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1000 results for “Thomas_Loock”
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‘Land Of The Dead’ Pushes Deeper Into The Unknown Past
Land Of The Dead (2009) by Thomas Harlan grabs the reader from the first pages and never lets go. Weaving a complex story of intrigues, ancient mysteries, and empire shattering action, Harlan takes the space opera bar and throws it away. Land of the Dead thrills in a way few SF novels ever have and does so almost magically.
Months after the events on Jagan, Gretchen Anderssen is home and working for the local university when her past comes calling. Nauallis Green Hummingbird, agent of the Mirror Service, comes to her with an offer. He needs her talents to help identify and understand a possible First Sun artifact in the Rim. Gretchen knows Green Hummingbird is using her but she can’t figure out how… yet.
Accompanying Green Hummingbird, Gretchen embarks on an uncomfortable voyage to the Rim. To a place hiding something that cuts unsuspecting vessles to pieces with a power never before seen. Despite her concerns she is also keenly curious as to what this mysterious power holds.
Yet it is not just the Mirror Service that has an interest in the artefact. Forces from within and outside the Empire are converging on this point in space. The prize could be worth more than anyone could dream of, or it could be the destruction of the entire universe.
Land of the Dead picks up only months after the events of House of Reeds (2004). With the effects of the Jagan affair still swirling in the air, Harlan impresses new and urgent objectives upon his characters. It is this palpable urgency running through the story that drives the plot.
Just as in Wasteland of Flint (2003) and House of Reeds the world building of Land of the Dead is a thing of rare quality. Harlan continues to bring the Mexicá Empire to life with astonishing touches of subtlety and nuance. It’s almost like seeing the world in the mirror through your peripheral vision. You don’t take much notice of it but without it the world would be wrong. Brief passages that seem inconsequential at first later form the cement to lock blocks in place.
Harlan’s charaters, once again, blaze with life. The returning cast continue to grow and evolve naturally. Most especially the fallen Chu-sa Hedeishi. The sternly compassionate Captain of the IMN Henry R. Cornuelle faces his prospects with a courage and grace readers could only hope to emulate. The cooly competent Susan Koshō is now Chu-sa of the IMN Naniwa and forced to learn how to command under fire. Gretchen Anderssen is perhaps the most consistent in her behaviour but she also has some surprises for the reader.
What is a bit sad is the choice to not include Gretchen’s long suffering companions, Magdalena and David Parker. It’s perfectly logical that her companions wouldn’t necessarily follow Gretchen everywhere, however, I did miss their particular antics and humour. Not including them didn’t detract from the story in any way, I just think they would have added something.
Harlan’s plotting in Land of the Dead is nothing short of masterful. There are plans withing intrigues within mysteries. The number of threads to contend with would confound a less talented writer, however, Harlan never misses a beat. What is more telling is that the reader is never lost either. Harlan has the skill to draw the reader in these many plots and subplots without obscuring or blurring the lines to confuses either the plot or the reader.
Harlan also has a gift for action. There is plenty of action throughout the story to keep even the most ardent action SF fan happy, however, the last third of the book will leave the reader breathless. Yet, throughout this action Harlan still weaves his intrigues and mysteries which only makes their impact all the greater.
Thomas HarlanThe climax of Land of the Dead is suitably exciting and revealing. The inital mystery is revealed but there are still questions hanging in the air. This is not unexpected though. With the first two books there are several unresolved plotlines left hanging. This is most likely to allow Harlan to return to the universe for new stories. Unfortunately there haven’t been any since Land of the Dead.
Land of the Dead is a story for fans of the Sixth Sun series. While it is possible to read it without having read the previous two books, I think it would do a disservice to both the story and the reader. I would suggest taking the time to read Wasteland of Flint and House of Reeds first. It will only make Land of the Dead better.
I don’t know if Harlan will ever return to the Sixth Sun universe but if he does I will dive back in without hesitation. Few series have given me as much enjoyment in recent years as the Sixth Sun has. It balances pulpy SF action with modern SF sensibilities not often seen. Land of the Dead is at times sad, grim, overwhelming, and terrifying but it will leave a smile on your face.
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Yay, I managed to use "enableable" and "unique selling point" in an official Python Steering Council acceptance, and it survived all rounds of edits by other SC members :P
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Yay, I managed to use "enableable" and "unique selling point" in an official Python Steering Council acceptance, and it survived all rounds of edits by other SC members :P
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Yay, I managed to use "enableable" and "unique selling point" in an official Python Steering Council acceptance, and it survived all rounds of edits by other SC members :P
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Yay, I managed to use "enableable" and "unique selling point" in an official Python Steering Council acceptance, and it survived all rounds of edits by other SC members :P
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@LandRightsNow
@GovUganda
protect community #landrightsnow, stop illegal evictions!
Companies take advantage of #COVID19 lockdown to accelerate land grabs – thousands left homeless, starving, hopeless.
@ministry_lands
@KagutaMuseveni
@KCCAMinister
: Time to act now!
https://bit.ly/2MQEeO8 -
Land Rights Now
@LandRightsNow
@GovUganda
protect community #landrightsnow, stop illegal evictions!Companies take advantage of #COVID19 lockdown to accelerate land grabs – thousands left homeless, starving, hopeless.
@ministry_lands
@KagutaMuseveni
@KCCAMinister
: Time to act now! -
Abortion on the line in Nov🧵1/3
#IfTrumpWins & the GOP takes the Senate, the 2 oldest Justices (Thomas 75 & Alito 73) will retire, enabling the GOP to lock in #MagaJurisprudence for 30+ years. And if ...
#JusticesLied #Perjury #AddJustices #VoteBlueToProtectWomen #ABlueView
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Abortion on the line in Nov🧵1/3
#IfTrumpWins & the GOP takes the Senate, the 2 oldest Justices (Thomas 75 & Alito 73) will retire, enabling the GOP to lock in #MagaJurisprudence for 30+ years. And if ...
#JusticesLied #Perjury #AddJustices #VoteBlueToProtectWomen #ABlueView
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Abortion on the line in Nov🧵1/3
#IfTrumpWins & the GOP takes the Senate, the 2 oldest Justices (Thomas 75 & Alito 73) will retire, enabling the GOP to lock in #MagaJurisprudence for 30+ years. And if ...
#JusticesLied #Perjury #AddJustices #VoteBlueToProtectWomen #ABlueView
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Abortion on the line in Nov🧵1/3
#IfTrumpWins & the GOP takes the Senate, the 2 oldest Justices (Thomas 75 & Alito 73) will retire, enabling the GOP to lock in #MagaJurisprudence for 30+ years. And if ...
