International Asteroid day ☄️

The United Nations has declared “30 June as International Asteroid Day. It marks the anniversary of the Siberian Tunguska event that took place on June 30th, 1908, this was the most harmful known asteroid-related event on Earth in recent history. Another purpose of International Asteroid day is to raise public awareness about the asteroid impact hazard and what can be done to protect the Earth, its families, communities, and future generations from a catastrophic event.

Asteroid Day was co-founded by filmmaker Grigorij Richters, B612 Foundation COO Danica Remy, Apollo 9 astronaut Rusty Schweickart and Queen guitarist and astrophysicist, Brian May. Since then Over 200 astronauts, scientists, technologists and artists, including Richard Dawkins, Bill Nye, Peter Gabriel, Jim Lovell, Apollo 11 Astronaut Michael Collins, Alexei Leonov, Bill Anders, Kip Thorne, Lord Martin Rees, Chris Hadfield, Rusty Schweickart and Brian Cox have Also co-signed the Asteroid Day Declaration. Asteroid Day was officially launched on December 3, 2014 and was named Asteroid day by the International Astronomical Union.

In February 2014, Brian May, astrophysicist and guitarist for the rock band Queen, began working with Director Grigorij Richters, on the film 51 Degrees North, the story of a fictional asteroid impact on London and the human condition resulting from such an event. May composed the music for the film. After screening the film at the 2014 Starmus Festival, Richters and May co-founded Asteroid Day in October 2014 which they officially announced during a press conference with Lord Martin Rees, Rusty Schweickart, Ed Lu, Thomas Jones, Ryan Watt and Bill Nye. The event was live streamed from the Science Museum in London, the California Academy of Sciences, New York and São Paulo. On Asteroid Day 2017, minor planet 248750 (discoverer M.Dawson) was also discovered.

The workgroup of Asteroid Day created a declaration called “100X Declaration”, which appeals to all scientists and technologists who are supporting the idea of saving the earth from asteroids, but not only specialists are asked to sign, everyone can sign this declaration. Today, the 100X Declaration has been signed by more than 22,000 private citizens. More than 1M asteroids have the potential to impact Earth and through all the available telescopes worldwide, we have discovered only about one percent. The 100X Declaration calls for increasing the asteroid discovery rate to 100,000 (or 100x) per year within the next 10 years. The more we learn about asteroid impacts, the clearer it became that the human race has been living on borrowed time. Asteroid Day and the 100X Declaration are ways for the public to contribute to an awareness of the Earth’s vulnerability and the realization that Asteroids hit Earth all the time. Asteroid Day is also a way garner public support to increase our knowledge of when asteroids might strike and how we can protect ourselves.” The main three goals are:

To Employ available technology to detect and track Near-Earth Asteroids that threaten human populations via governments and private and philanthropic organisations.

To accelerate the discovery and tracking of Near-Earth Asteroids to 100,000 per year within the next ten years.

to adopt Asteroid Day Globally to increase awareness of the asteroid hazard and our efforts to prevent impacts.

During Asteroid Day 2015-2016, there were over 600 events According to the AsteroidDay.org website in 78 countries participated. The general goal was to raise awareness about the threat posed by asteroid impacts. Institutions such as the Natural History Museum in Vienna, the American Natural History Museum, the California Academy of Sciences, the Science Museum in London, the SETI institute, the European Space Agency, the UK Space Agency, and others participated in educational activities. The first Asteroid Day was held on June 30, 2015. In February 2016, Romanian astronaut Dumitru Prunariu and the Association of Space Explorers submitted a proposal to the Scientific and Technical Subcommittee of the United Nations which was accepted by the subcommittee and in June 2016 the United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space included the recommendation in its report. The report of the Committee was presented for approval to the United Nations General Assembly’s 71st session which it approved on December 6, 2016..”

More International and National events happening 30 June

Social Media Day
Leap Second Time Adjustment Day
National Bomb Pop Day
National Handshake Day
National Organization for Women Day

Hal Lindes (Dire Straits)

Hal Lindes, The American-English singer-songwriter and former guitarist with Dire Straits Was Born 30 June 1953. Dire Straits were formed in 1977 by Brothers Mark (lead vocals and lead guitar)and David Knopfler (rhythm guitar and backing vocal), and friends John Illsley (bass guitar and backing vocals, and Pick Withers (drums and percussion), they recorded a five-song demo tape which included their future hit single, “Sultans of Swing”, as well as “Water of Love”, “Down to the Waterline”, “Wild West End” and David Knopfler’s “Sacred Loving”.

The group’s first album, was intitled Dire Straits the album had little promotion when initially released in the United Kingdom However, the album came to the attention of A&R representative Karin Berg, working at Warner Bros. Records in New York City. She felt that it was the kind of music audiences were hungry for, That same year, Dire Straits began a tour as opening band for the Talking Heads after the re-released “Sultans of Swing” which scaled the charts to number four in the United States and number eight in the United Kingdom. The song was one of Dire Straits’ biggest hits and became a fixture in the band’s live performances. “ Recording sessions for the group’s second album, Communiqué, took place in December 1978, Released in June 1979 Communiqué Featured the single “Lady Writer”, the second album continued in a similar vein as the first and displayed the expanding scope of Knopfler’s lyricism on the opening track, “Once Upon a Time in the West”. In 1980, Dire Straits were nominated for two Grammy Awards for Best New Artist and Best Rock Vocal Performance by a Duo or Group for “Sultans Of Swing.

