History.

Concerns over scenarios involving nuclear accidents or incidents on American soil are not recent. As early as the 1960s, officials were concerned that a nuclear weapon might be smuggled into the country, or that an airplane carrying a nuclear weapon might crash and contaminate surrounding areas. In late 1974, President Gerald Ford was warned that the FBI received a communication from an extortionist wanting $200,000 () after claiming that a nuclear weapon had been placed somewhere in Boston. A team of experts rushed in from the United States Atomic Energy Commission but their radiation detection gear arrived at a different airport. Federal officials then rented a fleet of vans to carry concealed radiation detectors around the city but forgot to bring the tools they needed to install the equipment. The incident was later found to be a hoax. However, the government's response made clear the need for an agency capable of effectively responding to such threats in the future. Later that year, President Ford created the Nuclear Emergency Search Team (NEST), which under the Atomic Energy Act is tasked with investigating the "illegal use of nuclear materials within the United States, including terrorist threats involving the use of special nuclear materials".  One of its first responses was in Spokane, Washington on November 23, 1976. An unknown group called the "Days of Omega" had mailed an extortion threat claiming they would explode radioactive containers of water all over the city unless paid $500,000 (). Presumably, the radioactive containers had been stolen from the Hanford Site, less than 150 miles (240 km) to the southwest. NEST immediately flew in a support aircraft from Las Vegas and began searching for non-natural radiation, but found nothing. No one ever responded, despite the elaborate instructions given, or made any attempt to claim the (fake) money, which was kept under surveillance. Within days, the incident was deemed a hoax, though the case was never solved. To avoid panic, the public was not notified until a few years later.

Today.

According to the "Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists", NEST has the ability to deploy as many as 600 people to the scene of a radiological incident, though deployments do not usually exceed 45 people. NEST has a variety of equipment (weighing up to 150 tons) and has the support of a small fleet of aircraft which includes four helicopters and three airplanes, all outfitted with detection equipment.  When an airborne response to an incident is underway, the Federal Aviation Administration grants NEST flights a higher control priority within the United States National Airspace System, designated with the callsign "FLYNET".

Capabilities.

Since 1975, NEST has been warned of 125 nuclear terror threats and has responded to 30. All have been false alarms. While it is common belief that NEST does not have the technology to accurately detect nuclear threats within the noise of natural radiation, in fact it has had the capability to distinguish between man-made and natural radiation since the 1970s. At first, there were still some problems with this simple distinction, as man-made radiation also includes such things as medical radiation. A man under treatment for Graves' disease with radioactive iodine set off alarms in the New York City subway. After being strip-searched and interrogated he was sent on his way.  Since its initial creation, the detection equipment has been improved and now data can be processed accurately enough to home in on the activity of any single nuclear element desired.

In popular culture.

NEST is mentioned in the motion pictures "Broken Arrow", "The Peacemaker", "The Manhattan Project", "", "Atomic Train" and "Vishwaroopam", as well as in the made-for-television film "Special Bulletin" and the television series "24" and "". NEST also appears in the books "Gideon's Corpse" by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child, "The Fifth Horseman" by Larry Collins and Dominique Lapierre, and "The Sum of All Fears" by Tom Clancy. NEST is mentioned in the first-person shooter video game "", when a nuclear threat was suspected in the Middle East, as well as the stealth action game "Metal Gear Solid". NEST is featured somewhat prominently in an episode of the television series "Castle" when a dirty bomb is found in New York City.  The need for a NEST team is raised in an episode of the television series "The Blacklist" when it is learned that a group of operatives the protagonists are seeking are in fact nuclear weapons placed somewhere within the U.S.  One of the main characters of "Zankyō no Terror" ("Terror in Resonance") is a NEST researcher.  NEST appears as a possible player character profession in the role-playing game "Delta Green" in the 2019 sourcebook "The Complex".

The Nuclear Emergency Support Team (NEST), formerly known as the Nuclear Emergency Search Team, is a team of scientists, technicians, and engineers operating under the United States Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA). Their task is to be "prepared to respond immediately to any type of radiological accident or incident anywhere in the world".


Early life.

Peter Collinson was born in Cleethorpes, Lincolnshire in 1936. His parents, an actress and a musician, separated when he was two years old; he was raised by his grandparents. From the age of eight until 14 he attended the Actor's Orphanage in Chertsey, Surrey, where he had the chance to write and act in many plays.  Noël Coward, who was president of the orphanage at the time, became his godfather and helped him to obtain jobs in the entertainment industry, which was dramatized in the radio play "Mr Bridger's Orphan" by Marcy Kahan in 2013. (Collinson later directed Coward in his best-known film, "The Italian Job" (1969)). He auditioned for RADA but was rejected, so went to work for the New Cross Empire theatre when aged 14. He did a variety of theatrical jobs until 1954, when he was called up for national service. He served as a private with the Queen's Royal Regiment (West Surrey) for two years in Malaya during the Malayan Emergency.

Career.

Collinson's early television work included time as a floor manager for the BBC and directing for ATV at Elstree studios. He was an assistant director on a short, "The Pit" (1962), and made a documentary, "Blackwater Holiday" (1963).  He also worked with Telefís Éireann, the Republic of Ireland's national TV station, and in 1963 he won a Jacob's Award for his production "The Bomb". He produced a stage musical in Dublin, "Carrie" (1963), starring Ray McAnally.  Collinson began to direct TV: the film "Don't Ever Talk to Clocks" (1964), "In Loving Memory" (1964), "The One Nighters". He also made episodes of "Sergeant Cork" (1964), "The Sullavan Brothers" (1964), "The Plane Makers" (1964), "Love Story" (1964-65), "Front Page Story" (1965), "Knock on Any Door" (1965), "A Day of Peace" (1965) "Blackmail" (1965-66), and "The Power Game", "Women, Women, Women" and "The Informer" (all 1966).

Features.

Whilst working in TV he met producer Michael Klinger, who offered him the director role on the film "The Penthouse" (1967); this became Collinson's directorial debut. Starring Suzy Kendall, the low-budget film was released in the US and proved to be a surprise hit.  Collinson followed it with "Up the Junction" (1968), starring Kendall and Dennis Waterman, which received some strong reviews.  Collinson directed two films for Paramount, both produced by Michael Deeley: "The Long Day's Dying" (1968), a low-budget war film, and "The Italian Job" (1969), a caper movie starring Michael Caine and Noel Coward. Dino De Laurentiis said he was to direct a film about Ned Kelly in Australia, "The Iron Outlaw", but it was never made.  Instead, Collinson went to Turkey where he directed Tony Curtis and Charles Bronson in "You Can't Win 'Em All" (1970). He clashed with Curtis during filming. He was meant to helm a biopic of Robert Capa, but it was never made.  Back in England he made "Fright" (1971), a thriller with Susan George. He did a horror movie for Hammer Films, "Straight On till Morning" (1972), with Rita Tushingham, then "Innocent Bystanders" (1972), a thriller shot in Spain and Turkey with Stanley Baker.  Collinson went to Spain to direct a Western, "The Man Called Noon" (1973). He followed it with "Open Season" (1974), starring Peter Fonda; a remake of "And Then There Were None" (1974), filmed in Iran with Oliver Reed; a remake of "The Spiral Staircase" (1975), shot in England with Jacqueline Bisset; "Target of an Assassin" (1976), filmed in South Africa with Anthony Quinn; and "The Sell Out" (1976), shot in Israel with Reed.  He went to Canada for "Tomorrow Never Comes" (1978), with Donald Sutherland and Susan George; it was entered into the 11th Moscow International Film Festival. He followed it with "The House on Garibaldi Street" (1979), a US telemovie starring Topol.  His last feature was "The Earthling" (1980), shot in Australia with William Holden and Ricky Schroder.  He was meant to direct "The Gangster Chronicles" for US television but died shortly before filming was to begin. Richard Sarafian stepped in.

Personal life.

During the filming of "The Earthling" (1980), Collinson discovered he was terminally ill; he died from lung cancer in Los Angeles. He was survived by his wife Hazel and two sons, aged 13 and 10.

Peter Collinson (1 April 1936 – 16 December 1980) was a British film director probably best remembered for directing "The Italian Job" (1969).


Biography.

Dollar began developing World Changers Ministries Christian Center in 1986. He held the church's first worship service in the cafeteria of Kathleen Mitchell Elementary School in College Park, with eight people in attendance. He later renamed the ministry as World Changers Church International (WCCI), and the congregation moved from the cafeteria to a dedicated chapel. Four services were held each Sunday, and Creflo added a weekly radio broadcast. On December 24, 1995, WCCI moved into its present location, the 8,500-seat facility known as the World Dome. The church has said that the nearly $20 million World Dome was built without any bank financing., the congregation reported having around 30,000 members, and $70 million in revenue (gross cash collections) for 2006.  In June 2012, Dollar was arrested in an alleged attack on his 15-year old daughter, according to the Fayette County, Georgia, Sheriff's Office. Dollar was accused of choking and punching his 15-year old daughter and the story was corroborated by Dollar's other 19-year old daughter. The charges were dropped in January 2013 after he attended anger management classes. The Fayette County Police Department released details of a 911 call.  In October 2012, Creflo Dollar Ministries leased Loews Paradise Theater in The Bronx for a new church location in New York.  Dollar also speaks at conferences and writes about his gospel of wealth and his involvement in televangelism.  Dollar and his wife Taffi have five children and live in Atlanta.

Finances and prosperity gospel teachings.