#JusticesLied #Perjury #AddJustices #VoteBlueToProtectWomen #ABlueView
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Bob Dylan expert to host Swansea talks as legend’s arena shows sell out
Talks at Elysium Gallery and Dylan Thomas Centre
Author and cultural commentator Chris Gregory will host two book presentations in Swansea:
- Sunday 9 November, 2pm – Elysium Gallery
- Wednesday 12 November, 2.30pm – Dylan Thomas Centre
The events coincide with Dylan’s Rough and Rowdy Ways world tour, which includes three nights at the Swansea Building Society Arena from 9–11 November.
New book explores Dylan’s metamorphoses
Gregory’s latest work, Minstrel Boy: The Metamorphoses of Bob Dylan, is the second volume in his ambitious Picasso of Song trilogy. Released in October 2025, the book examines Dylan’s creative journey between 1967 and 1990 — a period marked by retreat, resurgence and rebirth.
The study explores Dylan’s influences from folk, blues, country, gospel and rock and roll, while weaving in cultural references from William Blake to American gospel traditions. Gregory says the book is written to be “accessible and enjoyable to fans and general readers alike,” balancing scholarly analysis with lively accounts of Dylan’s many live performances.
A definitive trilogy in progress
The trilogy is being written in reverse chronological order. Gregory’s first volume, Determined to Stand: The Reinvention of Bob Dylan, explored Dylan’s later career. Minstrel Boy now turns to the middle years, while a third volume will cover Dylan’s early rise.
Gregory is also known for his long‑running website From the Pen of Chris Gregory, which has attracted more than 100,000 visits, and his podcast Bob Dylan: A Headful of Ideas, praised internationally for its depth and insight.
Dylan in Swansea
Dylan’s own concerts at the Swansea Arena sold out rapidly, with fans eager to see the Nobel Prize‑winning songwriter perform tracks from his acclaimed 2020 album Rough and Rowdy Ways. The shows will be staged as “phone‑free” events, with audiences asked to lock away their devices to create a more immersive experience.
Related arts & culture stories
Swansea Central Library prepares for move to Y Storfa
Swansea’s main library service is set to relocate to the city’s new cultural hub, Y Storfa, bringing books, archives and community space under one roof.Penguin’s Little Book Stops arrive in Ferryside, Llanybydder and Mayals
Miniature libraries shaped like giant books have popped up across West Wales, encouraging readers of all ages to borrow and share stories.Young poet sought to honour Richard Burton’s mentor
A centenary commission is inviting a young Welsh poet to celebrate the life and legacy of Philip Burton, the teacher who shaped Richard Burton’s career.Time‑travelling estate agent from Cwmbran wins hearts in bestselling sequel
A quirky Welsh hero returns in a hit follow‑up novel, blending humour, history and sci‑fi in a story that’s capturing readers nationwide.#author #BobDylan #book #ChrisGregory #concert #DylanThomasCentre #ElysiumGallery #MinstrelBoy #Music #RoughAndRowdyWaysTour #SwanseaArena
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On this week's #MissionLogGeneology, @theLogBook and I lock in on why Paladin's been locked up in our penultimate #HaveGunWillTravel discussion, "Cage at McNabb." Bonus: our guest star this week is #LonChaneyJr.! #GeneRoddenberry #StarTrek #nerdlyfe https://www.missionlogpodcast.com/cage-at-mcnaab/
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On this week's #MissionLogGeneology, @theLogBook and I lock in on why Paladin's been locked up in our penultimate #HaveGunWillTravel discussion, "Cage at McNabb." Bonus: our guest star this week is #LonChaneyJr.! #GeneRoddenberry #StarTrek #nerdlyfe https://www.missionlogpodcast.com/cage-at-mcnaab/
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On this week's #MissionLogGeneology, @theLogBook and I lock in on why Paladin's been locked up in our penultimate #HaveGunWillTravel discussion, "Cage at McNabb." Bonus: our guest star this week is #LonChaneyJr.! #GeneRoddenberry #StarTrek #nerdlyfe https://www.missionlogpodcast.com/cage-at-mcnaab/
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Happy Birthday, Thomas Mann.
Reposting here an earlier post of mine, pointing to a wonderful reading of all of Thomas Mann's Zauberberg, The Magic Mountain.
Yes, all of it. In 114 half-hour episodes.
The reading took place on the stage of a Hamburg theatre during the 2020 lockdown, by actor Sven Walser, who died in 2023.
It is a nuanced and faithful reading, and it is fresh, without the grandfatherly pomposity of some of the audiobooks.
(In German, so it helps if you know a little German,)
https://mastodonapp.uk/@the_roamer/110641959268298713
#ThomasMann #Zauberberg #MagicMountain #SvenWalser #HansCastorp #audiobooks
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Happy Birthday, Thomas Mann.
Reposting here an earlier post of mine, pointing to a wonderful reading of all of Thomas Mann's Zauberberg, The Magic Mountain.
Yes, all of it. In 114 half-hour episodes.
The reading took place on the stage of a Hamburg theatre during the 2020 lockdown, by actor Sven Walser, who died in 2023.
It is a nuanced and faithful reading, and it is fresh, without the grandfatherly pomposity of some of the audiobooks.
(In German, so it helps if you know a little German,)
https://mastodonapp.uk/@the_roamer/110641959268298713
#ThomasMann #Zauberberg #MagicMountain #SvenWalser #HansCastorp #audiobooks
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Happy Birthday, Thomas Mann.
Reposting here an earlier post of mine, pointing to a wonderful reading of all of Thomas Mann's Zauberberg, The Magic Mountain.
Yes, all of it. In 114 half-hour episodes.
The reading took place on the stage of a Hamburg theatre during the 2020 lockdown, by actor Sven Walser, who died in 2023.
It is a nuanced and faithful reading, and it is fresh, without the grandfatherly pomposity of some of the audiobooks.
(In German, so it helps if you know a little German,)
https://mastodonapp.uk/@the_roamer/110641959268298713
#ThomasMann #Zauberberg #MagicMountain #SvenWalser #HansCastorp #audiobooks
-
Happy Birthday, Thomas Mann.
Reposting here an earlier post of mine, pointing to a wonderful reading of all of Thomas Mann's Zauberberg, The Magic Mountain.
Yes, all of it. In 114 half-hour episodes.
The reading took place on the stage of a Hamburg theatre during the 2020 lockdown, by actor Sven Walser, who died in 2023.
It is a nuanced and faithful reading, and it is fresh, without the grandfatherly pomposity of some of the audiobooks.
(In German, so it helps if you know a little German,)
https://mastodonapp.uk/@the_roamer/110641959268298713
#ThomasMann #Zauberberg #MagicMountain #SvenWalser #HansCastorp #audiobooks
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Thomas Mann's 1924 novel The #MagicMountain is a demanding and absorbing book that gives back generously if you give it your time.
