholar Yao Nai wrote: "The text [Zuo zhuan] did not come from one person. There were repeated accretions and additions, with those of Wu Qi and his followers being especially numerous...." |
663_9 | Commentary status
In the early 19th century, the Chinese scholar Liu Fenglu (; 1776–1829) initiated a long, drawn-out controversy when he proposed, by emphasizing certain discrepancies between it and the Annals, that the Zuo Zhuan was not originally a commentary on the Annals. Liu's theory was taken much further by the prominent scholar and reformer Kang Youwei, who argued that Liu Xin did not really find the "ancient script" version of the Zuo zhuan in the imperial archives, as historical records describe, but actually forged it as a commentary on the Annals. Kang's theory was that Liu Xinwho with his father Liu Xiang, the imperial librarian, was one of the first to have access to the rare documents in the Han dynasty's imperial archivestook the Discourses of the States (Guoyu 國語) and forged it into a chronicle-like work to fit the format of the Annals in an attempt to lend credibility to the policies of his master, the usurper Wang Mang. |
663_10 | Kang's theory was supported by several subsequent Chinese scholars in the late 19th century, but was contradicted by many 20th-century studies that examined it from many different perspectives. In the early 1930s, the French Sinologist Henri Maspero performed a detailed textual study of the issue, concluding the Han dynasty forgery theory to be untenable. The Swedish Sinologist Bernhard Karlgren, based on a series of linguistic and philological analyses he carried out in the 1920s, concluded that the Zuo Zhuan is a genuine ancient text "probably to be dated between 468 and 300BC." While Liu's hypothesis that the Zuo zhuan was not originally an Annals commentary has been generally accepted, Kang's theory of Liu Xin forging the Zuo Zhuan is now considered discredited. |
663_11 | Manuscripts
The oldest surviving Zuo Zhuan manuscripts are six fragments that were discovered among the Dunhuang manuscripts in the early 20th century by the French Sinologist Paul Pelliot and are now held at the Bibliothèque Nationale de France. Four of the fragments date to the Six Dynasties period (3rd to 6th centuries), while the other two date to the early Tang dynasty (7th century). The oldest known complete Zuo Zhuan manuscript is the "ancient manuscript scroll" preserved at the Kanazawa Bunko Museum in Yokohama, Japan.
Content and style |
663_12 | Content
The Zuo Zhuan recounts the major political, military, and social events of the Spring and Autumn period from the perspective of the State of Lu, and is famous "for its dramatic power and realistic details". It contains a variety of tense and dramatic episodes: battles and fights, royal assassinations and murder of concubines, deception and intrigue, excesses, citizens' oppression and insurgences, and appearances of ghosts and cosmic portents. |
663_13 | Each Zuo zhuan chapter begins with the Spring and Autumn Annals (Chunqiu) entry for the year, which is usually terse and brief, followed by the Zuo Zhuan content for that year, which often contains long and detailed narratives. The Zuo Zhuan originally contained only its core content, without any content from or references to the Spring and Autumn Annals. In the 3rd century AD, the Chinese scholar Du Yu intercalated the Annals into the Zuo Zhuan, producing the received format that exists today. The entries follow the strict chronological format of the Annals, so interrelated episodes and the actions of individual characters are sometimes separated by events that occurred in the intervening years.