Dollar is known for his controversial teachings regarding prosperity theology. He has long been criticized for living a lavish lifestyle. He owns two Rolls-Royces, a private jet, and high-end real estate such as a million-dollar home in Atlanta, a $2.5 million home in Demarest, New Jersey, and a home in Manhattan that he bought for $2.5 million in 2006 and sold for $3.75 million in 2012. Dollar has refused to disclose his salary. For declining to disclose any financial information to independent audit, Creflo Dollar Ministries received a grade of "F" (failing) for financial transparency by the organization Ministry Watch.  Dollar was among six televangelists who were the subject of a 2007 investigation led by United States Senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa as ranking member of the Senate Finance Committee. Grassley asked for financial information to determine whether Dollar made any personal profit from financial donations and requested that Dollar's ministry make the information available by December 6, 2007. The investigation also asked for information from five other televangelists: Benny Hinn, Kenneth Copeland, Eddie L. Long, Joyce Meyer, and Paula White. Dollar contested the probe, arguing that the proper governmental entity to examine religious groups is the IRS, not the Committee on Finance. Dollar and three others were not cooperative, and the probe concluded in 2011 without any charges.  On November 24, 2014, Dollar's private Gulfstream III jet, N103CD, ran off the runway at Biggin Hill Airport, United Kingdom. There were no serious injuries.

Creflo Augustus Dollar Jr. (born Michael Smith, January 28, 1962) is an American televangelist and the founder of the non-denominational World Changers Church International based in College Park, Georgia, a suburb of Atlanta. Dollar also heads the Creflo Dollar Ministerial Association (formerly called International Covenant Ministries), Creflo Dollar Ministries, and Arrow Records.


Background.

By 1986, Michael had spent five years as the lead singer of the popular duo Wham! and had grown tired of accusations that the group, which featured his best friend Andrew Ridgeley, was nothing more than a teenybopper group despite the serious subject matter that was included on albums such as "Fantastic" and "Make It Big". After the success of "Make It Big" Michael had grown weary of continuing the group, and expressed to Ridgeley the desire that they should split up. A decision was made that the group would dissolve following the end of a tenure at Wembley Stadium for what was titled "Wham: The Final". Following the split, Michael began to work on songs that eventually would make his first solo album, which would be titled "Faith".

Recording.

Michael spent the greater part of 1987 writing and recording the songs for the "Faith" album. In addition to playing various instruments on the album, he wrote and produced every track on the recording except for one, "Look at Your Hands", which he co-wrote with David Austin. A contemporary "black" pop-R&B album, "Faith" showcases the vocals of Michael in a new style mode. Its songs are littered with introspective lyrics, which generated controversies about Michael's personal relationships at that time. Most of the material was recorded at Puk Recording Studios in Denmark and Sarm West Studios in London. The album covered many styles of which included soul ("Father Figure", "One More Try"), rock ("Look at Your Hands", "Faith", "Hand to Mouth"), funk ("Monkey", "Hard Day") and jazz ("Kissing a Fool").  Some of the material was more graphic than Michael's previous efforts with Wham! One such song was "I Want Your Sex", which had three parts: the first part was titled "Rhythm 1: Lust", which was the version that would eventually be released as a single and featured electro funk influences; the second part was titled "Rhythm 2: Brass in Love", which mixed a more instrumentally-based funk live instrumentation with a smoother R&B arrangement during the verses; the third part, which was edited to be the final song on the album, was titled "Rhythm 3: A Last Request", featuring a jazz-influenced quiet storm and R&B sound combined with lyrics telling of Michael drunkenly trying to bring his lover to his bed.  The title track began with an organ fanfare that was actually the music to Wham!'s "Freedom" played as if in a cathedral. After this, the song featured a rockabilly sound similar to Bo Diddley while Michael added his own style with his vocals. "Father Figure" originally was a dance-styled production until Michael removed the snare drums from it and kept it that way because he loved what he heard, making the song a mid-tempo R&B ballad. "One More Try" was a soul song in the tradition of songs by Marvin Gaye and Stevie Wonder; its lyrics tell of a man who pushes his lover away out of fear of repeating past relationships, only to accept the invitation in the end.  "Hard Day", much like the first two parts of "I Want Your Sex", was inspired by funk. The social commentary song "Hand to Mouth" had a slight pop and folk approach while a similar social commentary song, "Look at Your Hands", co-written by Michael and David Austin, produced a pop song with rock elements featuring a piano and saxophone. "Monkey" returns to the funk influences of some of the other songs. A remix of the song by Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis brings a new jack swing approach to the original. "Kissing a Fool" is a jazz-influenced ballad with lyrics solemnly describing a breakup.

Release.

25 weeks after its release, "Faith" reached number one on the US "Billboard" 200. Its early, and successive, success on the chart was said to be partly sustained—with help from plenty of press appearances and promotions—by its strong single releases. After "I Want Your Sex" helped propel "Faith" to its debut atop the chart, the second single "Faith" aided the album's continuing sales dominance. It also reached number one on the UK Albums Chart, although it stayed at the top spot for only one week. "Faith" stayed for 51 non-consecutive weeks inside the "Billboard" 200 top 10, including 12 weeks at number one. It was also the first album by a white solo artist to hit number one on the "Billboard" Top Black Albums chart.  In a 1988 interview with "Jet" magazine, Michael was quoted as saying: "I was much happier with ["Faith"] being the No. 1 Black [chart] album than I was when it became the No. 1 Pop album. There was much more of a sense of achievement. I knew this album would be a shock or a surprise to people in this country. The uptempo side of the new music is more overtly sexual, more black."  During 1987 and 1988, "Faith" produced a string of hit singles for Michael, including six top-five "Billboard" Hot 100 hits, four of which ("Faith", "Father Figure", "One More Try", and "Monkey") reached number one, making him the only British male solo artist to have four number one hits from one album on the "Billboard" Hot 100. "Faith" was 1988's best-selling single in the United States; with "Careless Whisper" having been the best-selling single in 1985, Michael became the first musician to achieve two "Billboard" Year-End number one singles chart since the Beatles' "Hey Jude" topped the Year-End singles chart in 1968 after "I Want to Hold Your Hand" had done so in 1964. Michael also had both the year's number one album and the number one single, which hadn't happened since 1970, when Simon & Garfunkel grabbed both positions with "Bridge over Troubled Water" and its title track.

The Faith Tour.

Michael embarked on a world tour to promote the album in February 1988, opening at Tokyo's Budokan arena, before going on to dates in Australia, Europe and North America. In Los Angeles, Michael was joined on stage by Aretha Franklin for a duet on "I Knew You Were Waiting (For Me)". While on tour, new singles from the album continued to be released. In June, Michael interrupted the tour to sing three songs at Wembley Stadium's Nelson Mandela 70th Birthday Tribute.

Critical reception.

Mark Coleman of "Rolling Stone" praised Michael for emerging as "one of pop music’s leading artisans, a painstaking craftsman who combines a graceful knack for vocal hooks with an uncanny ability to ransack the past for musical ideas and still sound fresh" and dubbed Michael the "Elton John of the 1980s". Coleman also claimed that "Faith" is "a concept album of sorts" incorporating "disco groove [varying] from urban thump to slow tropical heat wave", praising it for being "grounded in a passion and personal commitment".  "Faith" earned Michael numerous accolades, including Album of the Year at the 31st Grammy Awards. Michael was awarded three awards at the 1989 American Music Awards: Favorite Pop/Rock Male Artist, Favorite Soul/R&B Male Artist and Favorite Soul/R&B Album for "Faith". He was also honoured with the MTV Video Vanguard Award. "Faith" was the best-selling album of 1988 in the United States, and eventually reached Diamond certification by the Recording Industry Association of America. According to Nielsen SoundScan, current sales of the album stand at 11 million copies, making it the 52nd-bestselling album in the United States. "Faith" has sold around over 20 million copies worldwide.

Reappraisal.

In a "Billboard" review, "Faith" was considered to have "cemented [Michael] as an MTV icon and a global superstar" and shaping the sound of "late-'80s pop as much as any LP of its time." Writing for BBC Music, Ian Wade praised "Faith" for being a "classic of its era" and "one of the more listenable major releases of the 80s." He also regarded the album being responsible for turning Michael into a "proper international superstar, confirming his rightful place at pop’s top table."  Reviewing the reissue of "Faith" for the "Metro" in 2011, Arwa Haider claimed: ""Faith" still bursts with self-belief, designer vanity, classic songs and imagery, right from the opening title track which begins with a funeral church organ rendition of Wham!'s hit, "Freedom", before clicking into jaunty rock 'n' roll. It's easy to hear why "Faith" achieved multi-million status, although the masterful ballads ("Father Figure", "One More Try") have stood the test of time better than Michael's funk-pop." Following the 30th anniversary of the release of the single "Faith", Nate Hertweck wrote in a Grammy Awards review that the song "change[d] everything".  In 1989, "Faith" was ranked at number 84 on "Rolling Stone"s list of the Greatest Albums of the 80s. In 2003, the album was ranked at number 480 on "Rolling Stone"s list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time while in 2012, the album ranked eight places higher at number 472 on an updated list by the magazine. "Faith" was ranked 79th in a 2005 survey held by British television's Channel 4 to determine the 100 Greatest Albums of All Time. In 2006, "Q" magazine placed the album at number 24 in its list of 40 Best Albums of the '80s. "Slant Magazine" listed the album at number 62 on its list of Best Albums of the 1980s.

2011 remastered release.