During the 2020 lockdown, actor #SvenWalser read the entire novel on a sparse set in Hamburg's #ErnstDeutschTheater, in 114 half-hour episodes.
This reading is the real thing: fresh, unpretentious, nuanced, alive. In German.
If you speak a little German, you will enjoy it.
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLKhPzbR5L39LCNohCUhmgcNR2oCrAVT0M
#ThomasMann #Zauberberg #books #audiobooks #booksofmastodon -
Thomas Mann's 1924 novel The #MagicMountain is a demanding and absorbing book that gives back generously if you give it your time.
During the 2020 lockdown, actor #SvenWalser read the entire novel on a sparse set in Hamburg's #ErnstDeutschTheater, in 114 half-hour episodes.
This reading is the real thing: fresh, unpretentious, nuanced, alive. In German.
If you speak a little German, you will enjoy it.
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLKhPzbR5L39LCNohCUhmgcNR2oCrAVT0M
#ThomasMann #Zauberberg #books #audiobooks #booksofmastodon -
Thomas Mann's 1924 novel The #MagicMountain is a demanding and absorbing book that gives back generously if you give it your time.
During the 2020 lockdown, actor #SvenWalser read the entire novel on a sparse set in Hamburg's #ErnstDeutschTheater, in 114 half-hour episodes.
This reading is the real thing: fresh, unpretentious, nuanced, alive. In German.
If you speak a little German, you will enjoy it.
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLKhPzbR5L39LCNohCUhmgcNR2oCrAVT0M
#ThomasMann #Zauberberg #books #audiobooks #booksofmastodon -
Thomas Mann's 1924 novel The #MagicMountain is a demanding and absorbing book that gives back generously if you give it your time.
During the 2020 lockdown, actor #SvenWalser read the entire novel on a sparse set in Hamburg's #ErnstDeutschTheater, in 114 half-hour episodes.
This reading is the real thing: fresh, unpretentious, nuanced, alive. In German.
If you speak a little German, you will enjoy it.
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLKhPzbR5L39LCNohCUhmgcNR2oCrAVT0M
#ThomasMann #Zauberberg #books #audiobooks #booksofmastodon -
You Can’t Fight City Hall! The thread about Lothian Road Public School
Preamble. The schools of the “School Board” era of public education (those built 1872-1918) hold a particular fascination for me, one most profound where they have been “deconsecrated” and are either no longer in use as schools or have disappeared entirely. This thread began as a couple of lines for my own notes about the “Lost Board Schools of Edinburgh” but soon snowballed into an alphabetical deep-dive into each.
Before the Education (Scotland) Act 1872, which created the Edinburgh School Board and kick-started a building programme of new schools, the west end of the city was served by church-run schools on Cambridge Street by St John’s Episcopal Church and in halls behind the Lothian Road United Presbyterian Church (this latter building would much later become the Filmhouse cinema). They were joined in 1862 when the Free Church of Scotland established a school for 270 children on Riego Street as a mission of Free St Cuthbert’s and Free Greyfriars‘ churches.
The Riego Street School, a photograph taken in 1914 by J. R. Hamilton of the Edinburgh Photographic Society by which time it was in use as a mission hall. Edinburgh and Scottish Collection, Edinburgh City Libraries.After its initial flurry of construction to replace the worst of the schools it had inherited and fill gaps in provision, the School Board turned its attention to the Lothian Road area and acquired a tiny, undeveloped plot extending to only a quarter of an acre at the junction of Grindlay and Cambridge Streets. This land was feud from The Grindlay Trust for £2046 (for whom Grindlay Street is named) who maintained the rights to final approval of any designs. This new Lothian Road Public School was proposed in tandem with Canonmills Public School and at 800 pupils was of a capacity but with a density of 0.77 pupils per metre square it would be the most congested school that the Board would build.
Comparison of the 1849 and 1893 OS Town Plans of Edinburgh for Lothian Road, move the slider to compare. These show in 1849 two small church schools (an Episcopal School in the top right and a United Presbyterian School middle bottom) and in 1893 the Lothian Road Public School in the centre of the image, to the right of the open street square. On the right of the 1893 map are the School Board Offices on Castle Terrace. Reproduced with the permission of the National Library of ScotlandPlans by the Board’s architect Robert Wilson were approved in March 1879 and generally followed the Collegiate Gothic styling then in favour, looking very much like a truncated version of its peer at Canonmills but raised to a height of three storeys to maximise the limited space available. An unusual deviation however was a French-style tower with louvred windows on the principal (western) façade adjoining the neighbouring tenement on Grindlay Street. The boys’ entrance was at its base, girls and infants having a separate entrance on Cambridge Street. The ground floor accommodated the infant department in a large central classroom (42 feet by 27 feet) with three smaller rooms leading off of it. The first and second floors were for the older pupils, again each following the same arrangement as the ground floor. To the rear of the school were two rather small playgrounds, one each for boys and girls.
Lothian Road Public School, looking towards the Castle. The striped globe-shaped objects in the middle distance below the Castle are on the roofline of the Synod Hall on Castle Terrace. City of Edinburgh Council Architectural Drawings and Photographs via Trove.Scot, DP 102382Construction began in late June 1879, the accepted estimate for construction being £5,891 19s 6d (c. £640k in 2026). A site accident on 15th August 1879 injured joiner Alexander Glass when a crane failed and dropped an iron beam on his foot, part of which had to be amputated at the Royal Infirmary as a result. After this, work proceeded steadily and the new school school opened on 6th September 1880, the school on Victoria Terrace (an older building inherited from the Heriot Trust) closing as a consequence. The total cost including purchasing the site came out at £7,333 17s (c. £795k in 2026). As built the capacity was 825 pupils (280 infants and 545 juveniles) with a staff comprising the headmaster, infant mistress, a first assistant teacher and eight assistant teachers. They were supported by a sewing mistress, a singing master and twelve pupil teachers (older children who were remaining in education beyond the mandatory leaving age and who helped in monitoring and conveying the lessons to younger children). The school soon proved to be one of the top performers (helped in a large part because of the socio-economic circumstances of its neighbourhood) and in 1882 the staff were given a 15 percent salary increase on account of reaching the first class tier of the Board’s ranking system.
From the very beginning Continuation Classes (evening school for adults) were part of the school’s offering, with Advanced Classes “for young men” in Latin, grammar and English composition; basic elementary subjects and also more vocational ones such as bookkeeping, shorthand and commercial geography. Architectural and mechanical drawing joined the syllabus in 1885 and by 1889 advanced level mechanics and mathematics were also being taught. In 1898 there were 350 enrolled for continuation schooling with an average attendance of 302. Technical classes in confectionery were started by the Master Bakers of Edinburgh and Leith in 1903 “with a view to raising the standard of fancy baking in the district.”