The following entry, though unusually short, exemplifies the general format of all Zuo Zhuan entries. |
663_14 | Style
Zuo Zhuan narratives have a famously terse and succinct quality that was admired and imitated throughout Chinese history and usually focus either on speeches that illustrate ethical values, or on anecdotes in which the details of the story illuminate specific ethical points. Its narratives are characterized by parataxis, where clauses are juxtaposed without much verbal indication of their causal relationships with each other. On the other hand, the speeches and recorded discourses of the Zuo Zhuan are frequently lively, ornate, and verbally complex. |
663_15 | Themes
Although the Zuo Zhuan was probably not originally a commentary on the Spring and Autumn Annals (Chunqiu ), a work which was traditionally viewed as a direct creation of Confucius, its basic philosophical outlook is also strongly Confucian in nature. Its overarching theme is that haughty, evil, and stupid individuals generally bring disaster upon themselves, while those who are good, wise, and humble are usually justly rewarded. The Confucian principle of "ritual propriety" or "ceremony" (lǐ ) is seen as governing all actions, including war, and to bring bad consequences if transgressed. However, the observance of li is never shown as guaranteeing victory, and the Zuo Zhuan includes many examples of the good and innocent suffering senseless violence. Much of the Zuo Zhuan′s status as a literary masterpiece stems from its "relentlessly realistic portrayal of a turbulent era marked by violence, political strife, intrigues, and moral laxity". |
663_16 | The narratives of the Zuo Zhuan are highly didactic in nature, and are presented in such a way that they teach and illustrate moral principles. The German Sinologist Martin Kern observed: "Instead of offering authorial judgments or catechistic hermeneutics, the Zuo Zhuan lets its moral lessons unfold within the narrative itself, teaching at once history and historical judgment." Unlike the Histories of Herodotus or the History of the Peloponnesian War of Thucydides, with which it is roughly contemporary, the Zuo Zhuan′s narration always remains in the third person perspective, and presents as a dispassionate recorder of facts.
Battles
Several of the Zuo Zhuan′s most famous sections are those dealing with critical historical battles, such as the Battle of Chengpu and the Battle of Bi. |
663_17 | The Battle of Chengpu, the first of the Zuo Zhuan′s great battles, took place in the summer of 632 at Chengpu (now Juancheng County, Shandong Province) in the State of Wey. On one side were the troops of the powerful State of Chu, from what was then far southern China, led by the Chu prime minister Cheng Dechen. They were opposed by the armies of the State of Jin, led by Chong'er, Duke of Jin, one of the most prominent and well known figures in the Zuo Zhuan. Chu suffered a disastrous defeat in the battle itself, and it resulted in Chong'er being named Hegemon (bà ) of the various states. |
663_18 | The narrative of the Battle of Chengpu is typical of Zuo zhuan battle narratives. The description of the battle itself is relatively brief, with most of the narrative being focused on battle preparations, omens and prognostications regarding its outcome, the division of the spoils, and the shifts and defections of the various allied states involved in the conflict. This "official [and] restrained" style, which became typical of Chinese historical writing, is largely due to the ancient Chinese belief that ritual propriety and strategic preparation were more important in determining the outcome of battles than individual valor or bravery. |
663_19 | Succession crises
Several of the most notable passages in the Zuo Zhuan describe succession crises, which seem to have been fairly common in China during the Spring and Autumn period. These crises often involved the "tangled affections" of the various rulers, and are described in a dramatic and vivid manner that gives insight into the life of the aristocratic elite in the China of the mid-1st millennium. The best known of these stories is that of Duke Zhuang of Zheng, who ruled the State of Zheng from 743 to 701. Duke Zhuang was born "in a manner that startled" his mother (probably breech birth), which caused her to later seek to persuade her husband to name Duke Zhuang's younger brother as the heir apparent instead of him. The story ends with eventual reconciliation between mother and son, thus exemplifying the traditional Chinese virtues of both "ritual propriety" (lǐ) and "filial piety" (xiào), which has made it consistently popular with readers over the centuries. |
663_20 | Moral verdicts