In July 1980 the band started recording tracks for their third album. Making Movies which featured longer songs with more complex arrangements, a style which would continue for the rest of the band’s career. The album featured many of Mark Knopfler’s most personal compositions. The most successful chart single was “Romeo and Juliet” and was released in October 1980. Dire Straits’ fourth studio album Love Over Gold, an album of songs filled with lengthy, experimental passages, was well received when it was released in September 1982, going gold in America and spending four weeks at number one in the United Kingdom, its main chart hit, “Private Investigations”, gave Dire Straits their first top 5 hit single in the United Kingdom, where it reached the number 2 position despite its almost seven-minute length, and became another of the band’s most popular live songs. along with “Industrial Disease”, a song that looks at the decline of the British manufacturing industry in the early 1980s. In 1983, a four-song EP titled ExtendedancEPlay was released while Love Over Gold was still in the album charts. It featured the hit single “Twisting By the Pool”. Dire Straits also embarked on a world tour. wgich resulted in The double album Alchemy Live, a recording of two live concerts of the group at London’s Hammersmith Odeon in July 1983, was released in March 1984.

Dire Straits returned to the recording studios at the end of 1984 to record their biggest selling album to date, Brothers in Arms, which has so far sold over 30 million copies and contains the songs “Money for Nothing”, “Walk of Life”, “So Far Away”, “Your Latest Trick” and “Brothers in Arms”. Released in May 1985, Brothers In Arms entered the UK Albums Chart at number 1 and spent a total of 228 weeks in the charts, It went on to become the best-selling album of 1985 in the UK, “Money for Nothing” was also the first video ever to be played on MTV in Britain and featured guest vocals by Sting, who is credited with co-writing the song with Mark Knopfler, although in fact, it was just the inclusion of the melody line from “Don’t Stand So Close To Me”.Brothers in Arms was among the first albums recorded on digital equipment due to Knopfler pushing for improved sound quality The album’s title track is reported to be the world’s first CD single. The album is listed in the Guinness Book of World Records as the first compact disc to sell a million copies, and has been credited with helping to popularise the CD forma

Their sound drew from a variety of musical influences, including jazz, folk, blues, and came closest to beat music within the context of rock and roll. Despite the prominence of punk rock during the band’s early years, the band’s stripped-down sound contrasted with punk, demonstrating a more “rootsy” influence that emerged out of pub rock. Many of Dire Straits’ compositions were melancholic and they have gone on to became one of the world’s most commercially successful bands, with worldwide album sales of over 120 million. making them One of the world’s best selling music artists, and their fifth album, Brothers in Arms, has won many accolades. In November 2009, Dire Straits were honoured by the new PRS for Music Heritage Award. A special blue plaque was erected at Farrer House, Church Street, Deptford in south London, where the original group, Mark Knopfler, David Knopfler, John Illsley and Pick Withers once shared a council flat and performed their first ever gig in 1977. PRS for Music has set up the Heritage Award to recognise the unusual “performance birthplaces” of famous bands and artists. Dire Straits have also won numerous music awards during their career, including four Grammy Awards, three Brit Awards—winning Best British Group twice, and two MTV Video Music Awards. The band’ most popular songs include “Sultans of Swing”, “Romeo and Juliet”, “Tunnel of Love”, “Private Investigations” .Dire Straits’ career spanned 18 years. Mark Knopfler and John Illsley were the only two original bandmates who remained until Dire Straits disbanded in 1995.

Gone with the wind by Margaret Mitchell

Margaret Mitchell’s Pulitzer Prize Winning epic romance Gone with the Wind, was published 30 June1936. The novel is set in Clayton County, Georgia, and Atlanta during the American Civil War (1861–1865) and the Reconstruction Era (1865–1877) that followwhere the war. Set against the backdrop of rebellion, during which seven southern states, including Georgia declare their secession from the United States (the “Union”) and form the Confederate States of America (the “Confederacy”), after Abraham Lincoln was elected president. A dispute over states’ rights has arisen involving enslaved African people.

it begins April 1861 at the “Tara” plantation, which is owned by a wealthy Irish immigrant family, the O’Haras including sixteen-year-old Scarlett O’Hara. Scarlett learns that Ashley Wilkes, is getting engaged to his cousin, Melanie Hamilton and informs Ashley she loves him. However he refuses her marriage proposal. Then Scarlett meets local rogue Rhett Butler alone in the library and learns that war has been declared. Seeking revenge for being jilted by Ashley, Scarlett accepts a proposal of marriage from Melanie’s brother, Charles Hamilton. They marry two weeks later. Charles dies from measles two months after the war begins. Widowed Scarlett is pregnant with her first child and gives birth to a boy, Wade Hampton Hamilton, named after his father’s general. As a widow, she is bound by tradition to wear black and avoid conversation with young men much to her chagrin.