A remastered edition of "Faith" was released on 31 January 2011 in the UK and on 1 February 2011 in the US. It is available in several formats: "Limited Edition Collectors Box Set", "Two-CD and DVD Special Edition", "Two-CD Edition" and "iTunes LP". The box set release features: the remastered album on CD, an additional CD of remastered 12" versions and B-sides; a DVD featuring a TV special from 1987, a hardbound book that includes an exclusive interview with George Michael, sleeve notes, rare photos and memorabilia; a vinyl album replica of the original LP; and a memorabilia envelope that includes five art prints, reproduction poster, tickets and tour pass from the "Faith" tour sourced from Michael's personal archive. All this is housed in a 12 x 12 numbered, black and gold-foiled slipcase with original artwork overlay. The first 2,000 copies were also provided with a hand-numbered lithograph attached (taped) outside the box set. The 2011 re-release received universal acclaim from music critics according to Metacritic.

Track listing.

Note

2011 remaster.

Disc one  Track 1–9 of the first disc features the remastered version of the original album.  Disc two  Note  2011 remaster DVD

Faith is the debut studio album by the English singer George Michael, released on 30 October 1987 by Columbia Records and Epic Records. In addition to playing various instruments on the album, Michael wrote and produced every track on the recording except for one, "Look at Your Hands", which he co-wrote with David Austin. A "black" inspired pop-R&B album, "Faith"'s songs include introspective lyrics, which generated controversies about Michael's personal relationships at that time.


Early life, education.

Iryna Khalip was born on November 12, 1967 in Minsk, a city in Belorussian SSR. Her father is an arts and theater critic. She graduated from Belarus State University with a focus in journalism studies in 1989.

Early journalism career.

Afterward graduation Khalip got a job at the government paper "Sovetskaya Belorussiya". She decided she wanted to become a full-time journalist in 1994, at age 26. She has stated "I was looking for something not very difficult...something easy and interesting. I was only half right, because journalism is really interesting, but not easy."  Belarus, which had gained independence from the USSR after the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, elected Alexander Lukashenko as president in 1994. He quickly became known for restricting freedom of speech and freedom of the press. Khalip has stated "Dictatorships don’t like journalists - they either destroy them or buy them out." That year, Lukashenko fired the editor of "Soviet Belarusia" after the employees proposed privatizing the paper, and also demanded the paper become his "mouthpiece." Khalip quit her job and became a correspondent with other papers.  In 1997, Khalip was reporting at a rally that opposed Belarus unifying with Russia. She was clubbed by riot police and dragged by her hair, and her father, who was with her at the rally, was beaten into unconsciousness.

"Imya" intimidation attempt.

Khalip later went to work for the independent newspaper "Imya" (""Name""). In 1999, the Belarusian government issued a warning to "Imya" over an article Khalip had written about the Central Electoral Committee's activities. According to the chair of the Belarusian Press Committee, the article and the newspaper's coverage of the upcoming presidential elections amounted to "incitement to overthrow the state," and a second warning would lead to the paper's closure.  That year, police came to Khalip's home and detained her for an entire day. They interrogated and allegedly threatened her, and while she was detained, they searched her apartment, confiscated travel documents, and took her work computer.

2000 detainment.

In March 2000, Khalip was reporting on a Minsk demonstration protesting an official ban on a public march. The banned march was intended to be part of the opposition festivities commemorating the 1918 founding of the Belarusian Democratic Republic. She was forced into a police vehicle and detained at an Interior Ministry facility in Minsk, along with 34 other journalists. She was released later that day.

"Belorusskaya Delovaya Gazeta".

In 2003, President Lukashenko altered the Belarusian criminal code to make it illegal for journalists to write anything negative about the president. At that point, Khalip had written multiple articles on corruption in the prosecutor's office for "Belorusskaya Delovaya Gazeta" ("Belarusian Business Newspaper"). The newspaper was accordingly forced to suspend its activities for "insulting the honor and dignity of the president." In 2006, the newspaper was forced to close permanently.

"Novaya Gazeta".

After the closure of the "Belorusskaya Delovaya Gazeta" Khalip became a regular editor and reporter for the Minsk bureau of "Novaya Gazeta" ("New Gazette"), a newspaper based in Moscow. The paper is famous for being the very last independent newspaper in Russia. There are no independent newspapers in Belarus, making it one of the few outlets for independent Belarusian journalists.  The paper is known for being outspoken about the corruption of governments in the former Soviet Republics, and its journalists have faced brutal intimidation and persecution. Anna Politkovskaya, one of their well-known reporters and a winner of the 2002 Courage in Journalism Award, was shot to death outside her flat in 2006. Three years before that, the "Gazeta" investigative journalist Yuri Shchekochikhin died in highly suspicious circumstances; many factions believe he was poisoned by the KGB. Khalip, however, has stated she won't stop reporting on civil and human rights abuses, because “[It would] betray my friends. [It would] betray the memory of their husbands. There is only one way to go ahead.”

Reporting on Emmanuel Zeltser.

Khalip’s more notable reporting is related to abduction, detention and torture of Emmanuel Zeltser, a prominent American lawyer who spent 16 months in the Belarusian KGB detention before being released thanks to the intervention of the United States government and human rights organizations, including Amnesty International. As was widely reported, on March 11, 2008, Zeltser and his assistant Vladlena Funk were abducted in London U.K. by the Belarusian KGB operatives. Both were drugged and secretly renditioned across international borders to Belarus aboard a private jet belonging to Boris Berezovsky, a notorious Russian “oligarch”, wanted by the Interpol for fraud and money laundering and close friend of the Belarusian dictator Alyaksander Lukashenka.  Khalip sent a text of her journalistic investigation to the "Novaya Gazeta" editorial office on Saturday, November 22, 2009. That day at 17:43 she received an email from "Drug Drug" titled "Greetings from Boris." It read "Irka if you won’t remove the article you will meet with [murdered reporter] Anna Politkovskaya, or tomorrow you will meet with intoxicated niggers. With love, BA (sic)." Khalip immediately called London and spoke to Berezovsky, who assured her he had not sent the email and theorized it was the "special services."  The next Monday and Tuesday she gathered more information for the article at the behest of her editor-in-chief. That Tuesday, at 8:53 p.m., she received a call to her mobile phone from a pay phone. A unknown man stated “You have been warned, bitch, haven’t you? If the article is published, you must not leave your house any more.”  On the evening of Thursday, November 26, she received a telegram from Moscow stating “HERO OF EUROPE THE MATTER DOES NOT CONCERN PAL PALYCH BUT VLADIMIROVICH DRINK HENNESSEY AND DRINK HEALTH OF YOUR SON IF YOU DO NOT CARE FOR YOUR HEALTH." The telegram made obvious references to her private phone conversations the last few days. Days earlier, she had discussed Russian official Pavel Pavlovich Borodin (Pal Palych) with her editors at "Novаya Gazeta", informing them that Emmanuel Zeltser was the New York attorney for Borodin. She had also requested her husband, future presidential candidate Andrei Sannikov, pick up Hennessy cognac at a shop. Also, the couple's year-old son had been ill, and she had made several phone calls concerning the issue.  When the Charter 97 website later asked about the source of the threats, Khalip stated “Only those who have a possibility to intercept emails of others could make threats to me. In our country it’s a prerogative of secret services...KGB servicemen are used to stay nameless and faceless in the crowd. They do not like when their illegal and sometimes criminal actions become known...”  Despite the explicit death threats, Khalip and her editors decided to publish the story in the December 9 edition of "Novaya Gazeta". The harassment was addressed in the article.

'Hunter's Case' interrogation.

On March 3, 2010, it was reported by Charter97.org that Khalip and her husband Andrei Sannikov had been summoned to the Partyzanski District militia department in Minsk for questioning. Chief interrogating officer Alyaksandr Paznyak oversaw the interrogations, questioning them individually in an effort to uncover if they were connected to a criminal case involving "defamation" of Ivan Korzh, a former member of the KGB in the Gomel region. According to Khalip, they were asked "if we were coordinators of the website charter97.org, if we conducted journalistic investigation of the 'hunters’ case,' if I published anything relating to this issue, if we met with his family, if we published anything on the website 'Belorusski Partizan.' Our answers to all questions were decisive “no”, which is absolutely true.”

2010 presidential elections.

In March 2010, Khalip's husband Andrei Sannikov declared his intention to take part in the Belarus presidential election of 2010 as a candidate. Along with Uladzimir Niaklajeu and Jarasłaŭ Ramančuk, he was considered one of the main opposition candidates. With Khalip's support, he officially registered on November 18, 2010. After the presidential elections took place on December 19, 2010, incumbent Aleksandr Lukashenko was proclaimed the winner with roughly 80% of the popular vote.

December 19 demonstration.

On the night of December 19, thousands of protesters peacefully filled a large square in central Minsk, deeming the election results fraudulent. Many oppositional political candidates were present. The police broke up the rally, beating and injuring people and arresting more than 600. Khalip and her husband Andrei Sannikov were among those beaten by police during the rally, and according to eye-witnesses, were singled out from the crowd. Later, on the way to the hospital to treat Sannikov's broken legs, their car was intercepted while Khalip was giving a telephone interview to the Moscow radio station Ekho Moskvy (Echo of Moscow). Khalip screamed on air that they were being forcibly removed from their car, arrested, and beaten.  On March 22, while accusing her of lying about being beaten, Lukashenko admitted that Khalip's phone had been bugged and was being listened to by the government.

Detainment.

Both Khalip and Sannikov were detained in a KGB facility in Minsk. Hours after the arrest, Khalip borrowed a mobile phone from another detainee and called her mother, asking her to take care of her young son. According to Sannikov's lawyer Pavel Sapelko, he was denied proper medical treatment for his injuries. Sapelko also reported that the couple was officially charged with the crimes of "organizing an unsanctioned gathering and participating in mass disorder" on December 29, after 10 days detention with no charges. If convicted, the result could be up to 15 years in prison.

Custody threats.