A number of Zuo Zhuan anecdotes end with brief moral comments or verdicts that are attributed to either Confucius or an unnamed junzi (; "gentleman", "lordling", or "superior man"). The chapter on the Battle of Chengpu contains the following ending comment:
These "moral of the story" postfaces, which were added later by Confucian scholars, are directed toward those currently in power, reminding them of "the historical precedents and inevitable consequences of their own actions." They speak with the voices of previous ministers, advisers, "old men", and other anonymous figures to remind rulers of historical and moral lessons, and suggest that rulers who heed their advice will succeed, while those who do not will fail. |
663_21 | Fate
Several sections of the Zuo Zhuan demonstrate the traditional Chinese concept of "fate" or "destiny" (mìng ), referring either to an individual's mission in life or their allotted lifespan, and illustrates how benevolent rulers ought to accept "fate" selflessly, as in the story of Duke Wen moving the capital of the state of Zhu in 614. |
663_22 | Influence |
663_23 | The Zuo Zhuan has been recognized as a masterpiece of early Chinese prose and "grand historical narrative" for many centuries. It has had an immense influence on Chinese literature and historiography for nearly 2000 years, and was the primary text by which historical Chinese readers gained an understanding of China's ancient history. It enjoyed high status and esteem throughout the centuries of Chinese history because of its great literary quality, and was often read and memorized because of its role as the preeminent commentary on the Annals (Chunqiu), which nearly all Chinese scholars traditionally ascribed to Confucius. Many Chinese scholars believed that the terse, succinct entries of the Annals contained cryptic references to Confucius' "profound moral judgments on the events of the past as well as those of his own day and on the relation of human events to those in the natural order", and that the Zuo Zhuan was written to clarify or even "decode" these hidden judgments. |
663_24 | From the Han dynasty (206AD 220) down to the present day, the Zuo Zhuan has been viewed as a model of correct, elegant, and sophisticated Classical Chinese prose. The Zuo Zhuan′s great influence on the Chinese languageparticularly on Classical Chineseis evident from the fact that it is the source of more Chinese literary idioms (chéngyǔ ) than any other work, including the Analects of Confucius. The well-known Qing dynasty student anthology Guwen Guanzhi included 34 passages from the Zuo Zhuan as paragons of Classical Chinese prose, more than any other source. These passages are still part of the Classical Chinese curriculum in mainland China and Taiwan today. |
663_25 | The 400-year period the Zuo Zhuan covers is now known as the Spring and Autumn period, after the Spring and Autumn Annals, but the Zuo Zhuan is the most important source for the period. This era was highly significant in Chinese history, and saw a number of developments in governmental complexity and specialization that preceded China's imperial unification in 221 BC by the First Emperor of Qin. The latter years of this period also saw the appearance of Confucius, who later became the preeminent figure in Chinese cultural history. The Zuo Zhuan is one of the only surviving written sources for the history of the Spring and Autumn period, and is extremely valuable as a rich source of information on the society that Confucius and his disciples lived in and from which the Confucian school of thought developed. It was canonized as one of the Chinese classics in the 1st century AD, and until modern times was one of the cornerstones of traditional education for men in China and the other |
663_26 | lands of the Sinosphere such as Japan and Korea. |
663_27 | Translations
James Legge (1872), The Ch'un Ts'ew, with the Tso Chuen, The Chinese Classics V, London: Trübner, Part 1 (books 1–8), Part 2 (books 9–12). Revised edition (1893), London: Oxford University Press.
Séraphin Couvreur (1914), Tch'ouen Ts'iou et Tso Tchouan, La Chronique de la Principauté de Lou [Chunqiu and Zuo zhuan, Chronicle of the State of Lu], Ho Kien Fou: Mission Catholique.
Teruo Takeuchi 竹内照夫 (1974–75). Shunjū Sashiden 春秋左氏伝 [Chunqiu Zuoshi zhuan]. Zenshaku kanbun taikei 全釈漢文体系 [Fully Interpreted Chinese Literature Series] 4–6. Tokyo: Shūeisha.
Reprinted (1992).
Hu Zhihui 胡志挥; Chen Kejiong 陈克炯 (1996). Zuo zhuan 左传. Changsha: Hunan renmin chubanshe. (Contains both English and Mandarin translations)
Stephen Durrant; Li Wai-yee; David Schaberg, trans. (2016), Zuo Tradition (Zuozhuan), Seattle: University of Washington Press.
