"Field Piece"
Ft. Macon, NC - November 2003 (Click to embiggen)
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Showing posts with label history. Show all posts
Showing posts with label history. Show all posts
Saturday, November 14, 2009
Eighteen Percent Gray #4
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Wednesday, October 28, 2009
Pic A Theme #19: "Spooky" - 10.28.2009
"Still Not as Scary as the State Budget Office"
Raleigh, NC - December 2008 (Click to embiggen)
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Thursday, October 08, 2009
Pic A Theme #17: "Statues & Monuments" - 10.8.2009
"The Wall"
Washington, DC - April 1999 (Click to embiggen)
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Wednesday, October 07, 2009
Monday, October 05, 2009
Thematic Photographic 69 "Transition" v.6.0 - St. Agnes Hospital Restoration
"A Once and Future Lifeline"
Raleigh, NC - December 2008 (Click to embiggen)
(Normally) Hosted by Written Inc.Note: Please take a moment to stop by the Written, Inc. and visit this post. And pay your respects to TP's creator, Carmi, on the sudden loss of his father. Best thoughts for you and your family Carmi.
When St. Agnes Hospital opened its doors in 1896 as a part of Saint Augustine's College, it became the only health-care facility for blacks between Washington and New Orleans. Severely damaged by fire in 1926, the hospital and the nursing school it housed continuerd to operate until 1961. The building has sat empty for nearly 50 years now, but is currently undergoing a $13 million renovation to rebuild it and put it back into use, but not as a medical facility. The transition was a long time in the making, but when it's complete it will represent a monument to another transition. It's hard to believe that it took until 1961 for health care facilities to be integrated here. If only barely, this transition took place in my lifetime. This? Is disturbing.Your Turn: Got a photo to support the "Transition" theme? Feel free to share a link in the comments. If you're new to Thematic Photographic or just wondering how this works, you can find out all about it here or better yet, here at TP's usual home. Tune in tomorrow for another installment in the Transition theme. Until then, peace yo!
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Pic A Theme #17: "Statues & Monuments" - 10.5.2009
"Veterans Memorial at NC State Capitol Bldg"
Raleigh,NC - October 2008 (Click to embiggen)
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Sunday, October 04, 2009
Pic A Theme #17: "Statues & Monuments" - 10.4.2009
"Statue of Thomas Day at NC Museum of History"
Raleigh, NC - October 2008 (Click to embiggen)
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Friday, October 02, 2009
Pic A Theme #17: "Statues & Monuments" - 10.2.2009
"Happy 140th Birthday Gandhi Ji (2 Oct 1869 - 30 Jan 1948)"
Raleigh,NC - August 2008 (Click to embiggen)
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Friday, September 18, 2009
The Jacks Are In Their Boxes
27 November 1942 - 18 September 1970
The Wind Cries Mary
Are You Experienced? - MCA Records, 1967
After all the jacks are in their boxes,Jimi Hendrix-RS 68
(October 15, 1970)
Photo by Jim Marshall
And the clowns have all gone to bed,
You can hear happiness staggering on down the street,
Footprints dressed in red.
And the wind whispers Mary.
A broom is drearily sweeping
Up the broken pieces of yesterday's life.
Somewhere a Queen is weeping,
Somewhere a King has no wife.
And the wind it cries Mary.
The traffic lights they turn blue tomorrow
And shine their emptiness down on my bed,
The tiny island sags downstream
'Cos the life that they lived is dead.
And the wind screams Mary.
Will the wind ever remember
The names it has blown in the past,
And with this crutch, its old age and its wisdom
It whispers, "No, this will be the last."
And The Wind Cries Mary.
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Wednesday, March 18, 2009
Wordless Wednesday #73: Resurrection
"Resurrection"
Raleigh, NC - December 2008 (Click to embiggen)
In case you missed it: Check out my entry in Nicole B's Scavenger Hunt!
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Wednesday, February 18, 2009
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
Sunday, November 30, 2008
Black Friday - A Historical Perspective
Just based on the reaction to my holiday rant, I must confess to being guilty of something I try never to do. That would be making a sweeping generalization of an entire a group of people based on the actions of a relatively small percentage. And for that, I am compelled to apologize. I'm usually pretty careful about such things, this time... not so much.
Because intellectually I know that the unruly mobs do not represent the bulk of Black Friday shoppers any more than, say, terrorists represent the majority of Muslims. And as someone for whom I have a lot of respect pointed out, there were probably a lot of people in that Long Island Wal-Mart that simply got in front of more torque than they expected. Or could handle.
I also didn't intend to start the virtual version of a riot with this post, so I'm really hoping for some deep breaths and cool heads here. Getting people's attention by saying controversial things is fine -- I can go for that. But it kinda defeats the purpose if all it does is start a shootin' war. 'Cos y'all know I'm all about peace and shit.
That said, I still won't be venturing out to the mall. But that's true almost any time of year. Because personally I think malls suck. YMMV.