Melanie, who is living in Atlanta invites Scarlett to live with them. In Atlanta, Scarlett’ begins Work at the hospital for the Confederate army & encounters Rhett Butler again at a dance for the Confederacy. The men must bid for a dance with a lady and Rhett bids for a dance with Scarlett shocking everyone, however Melanie defends Rhett because of his support for the Confederate cause. Ashley is granted some land by the army and returns to Atlanta to be with Melanie. Atlanta is under siege from the Union (September 1864), and descends into a desperate state while hundreds of wounded Confederate soldiers lie dying or dead in the city. Melanie goes into labour with only the inexperienced Scarlett to assist, as all the doctors are busy attending the soldiers. In the chaos, Scarlett, is left to fend for herself, and the Confederate States Army sets Atlanta ablaze as they abandon it.

Melanie gives birth to a boy named “Beau”, Scarlett , Melanie, Beau, and Prissy seek refuge at Tara and they follow the retreating army out of Atlanta. Rhett then enlists in the army. So Scarlett makes her way to Tara alone where she discovers that Gerald is ill, Her mother is dead andher sisters are sick with typhoid fever, the field slaves have all left after Emancipation, the Yankees have burned all the cotton and there is no food in the house. So begins a desperate journey for post-war survival. A number of Confederate soldiers returning home stop at Tara to find food and rest including Cracker, Will Benteen, and Ashley Wilkes. However Just as Life at Tara is beginning to recover there is more trouble,so Scarlett goes to Atlanta to ask Rhett Butler for help but finds him languishing in jail. Scarlett also runs into Frank Kennedyand they marry two weeks later. Frank wants Scarlett to be happy So he gives her the money to pay the taxes on Tara. In return Scarlett helps at Frank’s store and finds many People owe him money, so she recovers all the debts and runs his business while he is away.

After receiving aloan from Rhett she buys her own sawmill. However Scarlett learns she is pregnant, again & convinces Ashley to come to Atlanta and manage the mill. Scarlett gives birth to a girl named Ella Lorena’. Then Scarlett is almost robbed but she escapes with the help of Big Sam, the former foreman from Tara. Sadly Frank is shot dead in the nearby Shanty Town. And Scarlett finds herself widowed for a second time. Meanwhile Rhett, Hugh Elsing and Ashley deny any knowledge of the raid in the nearby Shanty Town using the brothel as an alibi

Rhett the asks Scarlett to marry him and she agrees. Shortly after The engagement the Butlers move into their new home, Eventually they have two children Wade and Eugenie Victoria whom Melanie nicknames “Bonnie Blue,” after the Bonnie Blue Flag of the Confederacy. Later Melanie gives a surprise birthday party for Ashley and Scarlett. unfortunately Ashley’s sister India Wilkes sees Scarlett and Ashley together at the sawmill beforehand and stirs trouble by spreading rumours of an adulterous relationship between Ashley and Scarlett. Having heard the rumours Rhett returns home drunk and violent leaving town the following morning with Bonnie and Prissy, Scarlett then learns that she is pregnant with her fourth child. Rhett eventually returns a sober, gentler more considerate man, he finds Scarlett seriously ill having lost the baby and broken her ribs. After recovering she returns to Atlanta & sells the mills to Ashley. Bonnie grows up to be a spirited and willful child, who has Rhett wrapped around her finger and giving into her every demand, even buying Bonnie a Shetland pony and teaching her to jump…sadly though this ends in tragedy.

Ray Harryhausen

American-British artist, designer, visual effects creator, writer, and producer “Ray” Harryhausen was born June 29, 1920 in Los Angeles, California. He spent his early years experimenting in the production of animated short films and was greatly inspired by the stop-motion animation of pioneer model animator Willis O’Brien on the film King Kong. So a friend arranged a meeting with O’Brien for him. O’Brien critiqued Harryhausen’s early models and urged him to take classes in graphic arts and sculpture to hone his skills. Meanwhile, Harryhausen became friends with an aspiring writer, Ray Bradbury, with similar enthusiasms. Bradbury and Harryhausen joined the Los Angeles-area Science Fiction League formed by Forrest J. Ackerman in 1939, and the three became lifelong friends. Harryhausen secured his first commercial model-animation job, on George Pal’s Puppetoons shorts, based on viewing his first formal demo reel of fighting dinosaurs from a project called Evolution of the World which was never finished.

During World War II, Harryhausen served in the United States Army Special Services Division under Colonel Frank Capra, as a loader, clapper boy, gofer and later camera assistant, whilst working at home animating short films about the use and development of military equipment. During this time he also worked with composer Dimitri Tiomkin and Theodore Geisel (“Dr. Seuss”). Following the war he salvaged several rolls of discarded 16 mm surplus film from which he made a series of fairy tale-based shorts, which he called his “Teething-rings”.

One of Harryhausen’s most long-cherished dreams was to make H.G. Wells’ The War of the Worlds. After World War II, he shot a scene of an alien emerging from a Martian cylinder showing the fearsome being from Mars fatally succumbing to an earthly illness, contracted from the air. It was part of an unrealized project to adapt the story using Wells’ original “octopus” concept for the Martians. In 1947 Harryhausen was hired as an assistant animator on what turned out to be his first major film, Mighty Joe Young (1949). O’Brien ended up concentrating on solving the various technical problems of the film, leaving most of the animation to Harryhausen. Their work won O’Brien the Academy Award for Best Special Effects that year.