A street artist at work on the pavement island outside Lothian Road Public School in 1903, while a crowd looks on. The sign on the lamp post reads “Cars Stop“, indicating that this was a passenger platform for the city’s cable tramway.In 1887, 909 scholars from Lothian Road were presented for examination, suggesting the school was more than 10% over capacity, and before the Scotch Education Department reduced class sizes there were up to 1,000 learners crammed in. The school was a victim of its own success, having the highest attendance rate in the city meaning it was always full. A janitor’s house was added in 1889 at a cost of £223, an extra play shed for the boys in 1892 and new classrooms for drawing and cookery in 1893 at a cost of £1,000.
A fire in March 1891, the result of a fireplace in a classroom causing surrounding woodwork to overheat, proved to be “of a trifling nature” and was extinguished by the staff and janitor before the fire brigade could arrive. Headmaster George Robertson, who had been in charge since opening, died in March 1893. His newspaper obituary recalled him as “a man of a kindly and courteous disposition, which secured for him cordial relations with his staff” and one who had cut his educational teeth in some of the city’s poorest quarters. He had started his career in the school of the Chalmers Territorial Free Church in the West Port of which he was also in the congregation and a deacon (church civic officer). The teachers and a deputation of the schoolchildren attended his funeral at the Grange Cemetery.
Grave marker of George Robertson (1849-93), his infant son John (1875-76) and his wives Anne Mullay (1846-75) and Christina Barclay Robertson (1849-1918). Photo credit Charlie via Findagrave.comThe school was only sixteen years old when ominous clouds began to form on its horizon: in 1896 its site was mooted as one of a number of potential locations for a new civic music hall. The City Hall, as it was then known, was the result of a gift to the city by Andrew Usher (1826-98) who’s family had made a vast fortune in brewing that he mad made even larger through perfecting the process of blending Scotch Whisky: revolutionising the product, the industry and a nation’s drinking habits. His endowment was worth £100,000 (about £12 million in 2026) and trustees invested it until an appropriate site could be found.
Barrels of Andrew Usher’s “OVG” (Old Vatted Glenlivet) blended whisky in one of his bonds at St Leonards. This was the first mass-market blended whisky.A longlist of twelve sites was initially proposed including Princes Street Gardens, Melville Street, Atholl Crescent, opposite St Giles Cathedral on the High Street, Castle Terrace, Chambers Street, Port Hopetoun Basin, the junction of George and Castle Streets and – most controversially – the Meadows. London architect Alfred Waterhouse was engaged to survey each and draw up a shortlist of five, with Atholl Crescent being the favoured option.
Batholomew map, 1898, showing some of the proposed locations for the Usher Hall. A site on Atholl Crescent, to the west of these, was first favoured before attention moved to the area between Lothian Road and Castle Terrace (to the left of the middle of the three plots highlighted above.) Edinburgh and Scottish Collection, Edinburgh City Libraries.Plans changed in 1900 however when the United Presbyterian Church of Scotland merged with the Free Church of Scotland and the former’s Synod Hall on Castle Terrace was now surplus to requirements. In an ironic twist, this large venue was actually first built as an entertainments hall but quickly failed as a commercial venture. The Town Council leapt at the chance to acquire it with a view that it might somehow be a good site for the hall, or might even be re-purposed as it.
The Synod Hall from West Princes Street Gardens. City of Edinburgh Council Architectural Drawings and Photographs via Trove.Scot SC2575722Matters proceeded slowly for the next few years while the Town Council tried to acquire further adjacent land; it spent £15,000 buying plots totalling 2,719 square yards, on top of the 2,327 of the hall. In 1903 the Town Clerk, Thomas Hunter, was asked report “on the whole muddle” and set out options for the potential use of the Synod Hall site. Things were getting complicated by the fact the successor United Free Church were apparently attempting to buy the building back and had verbally offered the Corporation £40,000 for it ( the latter having paid just £25,000 a few years earlier). Proponents of the Synod Hall site argued it would be a less expensive proposition than the alternatives and sited facing the Castle it made for an appropriately grand backdrop. Detractors were quick to point out that the new hall proposed for that site would have 2,400 seats, just 300 more than the building it was proposed to demolish and replace!
While matters remained unresolved, the idea of siting what would become The Usher Hall in the vicinity of Castle Terrace had by now crystallised in the minds of the Town Council and their gaze soon shifted to the side of the block that faced on to Lothian Road. If the site of Lothian Road School was combined with the neighbouring tenements and added to the Council’s existing landholding, this gave a combined site of 4,221 square yards without demolishing the Synod hall and in 1904 firm plans were put in front of the Town Council recommending securing the school property.
A complication remained however in that the local authority did not possess the school – it remained the property of the School Board which was independent from the Town Council. An informal approach to the Board had been rebuffed and there was an unwillingness to resort to powers of compulsory purchase. Unfortunately Lord Provost Sir Robert Cranston then went and put his foot in it by letting it be known that the school buildings had been condemned by the Scotch Education Department: the implication being they would thus be easy to acquire, He was rebuked in a most public manner by the Board in a statement published by the Evening News. The Lord Provost wrote to the Board’s chair, the redoubtable Flora Stevenson, to set the matter straight.
Advert taken out by the School Board in response to the Lord Provost’s assertions that Lothian Road School had been condemned by the Scotch Education Department. Edinburgh Evening News, 13th February 1905.A meeting was convened behind close doors between senior representatives from both sides and soon ironed things out. The Board let it be known they would give up the school for a “fair price” and sufficient land for a replacement school. They hoped to get ground at Lady Lawson Street, the site of the city’s cattle market which was to be relocated, however this was acquired instead by the Education Department for the College of Art.
Once again the scheme stalled, but for Lothian Road Public School it remained business as usual. On account of its central location it remained a favoured venue for a number of organisations. From 1906 to 1910 it was used by the Edinburgh Esperanto Society for meetings and lessons, the Board charging only a nominal rent so as to help encourage that language. A similar privilege was given to the Celtic Union who began Gaelic language evening classes, transferring them from the Outlook Tower on Castlehill whose facilities they had outgrown. It was the Union’s intention to prove there was a public appetite for the language in order that the Board might formally adopt them for its own programme. This plan quickly came to fruition and from 1908 these classes transferred to the School Board’s Continuation curriculum and were run from Gilmore Place Public School. (Coincidentally, this latter building remains in education use as an annexe of James Gillespie’s High School and has recently become a centre for its Gaelic Medium Education learning.)