And I still don't understand the motivation behind waiting outside the local Megastore all night, to join in the chaos that will erupt when the doors open. Maybe it's the same thing that motivates people to run with the bulls or swim with the sharks or do any number of other things that make me shake my head and mutter.
Most of all, I still wonder why the marketing geniuses who coined the term "Black Friday" or at least applied it to a shopping frenzy thought I'd find that name appealing. because of my reading and studies over the last couple of years, I connect the term "Black Friday" to the 1993 serial bombings in Mumbai. A connection reinforced by the terrorist attacks in that same city just this past week (including the day after Thanksgiving). And someone really smart pointed out that the day after Thanksgiving was called "Black Friday" long before the 2007 Bollywood film about the 1993 bombings came out. Truth is, I'm not sure when the current usage came into vogue, but let's consider for just a moment the historical events referred to by that name.
My old friend Wikipedia yielded up these for consideration:
September 24 1869 - New York: The Fisk-Gould Scandal, a financial panic in the United States caused by two speculators' efforts to corner the gold market on the New York Gold Exchange.
May 4, 1886 (which was actually a Tuesday, so wtf?) - Chicago: The Haymarket affair (also known as the Haymarket riot or Haymarket massacre) in Chicago.
November 18, 1910 - London: approximately 300 suffragettes campaigned outside the British House of Commons when the Liberal government of Herbert Asquith failed to pass a Conciliation Bill which would allow some women to vote in General Elections for the first time.
January 31, 1919 - Glasgow, Scotland: The Battle of George Square, also known as Bloody Friday, one of the worst riots on the streets of Glasgow, Scotland.
April 15, 1921 - England: The leaders of transport and rail unions announced a decision not to call for strike action in support of the miners. The epithet 'black' derives from a widespread feeling that the decision amounted to a breach of solidarity and a betrayal of the miners.
January 13, 1939 - Victoria, Australia: The Black Friday fires, considered one of the worst natural wildfires in world history, and most certainly the single worst in Australian history.
October 13, 1944 - near Hoogerheide, Belgium: The Black Watch (Royal Highland Regiment) World War II's Battle of the Scheldt in Belgium near Hoogerheide. One company of 90 men was reduced to just four survivors.
February 9, 1945 - Norway: The largest aerial clash over Norway during World War II.
October 5, 1945 - Hollywood: A six month strike by the set decorators represented by the Conference of Studio Unions (CSU) boiled over into a bloody riot at the gates of Warner Brothers' studios in Burbank, California.
September 8, 1978 - Tehran, Iran: The shooting of protestors by security forces in Zhaleh (or Jaleh) Square in Tehran, Iran.
April 2 , 1982 - the Falkland Islands: Argentine forces mounted amphibious landings of the Falkland Islands, following the civilian occupation of South Georgia on March 19, before the Falklands War began.
May 31, 1985 - Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, and Ontario: Forty-one tornadoes were counted including 13 in Ontario. It is the largest and most intense tornado outbreak ever to hit this region.
July 31, 1987 - Edmonton, Alberta, Canada: The Edmonton Tornado a devastating tornado ripped through the eastern part of Edmonton, Alberta, Canada and parts of neighbouring Strathcona County killing 27 and injuring 300 more.
August 13, 2004 - Malé, Maldives: A crackdown by the Maldivian National Security Service (NSS) (later Maldivian National Defence Force) on a peaceful protest in the capital city. Several people were severely injured as NSS personnel used riot batons and teargas on unarmed civilians.
Oddly, Wiki doesn't make mention of the '93 Mumbai bombings so perhaps the "Black Friday" label was hung on that event by Bollywood. (It does, however, mention the 1977 choke of the Philadelphia Phillies in the NLCS. Apparently Philly blew a two-run lead with two outs and nobody on to the Dodgers in Game 3 of the series.)
Put beside all those events, a shopping day seems just a little frivolous to me. But perhaps in light of recent events, the name isn't so very inappropriate after all.
Maybe it's just me.
Yeah, that must be it.
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Thursday, September 18, 2008
September 18th in History
Two significant events took place on this day in history. In 1986 I put Ft. Hood, TX in my rear view for the last time. Okay, maybe that's only significant to me. But on a more global scale, it was September 18th, 1970 when the world lost one of the most influential guitarists of the modern age: the Voodoo Chile, Jimi Hendrix.
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Monday, September 08, 2008
Thematic Photographic 14: "Faded" v.3.0
"Inside Mast General Store"
Valle Crucis, NC - February 2001 (Click to embiggen)
Hosted by Written Inc.
"Outside Mast General Store"
Valle Crucis, NC - February 2001 (Click to embiggen)
Hosted by Written Inc.I've written about the Mast General Store in Valle Crucis before, but somehow these photos didn't make it into the mix. But if ever there was a place that fits the theme "Faded", it would be the Mast Store. Faded, but still going strong for well over 100 years.
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