Ray Harryhausen first film featuring his technical effects was The Beast from 20,000 Fathom based on a story by The writer Ray Bradbury, who was a long-time friend of Harryhausen. This was about a dinosaur drawn to a lone lighthouse by its foghorn. Because the story for Harryhausen’s film featured a similar scene, the film studio bought the rights to Bradbury’s story to avoid any potential legal problems. To film Beast from 20,000 fathoms Harryhausen used a technique called “Dynamation” that split the background and foreground of pre-shot live action footage into two separate images into which he would animate a model or models so seemingly integrating the live-action with the models. The background would be used as a miniature rear-screen with his models animated in front of it, re-photographed with an animation-capable camera to combine those two elements together, the foreground element matted out to leave a black space. Then the film was rewound, and everything except the foreground element matted out so that the foreground element would now photograph in the previously blacked out area. This created the effect that the animated model was “sandwiched” in between the two live action elements, right into the final live action scene.

In most of Harryhausen’s films, model animated characters interact with, and are a part of, the live action world, with the idea that they will cease to call attention to themselves as only “animation.” Most of the effects shots in his earliest films were created via Harryhausen’s careful frame-by-frame control of the lighting of both the set and the projector. This dramatically reduced much of degradation common in the use of back-projection or the creation of dupe negatives via the use of an optical printer. Harryhausen’s use of diffused glass to soften the sharpness of light on the animated elements allowed the matching of the soft background plates far more successfully than Willis O’Brien had achieved in his early films, allowing Harryhausen to match live and miniature elements seamlessly in most of his shots. Harryhausen managed to save money, by developing and executing most of this miniature work himself, while maintaining full technical control.

Harryhausen then began working with color film to make The 7th Voyage of Sinbad, experimenting with color film stocks to overcome the color-balance-shift problems. Ray’s producer/partner Charles H. Schneer coined the word Dynamation as a “merchandising term” (modifying it to “SuperDynaMation” and then “Dynarama”. Harryhausen was always heavily involved in the pre-production conceptualizing of each film’s story, script development, art-direction, design, storyboards, and general tone of the his films, as much as any auteur director would have on any other film, which any “director” of Harryhausen’s films had to understand and agree to work under. Only the complexities of Director’s Guild rules in Hollywood prevented Harryhausen from being credited as the director of his films, resulting in the more modest credits he had in most of his films.

Harryhausen’s often worked with his family His father did the machining of the metal armatures (based on his son’s designs) that were the skeletons for the models and allowed them to keep their position, while his mother assisted with some miniature costumes. After Harryhausen’s father died in 1973, Harryhausen contracted An occasional assistant, George Lofgren, a taxidermist, assisted Harryhausen with the creation of furred creatures. Another associate, Willis Cook, built some of Harryhausen’s miniature sets. Other than that, Harryhausen worked generally alone to produce almost all of the animation for his filmsThe same year that Beast was released, 1953, fledgling film producer Irwin Allen released a live action documentary about life in the oceans titled The Sea Around Us, which won an Oscar for best documentary feature film of that year. Harryhausen then worked on Allen’s sequel. He also met producer Charles H. Schneer, Their first tandem project was It Came from Beneath the Sea (aka Monster from Beneath the Sea, 1955), about a giant octopus attacking San Francisco. followed by Earth vs. the Flying Saucers. In 1954, Irwin Allen began work on a second feature-length documentary film, about animal life on land called The Animal World Needing an opening sequence about dinosaurs, Allen hired premier model animator Willis O’Brien and Harryhausen to animate the dinosaurs, many agreed that the dinosaur sequence of Animal World was the best part of the entire movie. (Animal World is available on the DVD release of O’Brien’s 1957 film The Black Scorpion).

Harryhausen then made 20 Million Miles to Earth (1957), about an American spaceship returning from Venus. The spaceship crashes into the ocean near Italy, which releases an on-board alien egg specimen that washes up on shore. The egg soon hatches a creature that, in Earth’s atmosphere, rapidly grows to gigantic size running amok and terrifying the citizens of Rome. He refined and improved his animation techniques still further for the Venusian Ymir alien. Harryhausen then developed a technique to maintain proper color balances for his DynaMation process, resulting in The 7th Voyage of Sinbad (1958) The Three Worlds of Gulliver (1960), Mysterious Island and Jason and the Argonauts (1963). Among the film’s best sequences is an exciting fight between three actors and seven living skeletons, And the confrontation with Talos the bronze giant. Harryhausen next made First Men in the Moon (1964), his only film made in the 2.35:1 widescreen (AKA “CinemaScope”) format, based on the novel by H. G. Wells.