On December 25, "The Daily Telegraph" reported that authorities were threatening to remove Khalip's young son, at the time three years old, from her mother's custody. The child had been placed in the custody of Khalip's 74-year-old mother after his parents' incarceration. The child at the time believed his parents were on an extended business trip. Child Welfare Services required Khalip's mother to undergo a series of medical and psychological tests to assess if she would be able to retain custody, including testing for H.I.V. and syphilis, saying they would make a decision by the end of the month. Khalip's mother stated “This is an effort to put pressure on Irina. They are capable of squeezing her, and this of course is the most sensitive place.”  After the announcement, activists rallied for Khalip and her son outside the Belarus Embassy in Moscow, holding signs demanding their reunion. Boris Nemtsov was present, holding a sign of Khalip with the others.  By January 11, Khalip's mother reported that the authorities found her fit enough to retain custody of the boy, though he was required to undergo a medical check as well.

House arrest.

After the protests, Khalip was released from the detention center on January 30, and placed under stringent house arrest. Her husband remained incarcerated. Though reunited with her son, she was expressly forbidden from communicating with the outside world or media in any way, and was not allowed to use a phone or a computer, or to go near windows. She was not allowed to receive any correspondence, though she was allowed to talk with family members. Two KGB guards were permanently stationed in her apartment to ensure compliance; if attempted communication, she would be sent back to prison.

Legal prosecution.

On February 3, it was announced that her husband's press secretary, journalist Aleksandr Otroschenkov, had been sentenced to a four-year prison term for participating in the protest rally. The judgement was handed down by Judge Tatiana Cherkas under article 293 of the Criminal code, despite the fact that Otroschenkov had been involved in the protest solely as a professional journalist.  On February 4, it was reported that Khalip's lawyer Tamara Harayeva had withdrawn from her defense team, giving no explanation. Three days later, Khalip's lawyer Uladzimer Toustsik abruptly withdrew from the case as well. A family member in touch with Khalip said that the authorities had threatened to revoke their licenses to practice law if they continued to represent her. It was also reported that authorities were trying to force her to accept a state-appointed lawyer. On February 18, it was revealed that both of Khalip's former lawyers had been stripped of their licenses to practice law. The Belarusian Justice Ministry stated they had been disbarred for their "refusal to represent Khalip".  As of February 20, 46 people had been charged in the "riot" case, among them four of the nine presidential candidates. Further protests took place after activist Vasuk Parfyankow was sentenced to four years in a high-security prison. Sixteen journalists and activists including Khalip still faced prosecution, all facing the possibility of 15 years in prison if their cases proceed to trial.  On April 15, Minsk city Court heard an appeal from Andrei Sannikov's lawyer Pavel Sapelka against the extent of his detention term, but was denied. According to Radio Svaboda (Radio Freedom), Sannikov's health after his last meeting with his lawyers was "satisfactory". He is to be tried on April 27.  On April 18, the Minsk City Court officially sent a case against Khalip to the court of the Zavadski district of Minsk, stating "The case has just been received by the court. A date and a judge have not been appointed." Iryna Khalip, Syargei Martseleu and Pavel Sevyarynets are to be charged under part 1 of article 342 of the Criminal Code of Belarus for “taking part or organizing the actions that violate public order.” That day Minsk City Court also extended Khalip's house arrest for another month.  Amnesty International designated Khalip and her husband as prisoners of conscience. The Committee to Protect Journalists has also called for Belarusian authorities to immediately lift all restrictions on Khalip's movement and to drop the "fabricated" charges against her.  On 16 May, Khalip was convicted of "organizing and preparing activities severely disruptive of public order" and given a suspended sentence of two years' imprisonment.

Awards and recognition.

"Time" magazine selected her for the 2005 special issue "European Heroes", in the category "Brave Hearts".  In October 2009, Khalip was awarded the Courage in Journalism Award from the International Women's Media Foundation.  In October 2013, Tom Stoppard awarded her the "International writer of courage" of the PEN Pinter Prize, a major international human rights award.

Personal life.

Khalip is currently married to Andrei Sannikov, and has a son.

Iryna Khalip (or Irina Khalip;, ) (born November 12, 1967) is a Belarusian journalist, reporter and editor in the Minsk bureau of "Novaya Gazeta", known for her criticism of Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko.


Education.

Hugo was born 1976 in Johannesburg, South Africa. He began his career working in the film industry in Cape Town, before undertaking a two-year residency at Fabrica research centre, Treviso, Italy.

Work.

Hugo’s work is governed by an autodidactic approach to photography and a deep scepticism of the role of the photographic medium. He is one of a generation of post-Apartheid photographers that seeks to confront photography’s history of representing marginalised and disempowered people. His work aims to challenge preconceptions around the representation of groups of people ‘other’ to the Western European norm.  Hugo's first major work "Looking Aside" (2006) depicts portraits of people "whose appearance makes us look aside" – the blind, people with albinism, the aged, his family and himself. Each man, woman and child poses in a sterile studio setting, under crisp light against a blank background. His "Rwanda 2004: Vestiges of a Genocide" (2011) was described by the Rwanda Genocide Institute as offering "a forensic view of some of the sites of mass execution and graves that stand as lingering memorials to the many thousands of people slaughtered." Hugo's most recognized work is "The Hyena & Other Men" (2007), which has received a great deal of attention.  His series "Messina/Mussina" (2007) was made in the town of Musina on the border between Zimbabwe and South Africa, after "Colors" magazine asked Hugo to work on an AIDS story. "Nollywood" (2009) consists of pictures of the Nigerian film industry. For "Permanent Error" (2011) Hugo photographed the people and landscape of an expansive dump of obsolete technology in Ghana. "There is a Place in Hell for Me and My Friends" (2012) depicts Hugo’s family and friends from South Africa in digitally manipulated black and white portraits that aim to explore the contradictions of racial classification based on skin colour. "Kin" (2014) places even greater emphasis on the photographer’s family and community which Hugo describes as “an engagement with the failure of the South African colonial experiment and my sense of being ‘colonial driftwood’.”  In the Spring of 2014, Hugo was commissioned by Creative Court to work in Rwanda for its "Rwanda 20 Years: Portraits of Forgiveness" project. The project was displayed in The Hague in the Atrium of The Hague City Hall for the 20th commemoration of the 1994 genocide in Rwanda. A selection of the photos have also been displayed in New York at the exhibition "Post-Conflict" which was curated by Bradley McCallum, artist in residence for the Coalition for the International Criminal Court. The project served as the impetus for the photographic series "1994" (2017) which explores the post-revolutionary era in both South Africa and Rwanda through a series of portraits of children from both countries.  "Flat Noodle Soup" (2016) chronicles Hugo’s lengthly engagement with the city of Beijing, exploring how concerns with expressing personal identity within societal norms and pressures are universal and trans-national.

Fashion.

Hugo has produced fashion photography features for various publications. These include Arena Homme Plus, Re-Edition Magazine, Document Journal, System Magazine and AnOther Man. He has also collaborated on publications with Louis Vuitton and Hood By Air.

Editorial.

Hugo is a regular contributor to titles such as the New Yorker, Zeit magazine, Le Monde and The New York Time’s magazine. He has written extensively about his own work and that of other photographers with his article on Garth Walker being featured in Aperture magazine, Winter, 2013. In May 2015 he was invited to guest edit the supplement DeLuxe for the Dutch newspaper NRC.nl.

Film.

In 2011 Hugo collaborated with Michael Cleary, co-directing the music video for South African musician Spoek Mathambo's cover version of Joy Division's "She's Lost Control". For the video, Hugo won the Young Director Award at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity. In 2015 he directed the music video for "Dirty", a song by controversial South African musical artists Dookoom.

Exhibitions.

Pieter Hugo has exhibited extensively in various countries. He has had major museum solo exhibitions at the Museu Coleção Berardo, Lisbon, Portugal (2018), the Museum für Kuns und Kulturgeschichte, Dortmund, Germany (2017), the Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg, Germany (2017), The National Portrait Gallery, London (2015), the Ludwig Museum, Budapest (2013), the Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane, Australia (2010), the Multimedia Art Museum, Moscow (2012) and the South African National Gallery, Cape Town (2007).  He has been included on important group exhibitions such as "Civilization: The Way We Live Now" at the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Seoul, South Korea (2018), "Another Kind of Life: Photography on the Margins" at the Barbican Art Gallery, London, England (2018), "Good Hope. South Africa and The Netherlands from 1600" at the Rijksmuseum, the Netherlands (2017), "Street & Studio: An urban history of photography" at the Tate Modern, London, UK (2008), "reGeneration: 50 Photographers of Tomorrow" at the DeVos Art Museum, Marquette, Michigan, USA (2008) and "How to Live Together", 27th São Paulo Biennale, Brazil; Museo de Arte Contemporaneo de Santiago, Chile (2006) among many others.  List of exhibitions  Solo exhibitions  Group exhibitions

Publications.

Hugo has had four monographs published on his career. These include "Pieter Hugo: The Hyena and Other Men" (2008) by Aaron Schuman published by the Fotografiemuseum, Amsterdam; "Pieter Hugo: Selected Works" (2009) edited by the Área De Cultura / Ajuntament de Tarragona; "This Must Be the Place" (2012) with essays by TJ Demos and Aaron Schuman, published by Prestel: Munich; and "Pieter Hugo: Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea" (2017) with essays by the editors, Ralf Beil and Uta Ruthkamp, published by Prestel: Munich.  List of publications  Publications by Hugo  Selected books and catalogues

Pieter Hugo (born 1976)<ref name="http://www.pieterhugo.com"> is a photographer who primarily works in portraiture and whose work considers the role of photography between documentary and art traditions with a focus on peripheral communities. He lives in Cape Town.


Early life and education.