On June 15th 1909 a meeting was held at the school by “a few far-sighted ladies and sympathetic mothers” which formed the committee to establish the Girl Guiding movement in the city. In July that year a concert was held by the senior pupils of the school to celebrate the attendance records of Janet Gray, Nettie Bee, Janet Taylor and Jane Bogue who all had achieved a perfect attendance record in their seven years at the school; a combined total of twenty-eight years without a day missed. The Board presented medals to the girls and commended the headmaster and his staff. The takings from the concert were to be “devoted to the purchase of pictures with which to adorn the walls” of the school.
An Edinburgh School Board perfect attendance medal first issued in 1908-09 to Robert McKinlay of London Street School. Picture via Lockdale’s Auctioneers and Valuers, sale lot from 2024.Time was running short for the school however. It was now fourteen years after Usher’s gift to the city (and twelve after his death) and pressure was mounting to finally get his hall built. Finally on March 21st 1910 a report was submitted to the Lord Provost’s Committee of the Town Council recommending that it should be built on the Lothian Road site that included the footprint of the school. This was approved and at a closed meeting the following day the School Board agreed to its sale for £8,500 plus a new site at the City Slaughterhouse (the Killin’ Hoose) at Fountainbridge, which was about to be relocated to Slateford. The Board were initially offered one and a quarter acres but stuck to their guns that they would not settle for less than two – in the end they accepted one and three-quarters plus two buildings to convert into a janitor’s house. This still left the Board an estimated deficit of £17,000 (about £1.7 million in 2026) for the replacement, however they felt “willing to do all in their power to further the important scheme“.
Edinburgh Evening News, 7th January 1905 Shaded properties were those to be acquired for the final Usher Hall scheme. The area outlined by the dotted and thick solid line was already possessed by the Town Council.Lothian Road Public School closed for the last time at the end of the summer term of 1910. Its brief thirty year life was the shortest of any of the Board’s schools and in that time it was estimated that 9,780 children had passed through its doors. Its Continuation Classes were removed to James Gillespie’s School when the new term started, the infant department to temporary huts at Ponton Street and the remaining 590 children were largely sent to the old West Fountainbridge School while their new home was completed. This building had been closed a few years previously (it had actually been condemned) and its lower floors had by then been converted into a central cooking centre for free and “penny dinners” for schools in the city centre. One can only imagine what the smells of boiling cabbage were like for children trying to learn about the kitchens’ coppers which had a capacity to cook 650 gallons in one go – 130 stones (or 826kg) of potatoes could be cooked per hour!
On Tuesday March 13th 1911, workmen of Messrs Neil Mcleod & Sons began working on building operations for the Usher Hall and that Friday the Edinburgh Evening News reported on “the passing of Lothian Road School“. Wooden hoardings been erected around the building and children were helping the teachers throughout the day to clear the school.
Although now the exigencies of modern educational equipment call for something more up to date [it] has never failed to satisfy the powers that be in the work of educating pupils and securing high attendance percentages.”
“The Passing of Lothian Road School”, Edinburgh Evening News, 17th March 1911On the 22nd of the month, the demolition gangs moved in and it was reported less than a month later that a workman by the name of Alexander Young had been seriously injured at work on demolition, having been standing on a second floor staircase when it collapsed beneath him and he suffered a fall of thirty five feet as a result.
During and before images of the demolition of Lothian Road Public School, view looking towards Grindlay Street. Move the slider to compare. Photographs probably taken by Francis M. Chrystal of the Edinburgh Photographic Society. Edinburgh and Scottish Collection, Edinburgh City Libraries. During and before images of the demolition of Lothian Road Public School, view looking towards Cambridge Street. Move the slider to compare. Photographs probably taken by Francis M. Chrystal of the Edinburgh Photographic Society. Edinburgh and Scottish Collection, Edinburgh City Libraries.In December 1910 it had been decided that the replacement school should be called Tollcross Public School and that it should accommodate 800 children (300 infants and 500 juveniles). Tenders were advertised in May 1911 and it would open in September 1912.
Site of Tollcross School, before shown on 1906 Goad Fire Insurance map when it was the municipal slaughter houses and after shown on 1944 OS Town Plan. Move the slider to compare. Reproduced with the permission of the National Library of ScotlandDemolition at Lothian Road proceeded swiftly and groundworks were advanced to allow the laying of the memorial foundation stones on July 19th 1911. King George V and Queen Mary performed the honours at a grand public ceremony, each dropping a stone into place by the turning of the handle of a crane and tapping it gently with a ceremonial mallet.
The stage is set, quite literally, for the laying of the Usher Hall’s foundation stones, July 19th 1911. These are on the site of the former Lothian Road School, the steepled building on the right of the photo being St. Columba’s Gaelic Free Church. Edinburgh and Scottish Collection, Edinburgh City Libraries.The Usher Hall finally opened on March 16th 1914, seventeen years and two hundred and eighty two days after the initial gift was made. By all accounts it has been a grand success, but its troubled gestation is just one of many examples of the city’s difficult (and ongoing) history of schemes to try and build public concert halls!
Bust of Andrew Usher, unveiled at the opening of the Usher Hall. Photograph by Francis Caird Inglis, 1914. Delays to the scheme meant that Usher was long dead by the time his gift was completed. Edinburgh and Scottish Collection, Edinburgh City Libraries.The previous chapter of this series looked at the James Clark School.
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#Edinburgh #EdinburghSchoolBoard #Entertainment #LostBoardSchoolsOfEdinburgh #LothianRoad #Megaproject #School #Schools #Usher #WestEnd #Written2026 -
What Do We Do Now?
Article republished by Jerry Alatalo | May 22, 2026
[Editor’s note: Karen Kwiatkowski writes:
“On paper, the House is the people’s representative body and overwhelmingly the American people oppose this latest Trump war. Except, as we saw in the unhinged Kentucky 4th District primary, the prime directive remains that no US representative may disobey the Israel lobby. It’s not what Americans want; it is what Netanyahu, Smotrich, and Ben Gvir want…”
Please share far and wide and share your thoughts/responses in the comments. Thank you very much. Peace.]
***
(Source: LewRockwell.com)
So What Do We Do Now?
May 22, 2026
Set the scene. A massive military presence halfway around the world. American soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines on a wartime footing under a social media lockdown. Old and angry, the US President publicly threatens to “end” things for another country, and then does it.
In the proud tradition of another baby killer, Trump believes, as Madeleine Albright told Colin Powell 35 years ago, “What’s the point of having this superb military you’re always talking about, if we can’t use it?”
Economic and military assaults on the integrity and sovereignty of other countries around the world is part of American history, and this has been normalized for most Americans. Boomers, born the two decades after World War II, grew up in an “inflation and war” period. It pumped their retirement portfolios with real assets paid off in depreciating dollars and “profitable” investments in state-subsidized military industries, technology and pharma. Obama, Trump 45, Biden, and Trump 47 each boasted the “highest stock market ever.”