References
Citations
Works cited
Further reading
External links |
663_28 | Chunqiu Zuozhuan Bilingual text of Zuo zhuan with side-by-side Chinese original and Legge's English translation
Zuo zhuan Fully searchable text (Chinese)
Zuo zhuan with annotations by Yang Bojun
The Commentary of Zuo on the Spring and Autumn Annals 《春秋左氏傳》 Chinese text with matching English vocabulary at chinesenotes.com
Chinese history texts
Chinese classic texts
Confucian texts
Zhou dynasty texts
4th-century BC history books
Thirteen Classics |
664_0 | The Fall is a 2006 adventure fantasy film directed and co-written by Tarsem Singh and starring Lee Pace, Catinca Untaru, and Justine Waddell. It is based on the screenplay of the 1981 Bulgarian film Yo Ho Ho by Valeri Petrov. Its costume design is by Eiko Ishioka. The film was released to theaters in America and the UK in 2008 and earned $3.7 million worldwide.
Plot
In 1915 Los Angeles, stuntman Roy Walker is hospitalized, bedridden and possibly paralyzed after taking a jump in his first film. He meets Alexandria, a young Romanian-born patient in the hospital who is recovering from a broken arm, and begins to tell her a story about her namesake, Alexander the Great. Alexandria is told she has to leave, but Roy promises to tell her an epic tale if she returns the next day. |
664_1 | The next morning, as Roy spins his tale of fantasy, Alexandria's imagination brings his characters to life. Roy's tale is about five heroes: a silent Indian warrior, a muscular ex-slave named Otta Benga, an Italian explosives expert called Luigi, Charles Darwin with a pet monkey called Wallace, and a masked swashbuckling bandit. An evil ruler named Governor Odious has committed an offense against each of the five, who all seek revenge. The heroes are later joined by a sixth hero, a mystic. |
664_2 | Alexandria vividly imagines her friends and people around her appearing as the characters in Roy's story. Although Roy develops affection for Alexandria, he also has an ulterior motive: by gaining her trust, he tricks her into stealing morphine from the hospital pharmacy. Roy intends to use the morphine to commit suicide because the woman he loves has left him for the actor for whom he provided the stunt footage. However, Alexandria returns with only three pills. Roy asks what happened to the rest of the pills in the bottle, and Alexandria says she threw all but three of them down the toilet, having mistaken the "E" on the piece of paper Roy gave her for a "3". The stories become a collaborative tale to which Alexandria also contributes. Alexandria herself becomes a character: while Roy is the masked bandit, she is his daughter. |
664_3 | Roy talks Alexandria into stealing a bottle of morphine tablets locked in a fellow patient's cabinet, and then downs it all. He tells her she should leave after he takes them, but he knows she may not obey and may very well witness the death of the man she has come to view as her father. This does not come to pass, as the next morning Roy awakens from his sleep and realizes he is only alive because his neighboring patient is receiving a placebo rather than actual morphine. Alexandria, desperate to help Roy, sneaks out of bed to the pharmacy. She climbs onto the cabinet but loses her footing, falls, and sustains a severe head injury. She receives surgery, after which she is visited by Roy, where he confesses his deception. He encourages Alexandria to ask someone else to end the story, but she insists on hearing Roy's ending. Roy reluctantly begins the rest of the story. |
664_4 | The heroes die one by one, and it seems that Governor Odious will be triumphant. Alexandria becomes upset, and Roy insists, "It's my story." She declares that it is hers too and exerts some influence on the course of the tale. The epic tale comes to an end with only the Bandit and his daughter remaining alive and Governor Odious dying. But in one final twist, Roy, who has been crafting the story to manipulate Alexandria and cope with his anger, targets the character representing his ex-girlfriend. He blames her for orchestrating the story's pain and suffering as part of a "test" of the Bandit's love for her. The Bandit rejects her as an act of ultimate triumph. |
664_5 | With the story complete, Roy and Alexandria, along with the patients and staff of the hospital, watch a viewing of the finished "flicker" that Roy appeared in. With everyone laughing, only Roy's smile is broken in confusion when he sees that his life-threatening jump has been edited out of the film as another stuntman jumps instead.