Born in Savile Row, London, Jessel was the son of Zadok Aaron Jessel, a Jewish merchant, and his wife Mary, "née" Harris. He was educated at Mr Neumegen's School for Jews at Kew, and being prevented by religious disabilities from proceeding to the University of Oxford or Cambridge, went to University College London, matriculating in 1840. He entered Lincoln's Inn as a student in 1842, and a year later took his BA at the University of London, becoming MA and gold medallist in mathematics and natural philosophy in 1844. In 1846 he was elected a fellow of University College, London.  He entered Lincoln's Inn in 1842 as a student and was called to the bar in 1847, taking chambers in Stone Buildings. He read in the chambers of the conveyancer Peter Bellinger Brodie, and was the pupil of Edward John Lloyd and of Barnes Peacock.

Career.

Jessel's earnings during his first three years at the bar were 52, 346, and 795 guineas, from which it will be seen that his rise to a tolerably large practice was rapid. His work, however, was mainly conveyancing, and for long his income remained almost stationary. By degrees, however, he got more work, and was appointed Queen's Counsel in 1865, becoming a bencher of his Inn in the same year and practising in the Court of Chancery. Jessel entered Parliament as Liberal Party member for Dover in 1868, and although neither his intellect nor his oratory was of a class likely to commend itself to his fellow-members, he attracted William Ewart Gladstone's attention by two learned speeches on the Bankruptcy Bill which was before the house in 1869, with the result that in 1871 he was appointed Solicitor General.  Jessel's reputation at this time stood high in the chancery courts; on the common law side he was unknown, and on the first occasion upon which he came into the Court of Queen's Bench to move on behalf of the Crown, there was very nearly a collision between him and the bench. His forceful and direct method of bringing his arguments home to the bench was not modified in his subsequent practice before it. His great powers were fully recognised; his business in addition to that on behalf of the Crown became very large, and his income for three years before he was raised to the bench amounted to nearly £25,000 per annum. In 1873, Jessel succeeded Lord Romilly as Master of the Rolls. From 1873 to 1881, Jessel sat as a judge of first instance in the rolls court, being also a member of the Court of Appeal.  In November 1874 the first Judicature Act came into effect, and in 1881 the Judicature Act of that year made the Master of the Rolls the ordinary president of the first Court of Appeal, relieving him of his duties as a judge of first instance. In the Court of Appeal Jessel presided almost to the day of his death.  On 22 February 1878, Jessel survived an assassination attempt by Henry John Dodwell, a disturbed clergyman. For some time before 1883 he suffered from diabetes with chronic disorder of the heart and liver, but struggled against it; on 16 March 1883 he sat in court for the last time, and five days later he died, aged 59, at his residence in London, the immediate cause of death being cardiac syncope. The following day, the Court of Appeal adjourned in his honour.  In person Jessel was a stoutish, square-built man of middle height, with dark hair, somewhat heavy features, a fresh ruddy complexion, and a large mouth.

Legacy.

As a judge of first instance Jessel was a revelation to those accustomed to the proverbial slowness of the chancery courts and of the Master of the Rolls who preceded him. He disposed of the business before him with rapidity combined with correctness of judgment, and he not only had no arrears himself, but was frequently able to help other judges to clear their lists. His knowledge of law and equity was wide and accurate, and his memory for cases and command of the principles laid down in them extraordinary. In the rolls court he never reserved a judgment, not even in the Epping Forest case ("Commissioners of Sewers v Glasse", L.R. 19 Eq.; "The Times", 11 November 1874), in which the evidence and arguments lasted twenty-two days (150 witnesses being examined in court, while the documents went back to the days of King John), and in the Court of Appeal he did so only twice, and then in deference to the wishes of his colleagues.  The second of these two occasions was the case of "Robarts v The Corporation of London" (49 "Law Times" 455; "The Times", 10 March 1883), and those who may read Jessel's judgment should remember that, reviewing as it does the law and custom on the subject, and the records of the city with regard to the appointment of a remembrancer from the 16th century, together with the facts of the case before the court, it occupied nearly an hour to deliver, but was nevertheless delivered without notes this, too, on 9 March 1883, when the judge who uttered it was within a fortnight of his death. Never during the 19th century was the business of any court performed so rapidly, punctually, and satisfactorily as it was when Jessel presided.  He was Master of the Rolls at a momentous period of legal history. The Judicature Acts, completing the fusion of law and equity, were passed while he was judge of first instance, and were still new to the courts when he died. His knowledge and power of assimilating knowledge of all subjects, his mastery of every branch of law with which he had to concern himself, as well as of equity, together with his willingness to give effect to the new system, caused it to be said when he died that the success of the Judicature Acts would have been impossible without him. His faults as a judge lay in his disposition to be intolerant of those who, not able to follow the rapidity of his judgment, endeavoured to persist in argument after he had made up his mind; but though he was peremptory with the most eminent counsel, young men had no cause to complain of his treatment of them.  Jessel sat on the royal commission for the amendment of the Medical Acts, taking an active part in the preparation of its report. He actively interested himself in the management of London University, of which he was a fellow from 1861, and of which he was elected vice-chancellor in 1880. He was one of the commissioners of patents, and trustee of the British Museum. He was also chairman of the committee of judges which drafted the new rules rendered necessary by the Judicature Acts. He was treasurer of Lincoln's Inn in 1883, and vice-president of the council of legal education. He was also a fellow of the Royal Society.  Jessel's career marks an epoch on the bench, owing to the active part taken by him in rendering the Judicature Acts effective, and also because he was the last judge capable of sitting in the House of Commons, a privilege of which he did not avail himself. He was the first Jew who, as solicitor-general, took a share in the executive government of his country, the first Jew who was sworn a regular member of the privy council, and the first Jew who took a seat on the judicial bench of Great Britain; he was also, for many years after being called to the bar, so situated that any one might have driven him from it, because, being a Jew, he was not qualified to be a member of the bar.

Family.

Jessel married in 1856 Amelia Moses, daughter of Joseph Moses, who survived him together with three daughters and two sons, the elder of whom, Charles, was made a baronet shortly after the death of his distinguished father and in recognition of his services (see Jessel Baronets). Jessel's younger son Herbert Jessel was elevated to the peerage as Baron Jessel in 1924.  A great-nephew of Jessel, Richard Frederick Jessel, was a naval hero of the Second World War. Richard's son, Toby Jessel, was Conservative MP for Twickenham from 1970 until 1997. Richard's daughter, Camilla Jessel, was the second wife of the Polish composer Andrzej Panufnik.  He was the second cousin once removed of the American Vaudeville star and comedian George Jessel, who was named after him.

Sir George Jessel, (13 February 1824 – 21 March 1883) was a British judge. He was one of the most influential commercial law and equity judges of his time, and served as the Master of the Rolls. He was the first Jew to be a regular member of the Privy Council and to hold high judicial office.


Biography.

Baltakis was born into a family of Lithuanian farmers as the second of eleven children and named as Antanas. He studied in gymnasiums in Kretinga and Anykščiai until he was arrested by Nazi agents in 1944 and sent to forced labour.  After the liberation from the forced labour camp at the end of World War II, he began to study at the Catholic University of Leuven in 1945 and a year later joined the mendicant Franciscan Order, where he was tonsured with the name "Paulius" and made his solemn profession of vows on 15 September 1950. Baltakis was ordained as a priest on 24 August 1952, after completing his theological studies.  From 1952 Baltakis was attached to the parish and missionary work among Lithuanian emigrants in the United States and Canada. He organised the construction of a monastery printing house, Lithuanian cultural centre "Kultūros židinys" and taught at a Lithuanian school. In 1979 he was elected provincial superior of the Lithuanian St. Casimir Franciscan Province and served in this office until 1984.  On 1 June 1984 Pope John Paul II appointed him as an Apostolic Visitor for the Lithuanian Roman Catholics in diaspora and made him Titular Bishop of Egara. He received his episcopal consecration in the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Portland, Maine, on 14 September 1978 from Cardinal Pio Laghi.  Baltakis resigned these titles in 2003 and remained in the United States until April 2018 when he returned to Lithuania.  Baltakis died on 17 May 2019 in Kaunas.

Paulius Antanas Baltakis, O.F.M. (1 January 1925 – 17 May 2019) was a Lithuanian Roman Catholic prelate who served as the last Apostolic Visitor for the Lithuanians in Diaspora from 1 June 1984 until his resignation in 2003.


Synopsis.

A woman dressed in an evening gown is sitting in a wooden rocking chair; no other props or scenery are called for. She sits totally still until the very end of the play. The chair apparently starts and stops “rocking of its own accord, since her feet are visible on its footrest. The motion creates a ghostly atmosphere.” The woman (W) is described in the notes as “Prematurely old. Unkempt grey hair. Huge eyes in white expressionless face.” Beckett is equally specific when it comes to the gown: “Black lacy high-necked... Long sleeves. Jet sequins... Incongruous headdress set with extravagant trimming to catch the light.”  As she rocks she hears a “dull, expressionless” pre-recorded voice (V) – her own – recount details from her own life, and that of her dead mother's, in what Enoch Brater describes as “a performance poem in the shape of a play.”  “The French title, "Berceuse", means both ‘rocking chair’ and ‘lullaby’, while the English "Rockaby" refers to a traditional lullaby in which a baby's cradle falls from a treetop, thus bring together in one song the images of birth and death which are so often juxtaposed in Beckett.” Both a traditional cradle and a rocking chair have rockers. “[T]he synchrony of the rocking motion and the dimeter verse line – one back-and-forth per line – plays against the recorded narrative.” To achieve this effect Billie Whitelaw was encouraged by Beckett to “‘think of it as a lullaby’ which she interpreted as ‘soft, monotonous, no colour, soothing, rhythmic... [a] drive toward death.”  The play can be broken down into four sections. All begin with the childlike demand, “More” (consider Oliver Twist’s request for more gruel). Billie Whitelaw pronounced it more like ‘maw’ – a pun – “to suggest a need for nourishment.” or even “Ma”.  Intermittently, she joins in three of the lines: ‘time she stopped’, ‘living soul’ and ‘rock her off’” at which point the rocking stops and only starts again when she demands “More,” each time a little softer than the time before. The fact that time play begins with this word indicates that this scene has been being played out for some time before this. At the end of the final section the woman fails to join in with the voice, the rocking ceases and the woman's head slowly inclines; “she has apparently died.”