Boomers in particular have been reluctant to examine the US government’s transformation into an opaque machine of billionaire elites and capital firms that pursue and shape US domestic and foreign policy.
Trump joked for ten years that he would “Make America Great Again.” He meant America, Inc., but it’s not all his fault. The imbalance between spending on what government requires (war, domestic surveillance, regulatory controls, and more of your paycheck) and what the people want and deserve (peace, privacy, liberty, and more of our earnings) has been growing for decades. Even 38% of the Boomers and the Silent generations recognize this – but the ruling class doesn’t want to hear from those who oppose the war/inflation/murder cult. Instead, our modern Goldfinger says to a strapped American population desperately trying to be represented, “[I don’t expect you to talk]…I expect you to die!”
The problem of empire is not its historic predictability, but its determinism. You cannot vote away an empire. What the empire does is controlled not by the people, or the law, but by an arthritic algorithm, a thousand times less flexible than the ones managing your social media feed. This algorithm produces command and control economies and deeply indebted governments in a world where every other country is increasingly more free, more innovative, and more fiscally sound. As the indebted, corrupt, centralized system begins to blow gaskets and seize up, it sees new enemies inside its borders as well, and works to end freedom of speech, movement, and association.
The ever-jealous state ridicules faithful prayer to a supernatural God, reminding citizens that submission and obedience to a political system is far wiser in the short term. Mark Twain’s “The War Prayer” was published over 120 years ago, very close to the 125th birthday of the Declaration of Independence. Facing our 250th, I wonder how many Americans are shocked as we devotedly cheer the “most moral army in the world” and our own.
The US Senate, after multiple attempts, finally discharged Senate Joint Resolution 185 from the Foreign Relations Committee to the full Senate. Is the US Senate suddenly thinking about America’s younger generations who want, and need, peace and liberty? Is it reflecting on Trump’s failed military and absent diplomatic strategy for long-term US power projection – or just peace – in the Persian Gulf? Did it discover that the emerging security architecture there doesn’t include the US? Is it asserting Article 1 constitutional powers because of concern about wasted taxpayer dollars, or were 53 Senators just tired of being left out of the profitable shorts made by executive suite cronies? Is the Senate somehow acting on behalf of our nation and the Constitution?
The answer is none of the above. The uni-party, and the unitary state, is incoherently attempting, probably at the request of the real owners of this country, to fashion Washington’s exit from a deep hole that Israel needed the US, and specifically Trump, to dig. Trump dug enthusiastically, burying billions in our military munitions and capability, as well as the last fragments of our global good will, furiously slinging dirt and debris. Flag officers and teenage soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines alike have been awestruck by the strategic and tactical disaster of this war. A nervous world waits and watches from the sidelines, in gas lines, and soon, in food lines.
We shall see if the House likewise considers this resolution to bring the troops home, much less if both houses approve it – only to face down a Trump veto delivered on Truth Social, a minute or two after it is provided to White House crony investors. On paper, the House is the people’s representative body and overwhelmingly the American people oppose this latest Trump war. Except, as we saw in the unhinged Kentucky 4th District primary, the prime directive remains that no US representative may disobey the Israel lobby. It’s not what Americans want; it is what Netanyahu, Smotrich, and Ben Gvir want, and in a few months, it will be what Naftali Bennett and his allies in the Knesset want. Which is to say, a tiny ethno-fascist empire halfway around the planet calls the literal shots in, and those fired by, the United States.
Central Command Dweeb In Chief Bradley Cooper, wormy-looking and wide-eyed, responded to a Congressional question about why he authorized the February 28th Tomahawk triple tap on a girls school in Minab. While struggling to locate his spine, he answered with the equivalent of “It’s complicated.”
Indeed it is. What isn’t complicated is the message the empire is sending not just to the world, but to Americans specifically. That message is STFU and suffer. When we hear this message from “our government,” there is only one acceptable response: “You first.”
I am reminded of a famous letter written by Thomas Jefferson to William Stephens Smith. Smith had sent him a copy of the new Constitution. Jefferson was contemplating the new America, and this new constitution. He wrote, “There are very good articles in it: and very bad. I do not know which preponderate.” Wait, what? It wasn’t perfect?
He goes on: “Wonderful is the effect of impudent and persevering lying. The British ministry have so long hired their gazetteers to repeat and model into every form lies about our being in anarchy, that the world has at length believed them, the English nation has believed them, the ministers themselves have come to believe them, and what is more wonderful, we have believed them ourselves.” Wow! Trump wasn’t even a gleam in his great-great-great-great-grandfathers eye in 1787!
Jefferson then addresses the kerfluffle in Massachusetts. “The people can not be all, and always, well informed. The part which is wrong will be discontented in proportion to the importance of the facts they misconceive. If they remain quiet under such misconceptions it is a lethargy, the forerunner of death to the public liberty.”
The world is still burning. Let us resolve to be more honestly informed, and to conceive our facts more correctly. Let us be a little less quiet, as we clarify rightness and wrongness in our political arrangement. Let us embrace the Jeffersonian truth that liberty requires action. And just for fun, let us revel in the knowledge that our backbones are vastly more functional than those of our political and military leaders!
….
Karen Kwiatkowski, Ph.D. [send her mail], a retired USAF lieutenant colonel, farmer and aspiring anarcho-capitalist. She was a whistleblower prior to the second Iraq war in 2002, ran for Congress in Virginia’s 6th district in 2012, received the Sam Adams Associates for Integrity in Intelligence Award in 2018, is a Fellow at the Eisenhower Media Network, and an Associated Scholar of the Mises Institute. She also writes at karenkwiatkowski.substack.com
#AmericanHistory #DonaldTrump #EisenhowerMediaNetwork #History #Israel #Philosophy #PoliticalScience -
Gelesen: „Coiffure Lock ‘n‘ Roll“. Und gedacht: Offenbar besteht noch Hoffnung. #gelesengedacht
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Donald Trump’s Kennedy Center is showier, emptier and more political – The Washington Post
At the gala opening of the Kennedy Center in 1971, Kennedy family members sit in the presidential box. (Thomas J. O’Halloran / Library of Congress)Donald Trump’s Kennedy Center is showier, emptier and more political
In 10 months, the president has transformed Washington’s cultural hub. Now comes his biggest night yet: the Kennedy Center Honors.
Updated today at 12:48 p.m. EST, 16 min
By Travis M. Andrews and Janay KingsberryOn the day in February that President Donald Trump took over the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, his new board ousted Deborah Rutter, the longtime president of the institution. She gathered her staff to offer a hopeful farewell. That evening, she welcomed other leaders to her home to mourn.
“As with any wake, you drink a little too much, and you tell stories, and you laugh, and you cry,” Rutter told The Washington Post in a conversation in the spring.