Alexandria's arm heals and she returns to the orange orchard where her family works. Her voice-over reveals that Roy has recovered and is now back at work again. As she talks, a montage of cuts from several of silent films' greatest and most dangerous stunts plays; she imagines all the stuntmen to be Roy. |
664_6 | Cast
Lee Pace as Roy Walker / Black Bandit
Catinca Untaru as Alexandria / Bandit's daughter
Justine Waddell as Nurse Evelyn / Sister Evelyn
Daniel Caltagirone as Sinclair / Governor Odious
Marcus Wesley as Ice delivery man / Otta Benga
Robin Smith as One-legged actor / Luigi
Jeetu Verma as Orange picker / Indian
Kim Uylenbroek as Doctor / Alexander the Great
Leo Bill as Orderly / Charles Darwin
Emil Hostina as Alexandria's father / Blue Bandit
Julian Bleach as Mystic / Orange picker
Ronald France as Otto (the "old man") |
664_7 | Themes
The Fall is a self-reflexive film that deals primarily with the concept of storytelling. Roy Walker tells a story to Alexandria, who imagines it, but there is a discontinuity between what he describes and how she sees it. Each character brings their own life into their experiences of the story; Roy takes inspiration from the film that he was working on before his accident, and Alexandria populates his story with familiar sights from her own life. The intimidating X-Ray operator becomes an enemy soldier, the 'Indian' is seen by her as an immigrant co-worker from the orange groves, while Roy's dialogue makes it clear to the audience that he meant 'Indian' to mean a Native American man from the Western film he was involved in. |
664_8 | The Fall is also grounded in the film's historical period. Roy took inspiration for his story's bandits from early 20th century news; the controversy over credit for Charles Darwin's ideas in On the Origin of Species between Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace, as well as Ota Benga's imprisonment in the Louisiana Purchase Exposition in St. Louis, Missouri were prominent news stories around the time period of the film's setting.
Production
According to the director's remarks on the DVD release of the film, Tarsem Singh largely financed the film with his own funds, determined to make the film according to his own vision, and paid members of the cast and crew on an equal basis rather than in more typical Hollywood fashion. |
664_9 | Singh's commentary indicates the film was made over a period of four years and incorporates footage shot in more than 20 countries, including India, Indonesia (Bali), Italy, France, Spain, Namibia, China (PRC), and numerous others, a few of which are not listed in the credits. Singh stressed the importance of on-location filming and lack of special effects in interviews because he found that modern techniques would not age well in comparison. He reportedly only took advertising jobs in places that he wanted to do location scouting for, and would fly out cast members to shoot scenes for the film using the same crew as he did for commercials. Singh's focus on striking visuals combined with his commitment against using special effects when shooting scenes of the blue city in Jodhpur, as he provided locals with blue paint to refresh the paint on their houses. This alternative to post-production effects resulted in the vibrant blue of the city in the film. Another location, the |
664_10 | contemporary South African mental hospital which represents an early 20th-century Los Angeles hospital (the principal setting throughout the film) remained operational (in a separate wing) during filming, according to the DVD commentaries. |
664_11 | The DVD supplementary features reveal that actor Lee Pace remained in a bed for most of the early filming at the director's suggestion, convincing most of the crew that he was in fact unable to walk. The intention, Tarsem and Pace noted, was to maximize the realism of Roy's physical limitations in the eyes of Catinca Untaru, whose lines and reactions as the character Alexandria were largely unscripted, and so were young Catinca's spontaneous interactions with Pace's character. For example, Alexandria's misinterpreting the letter E as the number 3 in a note written by Roy came about from an accidental misreading by the 6-year-old actress during filming, which the director then realized he could adapt into a clever twist in the story. |
664_12 | To further the realism of young Catinca's performance, Tarsem had portions of the hospital scenes between Pace and his young co-star filmed through small holes in the hospital bed curtains, maximizing the youngster's spontaneous interactions with Pace despite the presence of the film crew surrounding them.
