mercredi 30 juin 2010
mardi 29 juin 2010
lundi 28 juin 2010
Auguste Rodin at Stanford - the Burghers of Calais
A little-known fact of the Bay Area is the extensive collection of sculpture by Auguste Rodin at Stanford University. Outside of The Quad is a replica of one of Rodin's most powerful works, The Burghers of Calais. With text from the Metropolitan Museum, here is the story of the Burghers:
In 1885 the town council of the French city of Calais commissioned Rodin to produce a sculpture that would pay tribute to the burghers of Calais, heroes of the Hundred Years’ War and symbols of French patriotism.
In 1347, according to the fourteenth-century Chronicles of Jean Froissart, King Edward III of England laid siege to the French town of Calais. After eleven months, with the people desperately short of food and water, six of the leading citizens, or burghers, of Calais offered themselves as hostages to Edward in exchange for the freedom of their city. The king agreed, ordering them to dress in plain garments, wear nooses around their necks, and journey to his camp bearing the keys to the city. Although the king intended to kill the burghers, his pregnant wife, Philippa, persuaded him to spare them, believing that their deaths would be a bad omen for her unborn child.
The story of the burghers of Calais appears in the work of earlier artists, most of whom focused on the single figure of Eustache de Saint-Pierre. Rodin, however, decided to include all six burghers. He had read Froissart’s Chronicles and elected to use the text as the basis for his sculpture.
Froissart describes how each man, a rich and well-respected citizen, announces his intention to offer himself as a hostage to King Edward III. Froissart then writes of the men’s departure after removing the fine clothing that would have identified them as wealthy citizens, wearing instead their “shirts and breeches” (undergarments).
Rodin chooses to portray the moment in the narrative when the men, believing they are going to die, leave the city. He shows the burghers as vulnerable and conflicted, yet heroic in the face of their likely fate.
dimanche 27 juin 2010
Série du pont de dimanche XIV
samedi 26 juin 2010
Weekend Reflections - Things are "just ducky"!
vendredi 25 juin 2010
Le Vendredi Sky Watch
Afternoon fog having enveloped the Golden Gate Bridge and is now covering The City, the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge and the Bay, as seen from Lawrence Berkeley Lab in the Berkeley Hills.
jeudi 24 juin 2010
Qu'est-ce-que c'est?
Clic sur l'image pour l'agrandir
Answer à demain.
UPDATE:
Ol' «Louis» thought this would be more difficult, but he's got a smart group of readers! YAH! Indeed, it is a view of San Francisco taken by peeking over a roof top. The view is from the end of a cul-de-sac in Point Richmond. «Louis» did some photo-flipping, cropping and blurring, but he couldn't fool his readers! Good job! He will try to find something more challenging for next Thursday. He thanks all of you who participated - and all who stopped and looked even if they didn't comment.
mercredi 23 juin 2010
mardi 22 juin 2010
lundi 21 juin 2010
dimanche 20 juin 2010
Série du pont de dimanche XIII
Clic sur l'image pour l'agrandir
Sunday Bridges
samedi 19 juin 2010
Weekend Reflections
vendredi 18 juin 2010
Le Vendredi Sky Watch
This one's for you, Tash! A Boeing 747 gaining altitude after leaving SFO. It is a British Airways flight. Given the time of day «Louis» snapped this photo, it is probably Flight 284, SFO-LHR, a flight «Louis» has taken many times en route to France.jeudi 17 juin 2010
Qu'est-ce-que c'est?
Clic sur l'image pour l'agrandir
You know the drill: leave your guesses in the comments.
Answer à demain
UPDATE: Th' WINNAH IZ: Hilda, My Manila who guessed "a crypt". Click on the photo to enlarge it. Look on the right. It is the crypt of Leland Stanford.
We'll do it again next week. Ol' «Louis» has a 'doozy' for you!
mercredi 16 juin 2010
mardi 15 juin 2010
Stanford Memorial Church
From the Stanford website:
Stanford Memorial Church stands at the center of the campus, and is the University's architectural crown jewel. It was one of the earliest, and is still among the most prominent, interdenominational churches in the West. Jane Stanford built the church as a memorial to her husband, Leland. Together, Senator and Mrs. Stanford had constructed the University as a memorial to their son, Leland, Jr.
The Stanfords, who were religious, but not committed to any denomination, decreed that the church was also to be non-denominational. Adopting such a philosophy, they felt, would permit the church to serve the broadest spiritual needs of the university community. The Stanfords also saw spiritual and moral values as essential to a young person's education and future citizenship.
The first chaplain of Memorial Church,The Rev. Charles Gardner, said on its dedication day in 1903: "We begin anew today. no less an experiment than this: to test whether a non-sectarian church can minister to the spiritual needs of a great university. it has been built in love; not to teach a theological system, not to develop a sectarian principle, but to minister to the higher life."
The church construction was completed in 1903. Today, regular multi-faith services are held in the church, in addition to denominational and nondenominational Christian services.
lundi 14 juin 2010
«Flag Day» aux États-Unis
Aux Ètats-Unis, Flag Day is celebrated on le 14 juin. Flag Day commemorates the adoption of the flag of the United States, when the Second Continental Congress on adopted the Stars and Stripes by a resolution passed on le 14 juin 1777. In 1916, President Woodrow Wilson issued a proclamation that officially established le 14 juin as Flag Day; National Flag Day was established by an Act of Congress in aout 1949.