Section 1.

“The first section details W’s decision to stop going ‘to and fro’ in the outside world in search of ‘another like herself’” evocative of Molloy’s quest to find his mother. The voice’s speech is fragmented and simple “creating an affinity between the language of the child and that of senescence and dying.” This could also be a reason for the “huge eyes”.  As with "Not I", the voice speaks in the third person.

Section 2.

The second section reprises and therefore emphasizes the decision taken in Section 1. It also marks the “beginning of her next phase of activity – sitting at her upstairs window, searching the windows opposite to see another ‘one living soul... like herself.’”  “Life is nothing more nor less than the act of perception or the state of being perceived, or, in the words of Bishop Berkeley which find echoes throughout Beckett’s work, ‘"esse est percipi"’ (‘to be is to be perceived’). She sees no one however and is seen by no one. “Voice has become the woman’s own Berkeleyan observer, without whose surveillance any claim to existence would be invalidated.”

Section 3.

In the third section the woman has lowered her standards again. She would be content now to simply see a raised blind as evidence of life. At the end of this section she realises it is “time she stopped” even this activity.  “A drawn blind [is] and old custom signifying death” and the last thing she does herself before sitting down in the old rocker is “let down the blind” before closing her own eyelids. This decision [is] first announced in part three by the lines ‘till the day came/in the end came/close of a long day’ reiterated at the opening of part four.  “The objects surrounding [the] ‘window’ endow it with layers of feeling. ‘Pane’ and ‘blind’ imply more than the "things" of windows, and ironically comment on the classical metaphor of ‘window’ as ‘eyes of the soul.’”

Section 4.

In the final “section V describes W’s relocation downstairs to sit in her mother’s rocking chair where she will wait for death” in exactly the same manner as her mother before her.  The action on stage becomes concurrent with the narration which becomes a “little softer each time” until the rocking stops completely. She has stopped actively searching for another and given up watching for proof of the existence of another, but through all of this she has always had the voice for company; now she is “done with that” too and has concluded that it is time she herself “was her own other... living soul.”  The fact that “the word ‘down’ is repeated six times in the first seven lines of this final section, while it is used only once in the preceding sections (‘all blinds down’)... coupled with the play's first mention of the ‘steep stair’, gives verbal shape to the internal descent that is about to be recounted. The woman is descending into the depths of her self.” Billie Whitelaw has said: “[The voice of the woman in "Rockaby"] gets softer because she's getting weaker, and the rock of the chair should be lessening, and the light is lessening.... In fact, the woman in "Rockaby" is actually going further and further down that steep stair. So with the last ‘More’ she knows she's on the way out, and as long as that rocker keeps rocking she's all right. Once it stops she's gone... I do find it very frightening to do. And I find it desperately lonely to do. I feel very, very lonely in that chair.”  “In French, ‘"chair"’ means flesh, especially naked flesh, so that the combined image of ‘rocking chair,’ ‘mother rocker,’ and ‘rocking flesh’ bring together inside a single word two realities of subject and object, the object being endowed with subjective realism.”  The woman selects what initially appears like an unusual outfit for this final scene, an elaborate evening gown. Whether this was the one her mother used when she went through the same steps is unclear; it does however “marks both the uniqueness of the occasion of her retreat to the rocking chair and, as well, her re-enactment of her mother’s action. Whatever her motive in wearing this dress, it constitutes a remnant of an earlier life.”  It has been suggested that the “other” that the woman has been searching for all this time is actually her mother. There is clearly an underlying text here of a little lost girl looking for her ‘mammy’. Having abandoned the search she opts for the rocker's “embrace” (“those arms at last”) dolled up as her mother so that she can fulfil both roles, she can become her “own other”. “Other” and “mother” sound very similar. As Molloy puts it: “I have her room. I sleep in her bed... I have taken her place. I must resemble her more and more.

Background.

Although Billie Whitelaw has very much made the role on W her own it is not strictly true that the part was written specifically for her, even though in a letter to The Actors' Equity Association in 1982 Beckett intimated that it had been. “In his original letter asking Beckett for the play, Labeille had directly associated the name of Irene Worth... with the project.” Whitelaw only came to play the part because Worth was offered a film role and the opening of the play could not be postponed to accommodate her. Beckett declared himself “very pleased with switch to Billie” and her performance benefited from a high degree of support from him as always.  As with all Beckett's later plays it is clear he has drawn again on personal memories. “There was the frail figure of his maternal grandmother, ‘little Granny’, Annie Roe, dressed in ‘her best black’, sitting in a rocking chair at the window of Cooldrinagh, where she lived out the final years of her life. The woman in the play gazes out at other windows for ‘another living soul’, as Beckett himself sat, often for hours on end, staring at the rows of cell windows on the grey Santé prison” which backed his apartment in the Boulevard Saint-Jacques.  Needless to say, knowing Beckett to be the art lover he was, one can catch glimpses of a number of paintings he was familiar with: "Whistler's Mother", van Gogh’s "La Berceuse" or Rembrandt’s "Margaretha Trip (de Geer)". A favourite of his, Beckett owned a copy of Jack B Yeats’s exhibition catalogue, which included one entitled "Sleep", a painting of an old woman a sitting by the window, with her head drooped low onto her chest.

Related Texts.

"Krapp’s Last Tape".

As Krapp sits on the “bench by the weir” he realises his mother has passed on when “the blind went down, one of those dirty brown roller affairs.” In 1950 Beckett himself sat beside his dying mother's bed “until he could stand it no more [and] went for a walk along the Grand Canal. [When] he returned to the nursing home [he] sat outside for a while on a bench, shivering in the evening wind. When he looked up at her window, he saw the shade go down, the signal she had died.

"Murphy".

Murphy’s rocking chair is the one possession to which he is attached. It gives his body pleasure and sets free his mind. “The chair asserts the pun ‘off his rocker’” which could similarly refer to the dead mother in "Rockaby" who people maintained had “gone off her head”.

"Film".

“The room in "Film" contains a rocking chair with a carved headrest, which when ‘O’ sits back, frames his head. His rocking matches his emotions as he gazes at various images of himself and when ‘E’ finally violates the angle of immunity.

Rockaby is a short one-woman play by Samuel Beckett. It was written in English in 1980, at the request of Daniel Labeille, who produced it on behalf of "Programs in the Arts", State University of New York, for a festival and symposium in commemoration of Beckett's 75th birthday. The play premiered on April 8, 1981 at the State University of New York at Buffalo, starring Billie Whitelaw and directed by Alan Schneider. A documentary film, "Rockaby", by D. A. Pennebaker and Chris Hegedus records the rehearsal process and the first performance. This production went on to be performed at the Annex at La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club, and, in December 1982, at the Cottesloe, Royal National Theatre, London.


Award statute.

The honorary title "Honoured Military Pilot of the USSR" was awarded to members of military flying units, military agencies, military schools, military organizations and other military or federal authorities, having qualified military pilots 1st class or military pilot-instructors 1st class, for outstanding achievements in the development of aviation technology, high performance in education and training of flight personnel and long-term trouble-free flight operations in military aviation.  The Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR was the main conferring authority of the award based on recommendations from the Ministry of Defence of the USSR.  The chest badge "Honoured Military Pilot of the USSR" was worn on the right side of the chest and in the presence of other orders, placed over them. If worn with honorary titles of the Russian Federation, the latter have precedence.

Award description.

The "Honoured Military Pilot of the USSR" chest badge was a 27-millimetre-wide by 23-millimetre-high silver-and-nickel polygon with raised edges. At the top of the obverse, the relief inscription in three lines covered to the left "Honoured MILITARY PILOT" (), in the center, the gilt tombac image of a jet plane climbing diagonally towards the right its nose and tail slightly protruding over the edges, at the bottom, the relief inscription "USSR" () superimposed over a laurel branch.  The badge was secured to a standard Soviet square mount by a silver-plated ring through the suspension loop. The mount was covered by a silk moiré red ribbon.

The Honorary Title "Honoured Military Pilot of the USSR" () was a state military award of the Soviet Union established on January 26, 1965 by Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet No 3230-VI to recognise and reward excellence in military aviation. It was abolished on August 22, 1988, by decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet No 9441-XI.


History.

The song was originally written for an amateur minstrel show in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. It was not an immediate success, but Harris published it himself and arranged for it to be interpolated into the touring musical production of "A Trip to Chinatown", in which it was sung by J. Aldrich Libbey. Its popularity grew when it was performed regularly by John Philip Sousa and his band at the 1893 World's Fair in Chicago. In England, it was promoted by George Lashwood. Successful recordings in 1893 were by George J. Gaskin and by John Yorke AtLee.  The song was later famously used in the musical "Show Boat" to exemplify the 1890s style of music. There it was performed by Norma Terris. In the 1936 film version of the musical, it was performed by Irene Dunne, and in the 1951 film version, by Kathryn Grayson. Only the first verse and chorus were sung in "Show Boat".  It was also sung by Alice Faye in the 1940 biographical musical film, "Lillian Russell". The song is also heard in the 1936 movie, "San Francisco". In the HBO series "Carnivàle", the second episode of the first season is titled "After the Ball is Over," and a fragment is sung at the end of the episode. In the last scene of an episode of Season 10 of "Murdoch Mysteries", Dr. Julia Ogden plays the song on a gramophone as she removes for examination the brain of a serial killer on the autopsy table.