The film features a dream sequence animation created by Christoph Launstein and Wolfgang Lauenstein.
Filming locations |
664_13 | Valkenberg Hospital in Cape Town, South Africa
Deadvlei from the Sossusvlei dune in Namib-Naukluft National Park in Namibia
The labyrinth Jantar Mantar in Jaipur
Lake Palace Hotel in Udaipur, India
Charles Bridge in Prague, Czech Republic
Butterfly reef NE of Mana Island, Fiji (Coordinates: -17.672339, 177.131704)
Ubud, Bali Island, Indonesia
Andaman Islands of India
Pangong Tso in Ladakh, India
Buland Darwaza in the palace complex of Fatehpur Sikri, Uttar Pradesh, India
Agra
Magnetic Hill in Ladakh, India
Moonscape near Lamayuru Monastery in Ladakh, India
Gunung Kawi, Bali Island, Indonesia
Chand Baori, a large stepwell in Abhaneri village in the Indian state of Rajasthan
Jodhpur, the Blue City in Rajasthan
Umaid Bhawan Palace Lobby, Jodhpur, Rajasthan
Taj Mahal, India
Jardín Botánico de Buenos Aires, Argentina
Jardín Zoológico de Buenos Aires, Argentina
Teatro Opera Buenos Aires, Argentina
Capitoline Hill, Colosseum, Roma, Italy |
664_14 | Hadrian's Villa, Tivoli, Italy
Hagia Sophia, Istanbul, Turkey
First Statue of Liberty at Île aux Cygnes in Paris, France |
664_15 | Release
The Fall premiered at the 2006 Toronto International Film Festival. For its theatrical release in 2008, the film was presented by David Fincher and Spike Jonze.
Critical reception
On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds a 61% approval rating based on 111 reviews, with an average rating of 6.30/10. The website's critics consensus reads, "More visually elaborate than the fragmented story can sometimes support, The Fall walks the line between labor of love and filmmaker self-indulgence." Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 64 out of 100 based on 23 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". |
664_16 | Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film four stars out of four and wrote, "You might want to see [it] for no other reason than because it exists. There will never be another like it." He later named it among his top 20 films of 2008. Nathan Lee of The New York Times, however, wrote that the film "is a genuine labor of love—and a real bore."
The film appeared on several critics' top ten lists of the best films of 2008. Tasha Robinson of The A.V. Club named it the best film of 2008, and Sean Axmaker of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer named it the 6th best film of 2008.
See also
List of films with longest production time
References
External links |
664_17 | 2006 films
2000s fantasy adventure films
2006 independent films
American films
American independent films
American fantasy adventure films
Indian films
Indian fantasy adventure films
Magic realism films
Films about filmmaking
Films about stunt performers
Films set in the 1920s
Films set in Los Angeles
Films shot in Indonesia
Films shot in Argentina
Films shot in Nepal
Films shot in Rome
Films directed by Tarsem Singh
Films shot in Buenos Aires
English-language films
Films with screenplays by Dan Gilroy
Films about depression
Indian independent films |
665_0 | Signe Baumane (born 7 August 1964) is a Latvian animator, fine artist, illustrator and writer, currently living and working in New York City. She is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, she was a 2005 Fellow in Film of the New York Foundation for the Arts. She is also a teacher, having taught animation at the Pratt Institute from 2000 to 2002.