"Louis" adapted this history of Flag Day from Wikipedia:
The earliest reference to the suggestion of a "Flag Day" is cited in "Kansas: a Cyclopedia of State History, published by Standard Publishing Company of Chicago in 1912. It credits George Morris of Hartford, Connecticut:
'To George Morris of Hartford, Conn., is popularly given the credit of suggesting "Flag Day," the occasion being in honor of the adoption of the American flag on June 14, 1777. The city of Hartford observed the day in 1861, carrying out a program of a patriotic order, praying for the success of the Federal arms and the preservation of the Union.'
1885
Working as a grade school teacher in Waubeka, Wisconsin, in 1885, Bernard Cigrand held the first recognized formal observance of Flag Day at Stony Hill School in Waubeka. The school has been restored, and a bust of Cigrand also honors him at the National Flag Day Americanism Center in Waubeka.
From the late 1880s on, Cigrand spoke around the country promoting patriotism, respect for the flag, and the need for the annual observance of a flag day on June 14, the day in 1777 that the Continental Congress adopted the Stars and Stripes.
He moved to Chicago to attend dental school and, in June 1886, first publicly proposed an annual observance of the birth of the United States flag in an article titled "The Fourteenth of June," published in the Chicago Argus newspaper. In June 1888, Cigrand advocated establishing the holiday in a speech before the "Sons of America," a Chicago group. The organization founded a magazine, American Standard, in order to promote reverence for American emblems. Cigrand was appointed editor-in-chief and wrote articles in the magazine as well as in other magazines and newspapers to promote the holiday.
On the third Saturday in June 1894, a public school children’s celebration of Flag Day took place in Chicago at Douglas, Garfield, Humboldt, Lincoln, and Washington Parks. More than 300,000 children participated, and the celebration was repeated the next year.
Cigrand became president of the American Flag Day Association and later of the National Flag Day Society, which allowed him to promote his cause with organizational backing. Cigrand once noted he had given 2,188 speeches on patriotism and the flag.
Cigrand lived in Batavia, Illinois, from 1913–1932.
Cigrand generally is credited with being the "Father of Flag Day," with the Chicago Tribune noting that he "almost singlehandedly" established the holiday.
1888
William Kerr, a resident of Collier Township, Pennsylvania, for a number of years, founded the American Flag Day Association of Western Pennsylvania in 1888, and became that organization's national chairman one year later, serving as such for fifty years. He attended President Harry S. Truman's 1949 signing of the Act of Congress that formally established the observance.
1889
In 1889, the principal of a free kindergarten, George Bolch, celebrated the anniversary of the Flag resolution at his New York City school. Soon the State Board of Education of New York, the Betsy Ross House in Philadelphia, and the New York Society of the Sons of the Revolution celebrated Flag Day, as well.
1893
In 1893, Elizabeth Duane Gillespie, a descendant of Benjamin Franklin and the president of the Colonial Dames of Pennsylvania, attempted to have a resolution passed deeming June 14 as Flag Day. That same year, the Colonial Dames of Pennsylvania were responsible for a resolution passed requiring the American flag to be displayed on all Philadelphia's public buildings. In 1937, Pennsylvania became the first state to make Flag Day a legal holiday.
Don't miss this! Delightful!
"The Quad"; Stanford University
This shot of the Quad at Stanford was taken in front of the Leland Stanford Memorial Chapel (more about which anon), looking east down the palm tree lined drive toward Palo Alto.
dimanche 13 juin 2010
samedi 12 juin 2010
vendredi 11 juin 2010
Le Vendredi Sky Watch
jeudi 10 juin 2010
Qu'est-ce-que c'est?
You know the drill: leave your guesses in the comments.
Answer à demain
Update:
Well, we didn't have a winner this week! «Louis» thought one of you would guess this one!
We had guesses of too much wine, too much caffeine, not enough caffeine. We had guesses of the sun, the moon and the Dawning of the Age of Aquarius. We had guesses of earthquakes. No cigar! This was a tripod-less shot of a full moon setting over the Golden Gate Bridge at 0430 hrs, shot at a low shutter speed and, yes, camera shake. LOTS of cAmErA sHaKe!
«Louis» thanks all of you who stopped by!
mercredi 9 juin 2010
mardi 8 juin 2010
lundi 7 juin 2010
dimanche 6 juin 2010
Débarquement de Normandie: le 6 juin 1944
"Louis's" previous post on this historic battle is HERE.
See also:
• Charles de Gaulle et l'appel du 18 juin 1940
• Général Alphonse-Pierre Juin
• Henri-Philippe Pétain
• Pierre Laval
Général Henri Giraud
• Winston Churchill
• U.S. General George Patton
• Héros de la résistance: Jean Moulin
• France falls to the Nazis
• The Resistance: les Maquis
• The French fleet scuttles itself at Toulon
• The Normandy Invasion
• 20 July 1944 Plot against Hitler
• Is Paris burning?
• The Liberation of Paris
• The Battle of the Bulge
Série du pont de dimanche XI
Three tankers at the pier where Chevron pumps oil from the tankers to their nearby refinery. That's the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge on the right and Mount Tamalpais in the background.
Sunday Bridges
samedi 5 juin 2010
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