Lyrics.

<poem>;Verse 1 A little maiden climbed an old man's knee, Begged for a story—"Do, Uncle, please. Why are you single; why live alone? Have you no babies; have you no home?" "I had a sweetheart years, years ago; Where she is now pet, you will soon know. List' to my story, I'll tell it all, I found her faithless, after the ball." After the ball is over, After the break of morn— After the dancers' leaving; After the stars are gone; Many a heart is aching, If you could read them all; Many the hopes that have vanished, After the ball. Bright lights were flashing in the grand ballroom, Softly the music playing sweet tunes. There came my sweetheart, my love, my own— "I wish some water; leave me alone." When I returned dear there stood a man, Kissing my sweetheart as lovers can. Down fell the glass dear, broken, that's all, Just as my heart was after the ball. Long years have passed child, I've never wed. True to my lost love though she is dead. She tried to tell me, tried to explain; I would not listen, pleadings were vain. One day a letter came from that man, He was her brother—the letter ran. That's why I'm lonely, no home at all; I broke her heart dear, after the ball. </poem>

Parody.

The popularity of the song made it a natural for contemporary parody. A common version was:  <poem>After the ball was over, after the break of morn, After the dancers' leaving, after the stars are gone; Many a heart is aching, if you could read them all; Many the hopes that have vanished, after the ball.  After the ball was over, Bonnie took out her glass eye, Put her false teeth in the water, hung up her wig to dry; Placed her false arm on the table, laid her false leg on the chair; After the party was over, Bonnie was only half there!</poem>  Alternative parody verse 2 of above: <poem>After the ball was over, Bonnie took out her glass eye, Put her false teeth in the basin, corked up a bottle of dye Put her false leg in the corner, hung up her hair on the wall And all that was left went to bye byes after the ball.</poem>  Alternative parody verse:  <poem>After the ball is over, see her take out her glass eye, Put her false teeth in some water, cork up a bottle of dye, Hang her false hair in the wardrobe then she takes off her false leg, Half of my rose on the table, the other half in bed.</poem>  Alternative parody verse:  <poem>After the ball was over, Bonnie took out her glass eye, Put her false teeth in water, Hung up her wig to dry Put her peg leg in the corner Hung her tin ear on the wall And then what was left Crawled into bed after the ball</poem

After the Ball is a popular song written in 1891 by Charles K. Harris. The song is a classic waltz in 3/4 time. In the song, an uncle tells his niece why he has never married. He saw his sweetheart kissing another man at a ball, and he refused to listen to her explanation. Many years later, after the woman had died, he discovered that the man was her brother.


Life.

The Siebolds were a family of renowned scholars from Würzburg, Germany. Heinrich was the second son of the famous German physician and pioneer of Japanese studies Philipp Franz von Siebold, who died in 1866. He was born in Boppard at the Rhine river and spent his youth in Bonn and Würzburg. In 1869, just 17, without finishing his Abitur (high-school degree) or any higher education, he arrived in Japan, a year after the political and cultural opening up of the country in the Meiji Era. After his arrival, Heinrich entered the diplomatic service of the Austrian-Hungarian embassy in Tokyo as dragoman. Like his father before him, he became one of the most distinguished German researchers on Japan. His antiquarian interest made him a vivid collector of Japanese ethnological items, art, and coins. Heinrich is credited with creating the Japanese-term for archaeology, "kōkogaku", via his 1879 book "Kōko setsuryaku".  In 1899, he asked for early retirement due to his health. In the year before, he had married Euphemia Carpenter, the widow of a British officer. She bought Freudenstein Castle close to Bozen in South Tyrol, where they spent comfortably their last years surrounded by his rich collections. He was a well-recognized adviser in Far Eastern affairs, and a guide and translator for important visitors from Japan and China. Siebold served many of the European state visitors to whom he attended as a purchasing advisor, including the heir to the Austrian throne Franz Ferdinand when the latter visited Japan in 1893 during his world voyage.  On August 11, 1908, he died on Freudenstein Castle, his widow followed soon. In March 1909, his collections were sold in Vienna "Au Mikado" and dispersed in trade.

Antiquarian interest in Japanese culture.

Many Museums in Europe benefited from his collecting efforts in early Meiji Japan and from his generosity. In 1873, on the occasion of Japan's first participation at the World exhibition in Vienna, he donated collections of Japanese and Far Eastern coins to the Grand-Duke of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach Carl Alexander, to the King of Württemberg and the Grand-Duke of Baden.  Carl Alexander deposited his collection with his Grand Ducal Oriental Coin Cabinet at Jena University. In the early 1880s, Siebold made arrangements with several German museums to collect for them. In 1883, he organized an exhibition of his collection in the Museum of Kunstgewerbe und Industrie in Vienna, a collection that he wanted to sell to the Austrian state, but his offer was rejected. Nevertheless, he later donated his collection to Vienna, where it is now an important part of the collections of the Kunsthistorisches Museum. In 1885, a second much larger collection of Far Eastern and Japanese coins charms and amulets assembled by Siebold, arrived at the Oriental Coin Cabinet Jena, where it is still preserved.

Heinrich Philipp von Siebold (July 21, 1852 – August 11, 1908) was a German antiquary, collector and translator in the service of the Austrian Embassy in Tokyo.


History.

With the outbreak of World War II, in 1939 the Federal Government formed the Commonwealth Land Transport Board (CLTB) to take responsibility for the country's land transport networks. It had the power to override the decisions of the State railways. In 1942, the CLTB appointed the Commissioner of Railways in Western Australia, Joseph Ellis, to investigate the capacity of Australia's narrow gauge network and recommend what locomotives should be purchased. Ellis recommended that three variations of Garratt locomotive be purchased; heavy, medium and light.  The CLTB elected to build only the light type to allow it to operate on any narrow gauge line in Australia. After an attempt to obtain drawings and licenses from Beyer, Peacock and Company failed, in July 1942 the CLTB recommended to the War Cabinet that 30 locomotives be built locally. In August 1942, the War Cabinet approved the order, this was increased to 65 locomotives in November 1942. The Western Australian Government Railways' Chief Mechanical Engineer Frederick Mills was seconded to lead a team of engineers in Melbourne to design the new locomotive. The Queensland Railways were vocal opponents, stating its preference for a modified version of its C17 class.  The result was the Australian Standard Garratt, with the first locomotive being built in a record breaking four months to enter service in September 1943. Only 57 ASGs were completed, with assembly of the remaining eight cancelled at the end of the war. The locomotives were built by the WAGR's Midland Railway Workshops (10), the Victorian Railways' Newport Workshops (12), the South Australian Railways' Islington Railway Workshops (13), and Clyde Engineering, Sydney (22).

In service.

Because of differences between the states, especially in regard to loading gauges, the sharpness of curves, and axle load, especially in Queensland, the design had to be a compromise, which went against the idea of having a standardised design.  To enable the long-wheelbase engine units to negotiate sharp curves, the leading driving wheels were designed to be flangeless, but this proved to be a major flaw as it led to a tendency for the locomotives to derail on curves and points. Another key problem, which made the ASGs unpopular with locomotive crews, was the fact that the firebox door opened flat on the floor of the driving cab, maximising heat radiation into the crew compartment. This resulted in them having fairly short lives with most withdrawn by the mid-1950s. Some were resold for use on the Emu Bay and Fyansford Cement Works Railways where they would have more successful careers.

Queensland Railways.

The Queensland Railways purchased 23. One was never used and another saw only two months service. In September 1945, the drivers' union placed a ban on them. Attempts to modify them proved unsuccessful, and they were written off in 1948. Three were sold to the Emu Bay Railway and six to the Tasmanian Government Railways, with the remainder scrapped in 1954/55.

Tasmanian Government Railways.

The Tasmanian Government Railways purchased 14 new and another six second-hand from the Queensland Railways. Two were sold to the Emu Bay Railway with the remainder scrapped in the late 1950s.

Western Australian Government Railways.

The Western Australian Government Railways purchased 25. They were unpopular with crews, and their use through the state's only tunnel at Swan View caused serious problems, resulting in deaths, industrial disputes, and a Royal Commission.  Six were sold to the South Australian Railways in 1952 with the last withdrawn from the WAGR in January 1957.

Emu Bay Railway.

The Emu Bay Railway purchased three second-hand from the Queensland Railways and two from the Tasmanian Government Railways. It would operate them successfully until the mid-1960s. One was destroyed in an accident in February 1962 with a replacement obtained from the TGR.

South Australian Railways.

In 1952, the South Australian Railways purchased six second-hand from the WAGR to haul lead ore between Cockburn and Port Pirie as an interim solution pending the delivery of the 400 class Garratts, with all condemned by February 1956.

Fyansford Cement Works Railway.

The Fyansford Cement Works Railway purchased G33 from Commonwealth Disposals in August 1945. It was withdrawn in 1957, but maintained in operational condition until the railway closed in 1966 when it was donated to the Geelong division of the Australian Railway Historical Society.

Preservation.

The only surviving complete ASG is G33, which ran on the Fyansford Cement Works Railway until 1957. It was on static display at the Australian Railway Historical Society Museum in North Williamstown until May 2013, when (along with a spare boiler) it was moved by road to the Bellarine Railway, Queenscliff, with the aim of full restoration.  Many front ASG water tanks have survived: one at Yatina, South Australia, two on a farm south of Peterborough, South Australia, two at the Don River Railway in Tasmania, and several dotted around that state. They were used as water tanks for steam and fire fighting until the early 1980s. Another also survives with the Launceston & North East Railway in Launceston, Tasmania. It was used as a waste oil tank by TasRail until the closure of the Hobart railway yard in 2014, possibly being the last steam engine component used by TasRail.