Harryhausen was then hired by Hammer Film Productions to animate the dinosaurs for One Million Years B.C. (1966) featuringRaquel Welch in her second film. Harryhausen next went on to make another dinosaur film, The Valley of Gwangi. This is Set in Mexico, and features cowboys who discover a forbidden valley inhabited by dinosaurs and manage to capture a living Allosaurus and bring him to the nearest Mexican city for exhibition. However the creature, escapes and wreaks havoc on the town. Harryhausen’s next film wasThe Golden Voyage of Sinbad, featuring a sword fight involving a statue of the six-armed goddess Kali this was followed by Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger. Harryhausen and Shneer’s next film was Clash of the Titans featuring stars such as Laurence Olivier Ursula Andress, Burgess Meridith and Harry Hamlin and for which he was nominated for a Saturn Award for Best Special Effects. This features Perseus and his efforts to save the beautiful princess Andromeda from being sacrificed to the fearsome Kraken by undertaking a perilous journey to the Isle of the Dead Where he confronts the equally fearsome gorgon Medusa. sadly more sophisticated computer-assisted technology developed by ILM and others began to eclipse Harryhausen’s production techniques, with MGM and other studios refusing to fund his planned sequel, Force of the Trojans, sO Harryhausen and Schneer Retired from filmmaking.

In the early 1970s, Harryhausen also published a book, Film Fantasy Scrapbook (produced in three editions as his last three films were released) and supervising the restoration and release of his films to video, laserdisc, DVD, and Blu-ray. A second book followed, An Animated Life, written with author and friend Tony Dalton which details his techniques and history. This was then followed in 2005 by The Art of Ray Harryhausen, featuring sketches and drawings for his many projects. In 2008 Harryhausen and Dalton published a history of stop-motion model animation, A Century of Model Animation and to celebrate Harryhausen’s 90th birthday The Ray & Diana Harryhausen Foundation published Ray Harryhausen – A Life in Pictures. In 2011 the last volume, called Ray Harryhausen’s Fantasy Scrapbook, was also published. Harryhausen continued his lifelong friendship with Ray Bradbury until Bradbury’s death in 2012. Another long-time close friend was “Famous Monsters of Filmland” magazine editor, book writer, and sci-fi collector Forrest J Ackerman, another friend was long-time producer, Charles H. Schneer, who lived next door to him in a suburb of London until Schneer moved full-time to the USA. Harryhausen and Terry Moore appeared in small comedic cameo roles in the 1998 remake of Mighty Joe Young, and he has also provided the voice of a polar bear cub in the Will Ferrell film Elf. He also appears as a bar patron in Beverly Hills Cop III, and as a doctor in the John Landis film Spies Like Us. In 2010, Harryhausen had a brief cameo in Burke & Hare, a British film also directed by Landis.

In 1986 Harryhausen formed The Ray & Diana Harryhausen Foundation, a registered charity in the UK and US, which preserves all of his collection and promotes the art of stop-motion animation. In 2002, young animators Seamus Walsh and Mark Caballero helped Harryhausen complete The Story of the Tortoise and the Hare. This was the sixth and final installment of the Harryhausen fairy tales. The film was started in 1952 and completed in 2002, 50 years later and went on to win the 2003 Annie award for best short film and gained worldwide attention. Ray Harryhausen was also given a special tribute at The BFI Southbank theater which was attended by all the top visual effects directors and technicians and was hosted by director John Landis. At this event he was presented by Peter Jackson with a special BAFTA award from the British Academy of Film and Television Arts. In 2009, he released colorized DVD versions of three of his classic black and white Columbia films: 20 Million Miles to Earth, Earth vs. the Flying Saucers, and It Came from Beneath the Sea, and of She (1935), in tribute to its producer Merian C. Cooper.In June 2010, it was announced that the Ray and Diana Harryhausen Foundation had agreed to deposit the animator’s complete collection of some 50,000 pieces with the National Media Museum in Bradford, England.

The work of Ray Harryhausen was celebrated in an exhibition at London’s Museum of the Moving Image (MOMI) in 1990. In 2010 A theater at Sony Pictures Digital Productions was named in honor of Harryhausen. The Science Fiction Hall of Fame inducted Harryhausen in 2005, He also received the annual British Fantasy Society Wagner Award in 2008 for his lifetime contribution to the genre and in 2003, Harryhausen was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

In 2013, the RH foundation and Arrow Films released a feature-length biography of Harryhausen and his films called “Ray Harryhausen – Special Effects Titan” on Blu-Ray. Featuring photos, artifacts, and film clips culled directly Harryhausen’s estate and never before seen by the public. A major exhibition of Ray Harryhausen’s models Entitled “Ray Harryhausen – Mythical Menagerie” was held at the Science Museum Oklahoma and another exhibition took place at Tate Britain in 2017 featuring work from the Harryhausen collection and short film made by John Walsh on the restoration of a painting owned by Harryhausen which influenced his work. In 1992 The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences awarded Ray Harryhausen a Gordon E.Sawyer Award to acknowledge His “technological contributions to the industry. He also made” A long series of appearances at film festivals, colleges, and film seminars around the world Harryhausen met many of

Ray Harryhausen sadly died on May 7, 2013 however his influence on today’s film makers is enormous, with luminaries; Steven Spielberg, James Cameron, Peter Jackson, George Lucas, John Landis and Nick Park citing Harryhausen as being the man whose work inspired their own creations. Peter Lord of Aardman animation also said that Harryhausen was “a one-man industry and a one-man genre”. Shaun of the Dead director Edgar Wright said “I loved every single frame of Ray Harryhausen’s work … He was the man who made me believe in monsters.” George Lucas also said, “Without Ray Harryhausen, there would likely have been no Star Wars”. Terry Gilliam said, “What we do now digitally with computers, Ray did digitally long before but without computers. Only with his digits.” James Cameron also paid tribute by saying, “I think all of us who are practitioners in the arts of science fiction and fantasy movies now all feel that we’re standing on the shoulders of a giant. If not for Ray’s contribution to the collective dreamscape, we wouldn’t be who we are.”

