MEDIEVAL 2008 - BRUSSELS, BELGIUM

SBANDIERATORI SANSEPOLCRO - ITALY

FLOWER CARPET - GRAND PLACE, BRUSSELS

Belgium, 15 August 2008

The Grote Markt (Dutch) or Grand Place (French) is the central market square of Brussels. It is surrounded by guild houses, the city's Town Hall and the Bread House (Dutch: Broodhuis, French: Maison du Roi).

The Grand Place was named by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site in 1998. One of the houses was owned by the brewers' guild, and is now the home of a brewers' museum.

The Grand Place is well known for its large "flower carpet". This display of begonias is arranged on the square every two years for a few days in the middle of August, and attracts many tourists.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Place#Flower_carpet

CONTESA DEL SECCHIO

Sant'Elpidio a Mare, Italy - 10 August 2008

Sant'Elpidio a Mare is a town and commune in the province of Ascoli Piceno, in the Marche region of Italy. It is famous for having one of the oldest and most prestigious historical re-enactments in the region of the “Contesa del Secchio”.

The town was originally named Cluana. The village of Cluana acquired Saint Elpidius' relics in the 7th century in exchange for the donation of a piece of land. The relics of Elpidius and his companions Eustace and Ennesius were consigned to the local inhabitants, and the town later acquired the new name of Sant'Elpidio a Mare.

The relics of Elpidius are considered to have saved the town from a Lombard siege; tradition states that the saint appeared in the sky asking the inhabitants to defend the village.

GIOSTRA DELLA QUINTANA - ASCOLI PICENO

Ascoli Piceno, Italy - 3 August 2008

The Giostra della Quintana is a knight ring jousting tournament based on a historical event. It takes place in the Town of Ascoli Piceno, in central Italy.

The events take place in July during a Saturday night and the first Sunday of August.

The definition of Quintana comes from the 5th road of the Roman military Camps, where the soldiers were trained to the lance fighting. They run against a dummy-soldier, trying to catch a ring hanging from an arm of the dummy. Here the origin of the Tournament's name, but the first definition and documented "Quintana" as a knights' jousting tournament during a festival, dates back to 1448.

In 1613 the Priors included the Quintana in the events of Carnival festivals, and all has been hystorically documented.

During the events period, a number of happenings involve the whole town. A parade takes place with 1500 characters dressed in original-like precious dresses: a historically documented walk in the town during the day before the Ring Joust.



Il torneo cavalleresco della Quintana o giostra della Quintana è una rievocazione storica medioevale con giostra equestre che si tiene ad Ascoli Piceno.

Si svolge la prima domenica di agosto in occasione della festa di Sant'Emidio, patrono e primo vescovo della città marchigiana. Da qualche tempo vi è anche una edizione della Quintana in notturna il secondo sabato di luglio. Questa manifestazione si rinnova, ogni anno, dal 1955 quando, dopo un periodo di sospensione, ebbe nuovamente luogo su iniziativa di storici come Carlo Cardarelli, Carlo Baiocchi, Giuseppe Fabiani, dello scenografo Danili Ciampini, del professore Alberto Costantini, di Giulio Franchi, Aldighiero Batini, e Nazzareno Peci.

Ogni edizione ha visto l'aggiungersi di nuovi costumi e nuove figure fino a raggiungere l'attuale composizione dell'imponente e sfarzoso corteo storico che si muove, con il passo cadenzato dell'antica arte militare, accompagnato, per tutto il percorso della sfilata, dallo squillo delle chiarine, dal rullo dei tamburini e dagli sbandieratori che si esibiscono quasi ininterrottamente.

Di particolare intensità, suggestione e destrezza è lo spettacolo che i portatori dei vessilli offrono all'interno del campo dei giochi.

L'intero evento della Quintana si compone di più momenti che hanno svolgimento nei giorni che precedono la competizione dei cavalieri quali: la lettura del bando, l'offerta dei ceri, il palio degli arcieri, il palio degli sbandieratori ed infine la sfilata del corteo e la giostra nel campo.

Per la città di Ascoli rappresenta l'espressione e la sintesi delle tradizioni, della sua storia e dell'indissolubile legame al territorio ricordato dagli antichi patti di alleanza di cui, alla Quintana, se ne conserva la memoria. La manifestazione è molto seguita e sentita da tutti gli ascolani che si preparano per questo evento durante tutto l'anno. Nei sei sestieri cittadini si ascoltano sovente i suoni delle chiarine ed il rullare dei tamburi.

http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Torneo_cavalleresco_della_Quintana

THE COUNTDOWN...