The Australian Standard Garratt (ASG) was a Garratt steam locomotive designed in Australia during World War II, and used on narrow gauge railway systems in Queensland, South Australia, Western Australia and Tasmania.


Early life.

Warnery was born 13 March 1720 in Morges at the upper end of Lake Geneva in the Swiss canton of Vaud.

Military career.

At the age of fourteen, he entered the military service of the King of Sardinia. He participated in the Battle of Parma on 29 June and at Battle of Guastalla on 19 September, both in 1734, in the War of Polish Succession. After peace was concluded in 1735, he took leave and in 1737, when the Austria's war broke out against the Turks, he served as a lieutenant in the Infantry Regiment Königsegg and as an adjutant of his countryman, Robert Scipio von Lentulus.  Warnery was wounded in the Russo Swedish War on 3 September 1741. In 1742, he left Russian service and entered the Prussian army as a "Rittmeister" (cavalry captain) in Dubislav Gneomar von Natzmer's Hussar Regiment, a transition expedited by the French Ambassador in Berlin, Count Courtin. There he became a close friend of Friedrich Wilhelm von Seydlitz, who also served in the regiment. During a skirmish, he and about 30 hussars were trapped at Krzanowice and forced to surrender; he enter for the first time into Austrian captivity, with several of his comrades, including Friedrich Wilhelm von Seydlitz.  At the head of his squadron in the Second Silesian War, he fought at the battles of Hohenfriedberg, Soor, and Catholic Hennersdorf, and was promoted from the youngest "Rittmeister" to major during the campaign. In the last winter of the war, near Zittau, he and Seydlitz surprised the Austrian rear-guard that was plodding slowly through the back roads, attacked and routed them. After the autumn review of 1746, King Frederick presented him with a costly Turkish sabre as a mark of his esteem and appreciation.

Service in Seven Years' War.

At the beginning of the Seven Years' War, he was elevated to the rank of lieutenant colonel. In addition, he was elevated to the nobility and received the Pour le Mérite for his achievements in the Battle of Lobositz in 1756. There he took possession of Stolpen. The Austrian commandant, General Johann Adolph von Liebenau, capitulated because he saw the impossibility of defending himself. In reply to a report, King Frederick wrote "Vous avez fait des merveilles," ("You have done wonders").  When General Hartwig Karl von Wartenberg was killed on 2 May 1757 at the fighting near Prague, Warnery was promoted to colonel of Wartenberg's Hussar Regiment (later called Hussar Regiment No. 3). He was also part of the brilliant cavalry action at the error-fraught Battle of Kolin during which his and Seydlitz's cavalry, and that of Paul von Werner, prevented the Saxon army from attacking the Prussian flank. That autumn, the Austrians besieged Schweidnitz; Warnery was trapped there with half of his regiment. In the capitulation of the fortress in the autumn of 1757, he fell into Austrian hands a second time as a prisoner of war. After his exchange, Warnery insisted on a court martial to clear his name: he was exonerated. When he requested this procedure also for the generals who were involved in the capitulation of the fortress, the courts declined. Considering this a dishonor, Warnery quit his service to Prussia and retired to his wife's estates.

Military science.

In his retirement, Warnery found satisfaction in military writing, producing commentaries on Roman empire achievements, the development of cavalry, comparisons of Turkish and Russian tactics, and an analysis of Frederick's campaigns in the Seven Years' War. Warnery's achievements as a writer were possibly more significant than his military accomplishments. His numerous works were republished long after their composition. According to his origins in French-speaking Vaud, he wrote in the French language. One unauthorized edition first appeared in 1766 in German, so he wrote an extended edition of "Remarques sur le militaire et le marine des Turcs et Russes", published in Breslau (1771). His "Remarks on Cavalry of Turks and Russians" appeared in English in 1798 and this is the only work translated into English. Some 19th century critics of military tactics considered his analysis of Frederick's cavalry to be among the best, but acknowledge that Warnery's opinions and analysis of cavalry units, their structure, training and tactics reflect Seydlitz's. Seydlit'z own regiment served as a basis for Warnery's analysis of cavalry.

Publications.

The State Library of Berlin lists the following publications:

Polish service and death.

The Polish king, Stanislaus Poniatowski, appointed him general and adjutant general in 1776, but he lived mostly in Silesia, in Langenhof near Oels, on property which his wife, Louise Henriette von Koschenbahr (19 February 1725–20 March 1799), had brought to their marriage. He died in Breslau on 8 May 1786, a relatively young man, aged 56 years.

Charles Emanuel de Warnery was a royal Prussian colonel, later a royal Polish general. He was born 13 March 1720 at Morges on the Lake Geneva, Canton Vaud and entered served in the Sardinian service on the "Regiment Desportes", and participated in the Upper Italy campaign against Austria during the War of Polish Succession. He briefly served in the Russian army during the Russo Swedish War. In 1743, he joined the Prussian army and served in the War of Austrian Succession and the Seven Years' War. Upon his retirement in 1758, he entered a second career in military writing, developing commentaries on military tactics, particularly those of mounted troops, from the time of the Caesars to Frederick the Great.


History.

Through the village of Tüchersfeld once ran a medieval road ("Altstrasse"), which wound its way from Gräfenberg via Hiltpoltstein and Obertrubach to Gößweinstein. In Tüchersfeld it crossed the Püttlach valley and then continued via Oberailsfeld and Waischenfeld to Hollfeld. The castles were probably built to control the road and river crossing.  The first historical records of the castles date to the 13th century, when a "Friderici quondam de Thvchervelt" was mentioned on 26 November 1243, they were probably built just before this.  The Bishop of Bamberg, Berthold of Leiningen, acquired one of the castles on 27 May 1262; from whom he bought it, is not known. It is likely that this was the castle of Frederick of Tüchersfeld. Seven years later, the bishop acquired the second castle there from Duke Louis of Bavaria and Count Palatine of the Rhine, as a gift. However, the Duke must first have had to redeem the castle from Count Frederick Truhendingen, who at the time held it in fief. Prior to Truhendingen, Burkhard of Ahorn was the fief holder. The lords of the castle were the dukes of Bavarian dukes whose possessions in Tüchersfeld and Pottenstein came from the estate of Counts of Schweinfurt.  Ownership of the second castle was disputed. Henry, Duke of Bavaria and Count Palatine of the Rhine, laid claim to the fortress. In a treaty dated 26 February 1287, however, he renounced the castle in Tüchersfeld. From then on, both castles were in the hands of the Bishopric of Bamberg. In the episcopal Urbarium A of 1323/27 was added: ""Tvchersuelt et Tvchersuelt ambo Castra sunt episcopi"" (both castles in Tüchersfeld are the bishop's).  In the episcopal Urbarium B of 1348 for the first time a distinction was made between Upper Tüchersfeld, which stood on a narrow rock pinnacle, and Lower Tüchersfeld.  Even before the entry in Urbarium of A 1323/27 "Burgoberbach Tüchersfeld" was already the seat of a minor Bamberg office or "Amt". No later than 1386, a court chamber ("Kastenamt") was established at the castle and a Walter Hauger of Rattelsdorf was recorded as the Steward ("Kastner") of Tüchersfeld. This office had moved by 1399 to Waischenfeld.  At that time, the castle consisted of two parts, an episcopal administrative castle ("Amtsburg") that from 1442 was always referred to as a "schloss", and the "Upper House" ("Oberhaus"), which probably stood on the northern part of the rock reef. The Upper House was an episcopal fief and was owned by the family Groß of Trockau. Eberhard Groß was mentioned in 1422, he owned half the castle estate at the Upper House. In 1429 a half of the Upper House was owned by Jorg Groß.  From 1445, the Upper House was apparently destroyed; an enfeoffment deed to the brothers, Sittig and Hans Groß, in that year talks about the "Upper House of Tüchersfeld called the "burgstall" [= "castle site"]". The castle was apparently destroyed during the Hussite wars in 1430, and subsequently referred to in documents as a "burgstall", the name for a castle that had been virtually levelled. In addition, in other enfeoffments to Sittig Groß from 1461, reference is made to a house that he is supposed to have built; whether this house stood on the castle site is not known. Sittig Groß had to sell the ruins of the Upper House in 1480 to his nephews, the brothers Andrew, Fritz and Jerome of Seckendorff-Rinhofen. "for reasons and the needs of his body to pay for its nourishment". A year later, the flattened castle was back in feudal possession of Albert, James, Eberhard and Michael Gross; and it was owned by the family until 1628. The part of the castle called the Upper House was apparently not rebuilt after its destruction by the Hussites, only the site continued to be enfeoffed by the bishop

Today.

The site of the old castle is covered in dense woodland in places; only the southern tip of the rock reef is free of large trees. This rock tower is now a viewing point and is accessible on a metal ladder. Very little of the original castle has survived. At the entrance to the southern tip of the reef, steps may be seen that have been hewn out of the rock in a small through cave. On the castle plateau a few foundation wall remains can be seen.

Conservation.

Described by the Bavarian State Office for Monument Protection (BLfD) as a "medieval "burgstall"", the protected monument bear the identity D-4-6234-0037.

The ruins of Upper Tüchersfeld Castle () are all that remains of a high medieval castle that once rose high above the valley of the Püttlach in the church village of Tüchersfeld in Germany's Franconian Switzerland. It was built on a spur of the Mittelberg and was one of two castles in the village, the other being the Lower Tüchersfeld Castle.