Ray Harryhausen left his collection, which includes all of his film related artefacts to the Ray & Diana Harryhausen Foundation, set up in 1986 to look after his extensive collection, to protect his name and to further the art of model stop-motion animation. The trustees are his daughter Vanessa Harryhausen, Simon Mackintosh, actress Caroline Munro who appeared in The Golden Voyage of Sinbad and film maker John Walsh who first met with Ray Harryhausen in 1988 as a film student of the London Film School and made a documentary entitled Ray Harryhausen: Movement Into Life narrated by Doctor Who actor Tom Baker (who also appeared in the Golden Voyage of Sinbad. The Foundation’s website charts progress on the restoration of the collection and future plans for Ray’s legacy. In 2016 the foundation launched The Ray Harryhausen Podcast. This included never before heard audio from Ray Harryhausen. Hosted by Collections Manager Connor Heaney and John Walsh.

Ian Paice (Deep Purple)

Best known as the drummer of the English rock band Deep Purple, the English musician Ian Paice was born 29 June 1948. Since Jon Lord’s departure in 2002, he is the only continuous member of Deep Purple, and as such is the only member to appear on every album the band has released. Born in Nottingham, Ian Paice got his first drum kit at 15. He began his professional career in the late 50s playing drums in his father’s dance band. The first band he was in was called Georgie & the Rave-Ons, which after being renamed for The Shindigs released their first single featuring 17-year-old Ian Paice and George Adams. In 1966 Paice joined The MI5, which soon changed its name to The Maze and produced a number of singles, recorded mainly in Italy and France. The band featured Rod Evans, who alongside Paice was to form the original line-up of Deep Purple in February 1968. Ian Paice was also heavily involved in doing sessions for various artists from the stable of the famous 60s producer Derek Lawrence.

After Deep Purple split, Ian Paice went on to form a new supergroup, Paice Ashton Lord in 1976. The band, comprising also singer/pianist Tony Ashton, organist Jon Lord, guitarist/vocalist Bernie Marsden and bassist Paul Martinez recorded one album, Malice in Wonderland and they played only five live shows. It was put on hold in 1977, halfway through recording the group’s second album. They subsequently broke up. In August 1979, Ian Paice was asked by David Coverdale to join Whitesnake on the Japanese Tour for the Lovehunter album. He stayed with the band for almost three years. He appeared on the Whitesnake albums Ready an’ Willing (1980), Live…in the Heart of the City (1980), Come an’ Get It (1981) and Saints & Sinners (1982). This incarnation of Whitesnake also featured Jon Lord which meant three members of the Mark III line-up of Deep Purple were in Whitesnake. Following musical differences with David Coverdale, Ian Paice left Whitesnake in January 1982.

In November 1982 Ian Paice joined Gary Moore for an album date (“Corridors of Power”). It turned out so nicely that Moore’s manager came up with the idea of Moore and Paice putting a band together under Moore’s name, so that his management would take the business side of the project with Paice having a sizeable interest in the band. The collaboration turned out to be a successful one and produced a couple of albums and extensive tours. Ian Paice left Moore’s band in April 1984 to rejoin Deep Purple, and he remains in Deep Purple to the present day. In 1973 Ian Paice was among English rock musicians invited by Eddie Harris, an American jazz player, to take part in the saxophonist’s London sessions at Morgan Studios. Paice played on two songs: “He’s Island Man” and “I’ve Tried Everything” along Jeff Beck, Steve Winwood and Rick Grech. The album called E.H. in the U.K. – The Eddie Harris London Sessions, produced by Geoffrey Haslam, was released the next year thru Atlantic Records.

In 1983 Ian Paice took part in one of the first tribute recordings by symphonic orchestra paid to a rock band. Arrested – The Music of Police was a joint venture by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Don Airey and assembled rock musicians (other artists involved included Neil Murray, Graham Bonnet, Chris Thompson, Gary Moore, Roy Wood, Keth Airey and Raff Ravenscroft to name a few). The sessions took place mainly in London, primarily at Abbey Road, but also in Los Angeles. In July 1989 Ian Paice took part in George Harrison’s recording session at Friar Park, which resulted in three songs “Cheer Down”, “Cockamamie Business” and “Poor Little Girl”, which also featured Jeff Lynne, Jim Horn and Richard Tandy among others. The songs were recorded for the compilation album Best of Dark Horse 1976-1989, released in October the same year. The purpose of this album was to close Harrison’s contractual obligations to Warner Brothers. “Cheer Down” was also released on the Lethal Weapon 2 (1989) soundtrack album.