DO YOU REMEMBER WHEN YOU WERE A KID AND YOUR PARENTS LINED YOU UP AGAINST A DOOR FRAME TO MARK HOW TALL YOU WERE AND DATED THE MARK?

WELL, THIS CARTOON BRINGS A WHOLE NEW PERSPECTIVE TO THAT EXERCISE!

LAUGHTER WILL KEEP YOU YOUNG AT HEART!

TILL WE MEET AGAIN

Without you I could not have been the one who I was expected to be when
All you had to do is show me that I was the love in your life

As I try to learn to live without your friendship that I have grown accustomed too
I feel a great emptiness inside that is swelling more and more each day from this void
I have inside that use to be where your love use to fill

While the time passes, every second seems like an hour and every hour seems like a day
As I walk aimlessly through the places we always felt happiest when we just needed to
Be there for each other at the end of everyday

Now that you are gone I wish I was there with you to guide you and be beside you
Until you get to where you were are going now even though you have to do it alone
And my only conciliation is that we will be together again somewhere someday
With you there to guide me to where we can be together again


With the kind courtesy and permission of Sean Davis
http://seanspoemsandstories.blogspot.com/

THE ADVENTURES OF TINTIN IN THE METRO

Metro Stockel - Brussels, Belgium

The Adventures of Tintin (French: Les Aventures de Tintin) is a series of comic books created by Belgian artist Hergé, the pen name of Georges Remi (1907–1983). The series first appeared in French in a children's supplement to the Belgian newspaper Le Vingtième Siècle on January 10, 1929. Set in a painstakingly researched world closely mirroring our own, The Adventures of Tintin presents a number of characters in distinctive settings. The series has continued as a favourite of readers and critics alike for over 70 years.

The hero of the series is Tintin, a young Belgian reporter and traveller. He is aided in his adventures from the beginning by his faithful fox terrier dog Snowy (Milou in French). Later, popular additions to the cast included the brash, cynical and grumpy Captain Haddock, the bright but hearing-impaired Professor Calculus (Professeur Tournesol in French) and other colourful supporting characters such as the incompetent detectives Thomson and Thompson (Dupond et Dupont in French).

The success of the series saw the serialised strips collected into a series of albums (23 in all), spun into a successful magazine and adapted for both film and theatre. The series is one of the most popular European comics of the 20th century, with translations published in over 50 languages and more than 200 million copies of the books sold to date.

The comic strip series has long been admired for its clean, expressive drawings in Hergé's signature ligne claire style. Engaging, well-researched plots straddle a variety of genres: swashbuckling adventures with elements of fantasy, mysteries, political thrillers, and science fiction. The stories within the Tintin series always feature slapstick humour, offset in later albums by sophisticated satire and political/cultural commentary.

Tintin is a young Belgian reporter who becomes involved in dangerous cases in which he takes heroic action to save the day. Almost every adventure features Tintin hard at work at his investigative reporting, but he is rarely seen actually turning in a story without first getting caught up in some misadventure. He is a young man of more or less neutral attitudes and is less colourful than the supporting cast. In this respect, he represents the everyman.

Snowy, a white Fox terrier, is Tintin's four-legged companion. They regularly save each other from perilous situations. Snowy frequently "speaks" to the reader through his thoughts (often displaying a dry sense of humour), which are supposedly not heard by the characters in the story except in Tintin in America where he explains Tintin about his absence for a period of time in the book.

Like Captain Haddock, Snowy is fond of the Loch Lomond brand of whisky, and his occasional bouts of drinking tend to get him into trouble, as does his raging arachnophobia. The French name of Snowy, "Milou", has nothing to do with snow or the color white. It has been widely credited as an oblique reference to a girlfriend from Hergé's youth, Marie-Louise Van Cutsem, whose nickname was "Milou".

Another explanation to the origins of the two characters is possible. The first 3 adventures of Tintin visit places originally visited by photographer-reporter Robert Sexé, recorded in the Belgian press from the mid to late 1920s. At that time Sexé had made numerous trips round the world on a motorcycle, in collaboration with Grand-Prix champion and motorcycle record holder René Milhoux, and these trips were highly publicised at the time. Sexé has also been noted to have a similar appearance to Tintin, and the Hergé Foundation in Belgium has admitted that it is not too hard to imagine how Hergé could have been influenced by the exploits of Sexé. In 1996, a biography of Robert Sexé by Janpol Schulz was published, titled "Sexé au pays des Soviets" (Sexé in the Land of the Soviets) to mimic the name of the first Tintin Adventure.