Rutter had planned to step down at the end of 2025 after leading the Kennedy Center through a decade in which it had diversified its offerings, endured the 2020 lockdown and emerged to boast robust ticket sales and, according to publicly available tax filings, steadily grown revenue.
She still had four major items on her to-do list: growing the center’s endowment; furthering its work as an arts educator around the country; strengthening the financials of the National Symphony Orchestra; and renewing the contract with CBS or finding a new broadcast partner to air the Kennedy Center Honors.
Those plans died. But the Kennedy Center did not.
The center is now guided by a board of Trump loyalists and a new staff including the center’s president, Richard Grenell, a pugnacious veteran of the first Trump administration. They have terminated much of the former staff, lambasted the former leadership and made changes including the addition of high-wattage events like the World Cup draw. They have embarked on a $257 million renovation, in line with Trump’s broader effort to leave his mark on Washington’s cityscape. They’ve boasted about hefty fundraising.
Now, nearly 10 months in, a picture of a transformed institution has come into view. Standbys of the Kennedy Center’s stages like the National Symphony Orchestra have been strained by plummeting ticket sales and organizational uncertainty. Traveling productions and acts have pulled out. And a new kind of right-leaning programming has begun to take root.
So what is the Kennedy Center now?
For one thing, it’s getting a Trumpian revamp. He ordered new marble and the repainting of the exterior columns in austere white. Portraits of the first and second couples now hang in the center’s Hall of Nations, and the building exterior is occasionally lit up in red, white and blue (a move that, many staffers joke, makes the building look like the flag of France, not America).
“It was in rough shape,” Trump said at an event Saturday ahead of the Kennedy Center Honors. “But we’ve fixed the White House, and we’ve fixed the Kennedy Center.”
Even the medallions for the Honors, created by Ivan Chermayeff and made for nearly 50 years by a D.C.-area family, have been redesigned by Tiffany & Company.
And — wittingly or not — the new leadership has made the center a political football for the first time since its opening in 1971. House Republicans have suggested renaming it for Trump (the whole building) and the first lady (just the Opera House). Conservative groups have flocked there to host conferences and meetings. Senate Democrats are investigating the Kennedy Center, accusing Grenell of “self-dealing, favoritism, and waste,” which he has denied.
Editor’s Note: Read the rest of the story, at the below link.
Continue/Read Original Article Here: Donald Trump’s Kennedy Center is showier, emptier and more political – The Washington Post
Tags: 1971, Donald Trump's Kennedy Center, Emptier, Fired Board, History, JFK, Kennedy Center Honors, More Political, President Johnson, Takeover, Ticket Sales Down, Trump's Kennedy Center#1971 #DonaldTrumpSKennedyCenter #Emptier #FiredBoard #History #JFK #KennedyCenterHonors #MorePolitical #PresidentJohnson #Takeover #TicketSalesDown #TrumpSKennedyCenter
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Donald Trump’s Kennedy Center is showier, emptier and more political – The Washington Post
At the gala opening of the Kennedy Center in 1971, Kennedy family members sit in the presidential box. (Thomas J. O’Halloran / Library of Congress)Donald Trump’s Kennedy Center is showier, emptier and more political
In 10 months, the president has transformed Washington’s cultural hub. Now comes his biggest night yet: the Kennedy Center Honors.
Updated today at 12:48 p.m. EST, 16 min
By Travis M. Andrews and Janay KingsberryOn the day in February that President Donald Trump took over the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, his new board ousted Deborah Rutter, the longtime president of the institution. She gathered her staff to offer a hopeful farewell. That evening, she welcomed other leaders to her home to mourn.
“As with any wake, you drink a little too much, and you tell stories, and you laugh, and you cry,” Rutter told The Washington Post in a conversation in the spring.
Rutter had planned to step down at the end of 2025 after leading the Kennedy Center through a decade in which it had diversified its offerings, endured the 2020 lockdown and emerged to boast robust ticket sales and, according to publicly available tax filings, steadily grown revenue.
She still had four major items on her to-do list: growing the center’s endowment; furthering its work as an arts educator around the country; strengthening the financials of the National Symphony Orchestra; and renewing the contract with CBS or finding a new broadcast partner to air the Kennedy Center Honors.
Those plans died. But the Kennedy Center did not.
The center is now guided by a board of Trump loyalists and a new staff including the center’s president, Richard Grenell, a pugnacious veteran of the first Trump administration. They have terminated much of the former staff, lambasted the former leadership and made changes including the addition of high-wattage events like the World Cup draw. They have embarked on a $257 million renovation, in line with Trump’s broader effort to leave his mark on Washington’s cityscape. They’ve boasted about hefty fundraising.
Now, nearly 10 months in, a picture of a transformed institution has come into view. Standbys of the Kennedy Center’s stages like the National Symphony Orchestra have been strained by plummeting ticket sales and organizational uncertainty. Traveling productions and acts have pulled out. And a new kind of right-leaning programming has begun to take root.
So what is the Kennedy Center now?
For one thing, it’s getting a Trumpian revamp. He ordered new marble and the repainting of the exterior columns in austere white. Portraits of the first and second couples now hang in the center’s Hall of Nations, and the building exterior is occasionally lit up in red, white and blue (a move that, many staffers joke, makes the building look like the flag of France, not America).
“It was in rough shape,” Trump said at an event Saturday ahead of the Kennedy Center Honors. “But we’ve fixed the White House, and we’ve fixed the Kennedy Center.”
Even the medallions for the Honors, created by Ivan Chermayeff and made for nearly 50 years by a D.C.-area family, have been redesigned by Tiffany & Company.
And — wittingly or not — the new leadership has made the center a political football for the first time since its opening in 1971. House Republicans have suggested renaming it for Trump (the whole building) and the first lady (just the Opera House). Conservative groups have flocked there to host conferences and meetings. Senate Democrats are investigating the Kennedy Center, accusing Grenell of “self-dealing, favoritism, and waste,” which he has denied.
Editor’s Note: Read the rest of the story, at the below link.
Continue/Read Original Article Here: Donald Trump’s Kennedy Center is showier, emptier and more political – The Washington Post
Tags: 1971, Donald Trump's Kennedy Center, Emptier, Fired Board, History, JFK, Kennedy Center Honors, More Political, President Johnson, Takeover, Ticket Sales Down, Trump's Kennedy Center#1971 #DonaldTrumpSKennedyCenter #Emptier #FiredBoard #History #JFK #KennedyCenterHonors #MorePolitical #PresidentJohnson #Takeover #TicketSalesDown #TrumpSKennedyCenter
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Donald Trump’s Kennedy Center is showier, emptier and more political – The Washington Post
At the gala opening of the Kennedy Center in 1971, Kennedy family members sit in the presidential box. (Thomas J. O’Halloran / Library of Congress)Donald Trump’s Kennedy Center is showier, emptier and more political
In 10 months, the president has transformed Washington’s cultural hub. Now comes his biggest night yet: the Kennedy Center Honors.