In March 1999 Ian Paice joined Paul McCartney at Abbey Road Studios for the recording of Run Devil Run alongside Pink Floyd’s David Gilmour and The Pirates’ Mick Green. Paice also joined the album’s line-up at three one-off performances in September and December 1999, including a show at the famous Cavern Club. In 2001 Ian Paice guested Jim Capaldi’s album Living on the Outside. He plays on a 1960s style rock and roll song “Anna Julia” and guitar-driven “We’re Not Alone”. “Anna Julia”, which was also released as a single and turned out a considerable hit, also features George Harrison and Paul Weller. Ian Paice has worked on numerous occasions with former Spencer Davis Group drummer, Pete York. In December 2001 the two played a low key club tour of Germany, playing two drums on one stage, supported by Colin Hodgkinson (bass) and Miller Anderson (guitar, vocals). Apart from the regular setlist consisting of songs from York’s and Paice’s back catalogue, the shows featured impromptu drumming demonstrations and Q’s & A’s sessions.

Ian Paice often joins Italian guitarist Tolo Marton, with whom he has performed on many occasions over the last decade. Marton’s live album Dal Vero (2002) features Ian Paice on Jimi Hendrix classics “Stone Free” and “Hey Joe”. Since 2005 he has also been involved in Moonstone Project led by Italian guitarist Matteo Filippini. The band performs on a regular basis mainly in Italy. They have also released two studio albums on both of which Ian Paice has guested. Time to Take a Stand (2006) featured two songs that featured both Ian Paice and Glenn Hughes, performing together for the first time since 1976. Ian Paice’s admirers includes Red Hot Chili Peppers’ Chad Smith. On 21 June 2004 Smith and Paice joined forces at the launch of the London Drum Company. The next year they also played together at the Modern Drummer Festival at New Jersey Performing Arts Center.

In 2011 Paice took part in the all-star recording of William Shatner’s Seeking Major Tom, the actor’s fourth album, a collection of space-themed cover songs. Paice plays on a rendition of Deep Purple’s “Space Truckin’” alongside Johnny Winter. The album also features former Deep Purple guitar player, Ritchie Blackmore. On 19 June 1992 Ian Paice was among guest musicians performing at the Leukaemia Research charity concert in Oxford. The concert featured members of Bad Company and Procol Harum as well as Gary Moore and Tony Ashton. On 20 October 1992 in New York, Ian Paice played at the John Bonham Tribute alongside Jason Bonham, Tommy Aldridge, Denny Carmassi, and Frankie Banali among others. Paice performed “The Rover” off the Led Zeppelin album Physical Graffiti. Ian Paice joined Tony Ashton at two performances at the Hell Blues Festival on 10 and 11 September 1999 in Norway. The band also featured Paul Martinez on bass who had played alongside Ashton and Paice in Paice Ashton Lord in 1976/1977. The group was, however, billed as Tony Ashton & Legendary Friends. Ian Paice entertained more than 1000 people at a special charity concert in Reading. This highly successful event, which raised over £7000, was organised by Chris Wright, MD of DrumWright. The show was organised in aid of Tong-Len, which supports primary education for highly deprived children in Northern India. In 2006 Ian Paice joined Don Airey, Thomas Blug and Thijs van Leer at impromptu performances held during the ProLight+Sound fair in Frankfurt, Germany. The show included songs from the highly acclaimed Billy Cobham album Spectrum as well as songs by Deep Purple and Focus.

Since 2006 Paice is also involved in The Sunflower Jam, a London-based charity founded by his wife Jacky Paice and also involving actor Jeremy Irons. Paice is usually featured as a member of the SunflowerJam house band. He has performed there with likes of Robert Plant, Brian May, John Paul Jones, Gary Moore and Bruce Dickinson. In2007 Ian Paice held a drum clinic organised by the University of Glamorgan. The show was organised in partnership with ATRiuM the University’s Cardiff School of Creative & Cultural Industries. Commenting after the show Paice said: “ATRiuM will be a great place for young musicians to learn their craft, not to mention all the other things they’ve got going on there. This drum clinic of mine will hopefully demonstrate that drummers are also musicians, despite the jokes!”. In 2008 Paice took part in the ChildLine Rocks charity concert in London, where he played with former Deep Purple bassist Glenn Hughes for the first time since 1976 and also participated in “Rock Legends Adventure” concert in Cologne, Germany. He joined an all-stars line-up featuring Pete York, Leland Sklar, Steve Lukather, Bobby Kimball and John Miles among others. Paice played on 10 of 32 songs performed that night, including The Kinks’ “You Really Got Me”, The Beatles’ “I Saw Her Standing There” and “Come Together”, Allman Brothers Band’s “One Way Out”, Steve Wonder’s “Superstition” and Deep Purple’s “Smoke on the Water”.Ian Paice also appeared at the Pearl Day (Pearl drums event) at the East Midlands Conference Centre in Nottingham, UK. Apart from Paice, guests included Jerry Brown, Mark Brzezecki, Jimmy Degrasso, Darrin Mooney, and Dan Foord.

In 2009 Ian Paice joined Neil Murray, Doogie White, Jonathan Noyce, Clive Bunker and Phil Hilborne at a “Night with Jethro Tull and Deep Purple” concert in Turin, Italy. In 2010 Ian Paice, Jon Lord and Iron Maiden frontman Bruce Dickinson joined leading actors (Gillian Anderson, Julie Christie, Sinéad Cusack, Emilia Fox, Derek Jacobi, Zoe Wanamaker, James Wilby, among others) to support Survival International at the Apollo Theatre in London for fundraising event “We are One – a celebration of tribal peoples”, created by actor Mark Rylance. In 2012 Ian Paice performed at the Buddy Rich 25th Anniversary Memorial Concert at the London Palladium. He was joined on stage by the Buddy Rich Orchestra and Bruce Dickinson. Paice also appeared at the Sunflower Jam charity concert at the Royal Albert Hall, performing alongside guitarist Brian May of Queen, bassist John Paul Jones of Led Zeppelin, and vocalists Bruce Dickinson and Alice Cooper.