More on: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Adventures_of_Tintin

THE FLOWERS OF THE BRUSSELS BOTANICAL GARDEN

THE INCREDIBLE SNAKE-EATING SPIDER

An office receptionist got the shock of her life earlier this week when she found a 14cm long snake entangled in the web of a deadly spider. Tania Robertson, a receptionist at an electrical firm, came in to work on Tuesday and spotted the sight next to a desk in her office. The snake, which had obviously died from the spider's poisonous bite, was off the ground and caught up in the web.

Leon Lotz of the arachnology department at the National Museum said it was only the second time that he had heard of a snake getting caught in a spider's web. It is believed the snake got caught in the web on Monday night. But it did not take the spider long to bite it. A red mark on the snake's stomach was evidence of where the spider had started eating it.

Throughout Tuesday, the spider checked on her prey, but on Wednesday she rolled it up and started spinning a web around it. She also kept lifting it higher off the ground, while continually snacking on it.

BRUSSELS ZINNEKE PARADE 2008 SLIDESHOWS

Zinneke Parade was born within the framework from Brussels 2000, European Ville of the Culture. It is the expression of a will to organize a great festival in the city, which would throw bridges between the 18 communes and the downtown area and which would mobilize all associations (socio) cultural.

The first Parade was in charge with emotions and joy and marked many memories. The idea was to show at the great day the multicultural richness districts and to cross the barriers of the fragmentation of the Area. It was one of the rare events created at the time of Brussels 2000 to perennialize the adventure. In 2002, the Parade crossed the capital of the south to north around the topic of the “Zinnergie”. In 2004, it followed the way of Zinnodrôme (the boulevard starting from Brouckère until Anneessens) and it was articulated around the topic `the body in the ville'.

 

ALICE'S FIRST COMMUNION

THE BRIDAL BOUQUET

SILVIA AND DAVID WEDDING - 17 MAY 2008

THE SEX FAIRY

This is hilarious! Be sure to read the warning at the bottom. I didn't change a word! I'm not messing with the Sex Fairy!

1. Sex is a beauty treatment. Scientific tests find that when women make love they produce amounts of the hormone estrogen, which makes hair shine and skin smooth.
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2. Gentle, relaxed lovemaking reduces your chances of suffering dermatitis, skin rashes and blemishes. The sweat produced cleanses the pores and makes your skin glow.
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3. Lovemaking can burn up those calories you piled on during that romantic dinner.
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4. Sex is one of the safest sports you can take up. It stretches and tones up just about every muscle in the body. It's more enjoyable than swimming 20 laps, and you don't need special sneakers!
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5. Sex is an instant cure for mild depression. It releases endorphins into the bloodstream, producing a sense of euphoria and leaving you with a feeling of well-being.
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6. The more sex you have, the more you will be offered. The sexually active body gives off greater quantities of chemicals called pheromones. These subtle sex perfumes drive the opposite sex crazy!
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7. Sex is the safest tranquilizer in the world. IT IS 10 TIMES MORE EFFECTIVE THAN VALIUM.
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8. Kissing each day will keep the dentist away. Kissing encourages saliva to wash food from the teeth and lowers the level of the acid that causes decay,
preventing plaque build-up.
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9. Sex actually relieves headaches. A lovemaking session can release the tension that restricts blood vessels in the brain.
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10. A lot of lovemaking can unblock a stuffy nose. Sex is a natural antihistamine. It can help combat asthma and hay fever.
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This message has been sent to you for good luck in sex. The original is in a room in the basement of the Dwight House Pub. It has been sent around the world nine times.

Now sex has been sent to you. The 'Hot Sex Fairy' will visit you within four days of receiving this message, provided you, in turn, send it on.

If you don't, then you will never receive good sex again for the rest of your life. You will eventually become celibate, and your genitals will rot and fall off. This is no joke! Send copies to people you think need sex (who doesn't?). Don't send money, as the fate of your genitals has no price.

Do not keep this message. This message must leave your e-mail in 5 hours. Please send ten copies and see what happens in four days.