Early life and education
Signe Baumane was born in Auce, Latvia, and grew up in Tukums, Latvia and Sakhalin Island. She was married to Yuriy Gavrilenko, an artist and impresario, and Lasse Persson, a Swedish animator. She began writing for publication at the age of 14. She attended Moscow University and graduated in 1989 with a BA in Philosophy. |
665_1 | Career
She began working as an animator in 1989, taking a position as animator at Dauka Animation Studio. Over the next several years, local television aired several animated commercials that Baumane had designed and directed. In 1991 she produced her first animated film, The Witch and the Cow, of which she was the scriptwriter, director, designer, and animator.
Following a two-year stint as a children's book illustrator in Moscow, she returned to animation, illustration and stage design in 1993 in Riga. She relocated to New York City in September 1995, finding work with Bill Plympton as production manager, color stylist, and cel painter the following January.
In 1998 she resumed work as an independent animator, making several films. Two of these, Woman and Veterinarian were made during visits to Latvia. The remainder were made in New York City. |
665_2 | Signe has initiated and curated a number of independent animation programs and along with Patrick Smith and Bill Plympton is the organizing core of Square Footage Films, a group of New York independent animators that self-publishes and distributes DVDs of their own work.
Besides doing animation, Baumane is a fine artist, and has produced numerous paintings and sculptures, and has also worked as an illustrator for children's books.
Her films have been screened at important film festivals such as Annecy, Tribeca, Sundance, Berlin, Ottawa, Venice and they have received numerous awards. In 2017, Baumane was awarded a prestigious Guggenheim Fellowship for her exceptional creative ability in the arts. |
665_3 | Rocks in My Pockets
Baumane's animation Rocks in My Pockets is a feature-length autobiographical animation that explores the depression that has haunted three generations of women in her family. Rocks in My Pockets was selected as the Latvian entry for Best Foreign Language Film at the 87th Academy Awards but was not nominated.
The project received early funding from NYSCA, The Jerome Foundation, and Women Make Movies, the project's fiscal sponsor. In 2013 after two years of working on the project Baumane and team raised another $50,000 on Kickstarter. |
665_4 | The film premiered in July 2014 at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival in the Czech Republic, where it won the International Film Critics (FIPRESCI) Award, as well as a Commendation from the Ecumenical Jury. It was subsequently screened at over 130 other film festivals, including the Animator Film Festival in Poland, the Athens International Film Festival in Greece, the San Sebastian International Film Festival in Spain, and the London International Animation Festival, winning a number of awards.
The film opened in New York City on 3 September 2014, and was released in 35 U.S. cities, distributed by Zeitgeist Films. It also was released in Latvia by Locomotive Productions. "Rocks In My Pockets" is now available for streaming and downloads on a number of platforms, and is also available on DVD. |
665_5 | The film attained exceptionally high ratings among U.S. reviewers: a 100% score based on 22 reviews at Rotten Tomatoes, as of July 2019. In December 2019, animation web-site Zippy Frames ranked Rocks in My Pockets ninth on their list of the 20 Best Animation Features of the 2010s, stating, "Coming before the #metoo movement was ever adopted, it is a surrealistic and poignant tale of empowerment that it is an essential element of this decade."
My Love Affair With Marriage
Signe is currently directing and animating her second animated feature film, My Love Affair with Marriage, which will infuse music and science into a personal love story. The film will examine the biological chemistry of love and gender, as well as societal pressures on an individual to conform to the social mores of the times. |
665_6 | After receiving a development grant from NYSCA, through Women Make Movies, the project then raised over $132,000 through Kickstarter to fund production. As of summer 2017, all of the voice actors have been recorded and the film's soundtrack has been completed, and animation has begun, in a partnership with Locomotive Productions, based in Latvia.
The voice cast is scheduled to include Dagmara Dominczyk, Matthew Modine, Cameron Monaghan, Stephen Lang, Erica Schroeder, Emma Kenney, and Michele Pawk in key roles.
Style and Themes
Baumane mainly utilizes a personal narration over a flat 2D hand-drawn cel-shaded style of animation. In her feature film, Rocks in My Pockets, she combined papier-mâché and stop-motion with traditional animations. |
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