Updated today at 12:48 p.m. EST, 16 min
By Travis M. Andrews and Janay KingsberryOn the day in February that President Donald Trump took over the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, his new board ousted Deborah Rutter, the longtime president of the institution. She gathered her staff to offer a hopeful farewell. That evening, she welcomed other leaders to her home to mourn.
“As with any wake, you drink a little too much, and you tell stories, and you laugh, and you cry,” Rutter told The Washington Post in a conversation in the spring.
Rutter had planned to step down at the end of 2025 after leading the Kennedy Center through a decade in which it had diversified its offerings, endured the 2020 lockdown and emerged to boast robust ticket sales and, according to publicly available tax filings, steadily grown revenue.
She still had four major items on her to-do list: growing the center’s endowment; furthering its work as an arts educator around the country; strengthening the financials of the National Symphony Orchestra; and renewing the contract with CBS or finding a new broadcast partner to air the Kennedy Center Honors.
Those plans died. But the Kennedy Center did not.
The center is now guided by a board of Trump loyalists and a new staff including the center’s president, Richard Grenell, a pugnacious veteran of the first Trump administration. They have terminated much of the former staff, lambasted the former leadership and made changes including the addition of high-wattage events like the World Cup draw. They have embarked on a $257 million renovation, in line with Trump’s broader effort to leave his mark on Washington’s cityscape. They’ve boasted about hefty fundraising.
Now, nearly 10 months in, a picture of a transformed institution has come into view. Standbys of the Kennedy Center’s stages like the National Symphony Orchestra have been strained by plummeting ticket sales and organizational uncertainty. Traveling productions and acts have pulled out. And a new kind of right-leaning programming has begun to take root.
So what is the Kennedy Center now?
For one thing, it’s getting a Trumpian revamp. He ordered new marble and the repainting of the exterior columns in austere white. Portraits of the first and second couples now hang in the center’s Hall of Nations, and the building exterior is occasionally lit up in red, white and blue (a move that, many staffers joke, makes the building look like the flag of France, not America).
“It was in rough shape,” Trump said at an event Saturday ahead of the Kennedy Center Honors. “But we’ve fixed the White House, and we’ve fixed the Kennedy Center.”
Even the medallions for the Honors, created by Ivan Chermayeff and made for nearly 50 years by a D.C.-area family, have been redesigned by Tiffany & Company.
And — wittingly or not — the new leadership has made the center a political football for the first time since its opening in 1971. House Republicans have suggested renaming it for Trump (the whole building) and the first lady (just the Opera House). Conservative groups have flocked there to host conferences and meetings. Senate Democrats are investigating the Kennedy Center, accusing Grenell of “self-dealing, favoritism, and waste,” which he has denied.
Editor’s Note: Read the rest of the story, at the below link.
Continue/Read Original Article Here: Donald Trump’s Kennedy Center is showier, emptier and more political – The Washington Post
#1971 #DonaldTrumpSKennedyCenter #Emptier #FiredBoard #History #JFK #KennedyCenterHonors #MorePolitical #PresidentJohnson #Takeover #TicketSalesDown #TrumpSKennedyCenter
-
Donald Trump’s Kennedy Center is showier, emptier and more political – The Washington Post
At the gala opening of the Kennedy Center in 1971, Kennedy family members sit in the presidential box. (Thomas J. O’Halloran / Library of Congress)Donald Trump’s Kennedy Center is showier, emptier and more political
In 10 months, the president has transformed Washington’s cultural hub. Now comes his biggest night yet: the Kennedy Center Honors.
Updated today at 12:48 p.m. EST, 16 min
By Travis M. Andrews and Janay KingsberryOn the day in February that President Donald Trump took over the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, his new board ousted Deborah Rutter, the longtime president of the institution. She gathered her staff to offer a hopeful farewell. That evening, she welcomed other leaders to her home to mourn.
“As with any wake, you drink a little too much, and you tell stories, and you laugh, and you cry,” Rutter told The Washington Post in a conversation in the spring.
Rutter had planned to step down at the end of 2025 after leading the Kennedy Center through a decade in which it had diversified its offerings, endured the 2020 lockdown and emerged to boast robust ticket sales and, according to publicly available tax filings, steadily grown revenue.
She still had four major items on her to-do list: growing the center’s endowment; furthering its work as an arts educator around the country; strengthening the financials of the National Symphony Orchestra; and renewing the contract with CBS or finding a new broadcast partner to air the Kennedy Center Honors.
Those plans died. But the Kennedy Center did not.
The center is now guided by a board of Trump loyalists and a new staff including the center’s president, Richard Grenell, a pugnacious veteran of the first Trump administration. They have terminated much of the former staff, lambasted the former leadership and made changes including the addition of high-wattage events like the World Cup draw. They have embarked on a $257 million renovation, in line with Trump’s broader effort to leave his mark on Washington’s cityscape. They’ve boasted about hefty fundraising.
Now, nearly 10 months in, a picture of a transformed institution has come into view. Standbys of the Kennedy Center’s stages like the National Symphony Orchestra have been strained by plummeting ticket sales and organizational uncertainty. Traveling productions and acts have pulled out. And a new kind of right-leaning programming has begun to take root.
So what is the Kennedy Center now?
For one thing, it’s getting a Trumpian revamp. He ordered new marble and the repainting of the exterior columns in austere white. Portraits of the first and second couples now hang in the center’s Hall of Nations, and the building exterior is occasionally lit up in red, white and blue (a move that, many staffers joke, makes the building look like the flag of France, not America).
“It was in rough shape,” Trump said at an event Saturday ahead of the Kennedy Center Honors. “But we’ve fixed the White House, and we’ve fixed the Kennedy Center.”
Even the medallions for the Honors, created by Ivan Chermayeff and made for nearly 50 years by a D.C.-area family, have been redesigned by Tiffany & Company.
And — wittingly or not — the new leadership has made the center a political football for the first time since its opening in 1971. House Republicans have suggested renaming it for Trump (the whole building) and the first lady (just the Opera House). Conservative groups have flocked there to host conferences and meetings. Senate Democrats are investigating the Kennedy Center, accusing Grenell of “self-dealing, favoritism, and waste,” which he has denied.
Editor’s Note: Read the rest of the story, at the below link.
Continue/Read Original Article Here: Donald Trump’s Kennedy Center is showier, emptier and more political – The Washington Post
#1971 #DonaldTrumpSKennedyCenter #Emptier #FiredBoard #History #JFK #KennedyCenterHonors #MorePolitical #PresidentJohnson #Takeover #TicketSalesDown #TrumpSKennedyCenter