Feast of St.Peter and Paul

Feast of Saints Peter and Paul takes place annually on 29 June.  in honour of the martyrdom in Rome of the apostles Saint Peter and Saint Paul. The date refers to either the anniversary of their death or the translation of their relics.

In the General Roman Calendar, the celebration is a solemnity. Prior to the liturgical reforms of Pope Pius XII, this feast was followed by a common octave. On this feast, newly created metropolitan archbishops receive from the pope the primary symbol of their office, the pallium. It is a holy day of obligation in the Latin Church, although individual conferences of bishops can suppress the obligation. In England, Scotland and Wales the feast is observed as a holy day of obligation while in the United States and Canada, it is not. The feast ceased being a Holy Day of Obligation in the United States in 1840. The Church of England celebrates 29 June as a festival whereas The Lutheran churches celebrate it in the rank of a lesser festival.

Because of the importance of Sts Peter and Paul to the Catholic Church, many Catholic-majority countries observe their feast day as a public holiday. The feast is observed in Rome because St. Paul and St. Peter are patron saints of the Eternal City. In the Apulia region of southeastern Italy, the feast was associated with the Tarantella dance since the middle ages. It was believed that the bite of the tarantula wolf spider caused a form of manicbehavior which would result in death if the afflicted did not dance and could not be cured without the intercession of saint Paul. These panics were especially common near the feast day in the 16th and 17th centuries in Galatina, where the basilica of Saint Peter and Paul is located.

In Malta the solemnity is a public holiday and in Maltese is known as L-Imnarja. It is celebrated with festivals the preceding weekend in Buskett Gardens in Rabat. It is also a public holiday of the Canton of Ticino, Switzerland, as well as parts of the Swiss cantons of Lucerne and Graubünden. It is a public holiday in Peru and in various municipalities of the Philippines. In Ormoc, festivals, bazaars, parades, and pageants are held annually on the feast day, as Peter and Paul are the city’s patron saints. In 1577 the painter Jan Rubens named his son Peter Paul, because he was born during the office of vespers of this day

Dokken

Best known for being the lead singer, occasional guitarist, and founder of the band Dokken, the American singer and musician Donald Maynard Dokken was born June 29, 1953) is an. He’s He is known for his vibrato-laden, melodic vocal style which has made him an influential figure in American heavy metal/glam metal. Dokken’s big break came In the late 1970s, while he was playing in a Los Angeles-based band called Airborn, and had the opportunity to reach a record deal in Germany. After seeing the band Xciter with future bandmates George Lynch and Mick Brown, he tried to recruit them for a new band. Lynch and Brown were not interested in joining forces with him when he first contacted them. Don, with the help of one of Xciter’s songs, secured the deal in Germany and convinced Lynch and Brown, along with bassist Juan Croucier, to join him in Dokken soon after he received it. During his time in Germany, Dokken also befriended the German band Scorpions, and sang with them in rehearsals for their Blackout album while lead vocalist Klaus Meine was being treated for nodes on his vocal cords. Don has stated that he recorded scratch vocals for “No One Like You,” “You Give Me All I Need,” and “Dynamite.” Until Meine recovered and returned to record the album. In 1983, the first Dokken album, Breaking the Chains was released in America. It got a moderate reception. After Juan Croucier left the band to join Ratt, Jeff Pilson was brought in for their second release, Tooth and Nail, and at this time metal fans and critics began to take notice of the band. Don’s strong, melodic vocals, coupled with Lynch’s blazing guitar playing, guided Dokken to national fame.

Sadly By the late 1980s, personal tension between Dokken and Lynch took its toll on the band. In 1988, after the Monsters of Rock Tour and a further platinum album, Don Dokken decided to break up the band and they went on their separate ways. 

Following the break-up Dokken released His 1990 solo album, Up from the Ashes, this spawned two singles, Mirror Mirror and Stay. This project was a supergroup of sorts, made up of guitarists John Norum (of Europe fame) and Billy White (of Watchtower fame), bassist Peter Baltes(of Accept fame), and drummer Mikkey Dee (of King Diamond and Motörhead and Scorpions), Don also spent time as a producer for the metal band XYZ during the late 1980s and early 1990s and made a guest appearance on the German progressive metal band Vanden Plas’s Spirit of Live album as the vocalist for their live performance of Dokken’s “Kiss of Death,” the studio version of which can be found on Vanden Plas’s Far Off Grace album.

Don reformed Dokken in the 1990s After, talking with Mick Brown, who had recently left George Lynch’s new group, Lynch Mob. They joined up with Jeff Pilson, and started to write new songs. In 1994, they sent what they had written to George Lynch, who was impressed with the material. Together, they decided to reunite and tour again. This reunion lasted for three years and resulted in two new Dokken albums. Sadly in the late 90s, Dokken once again parted ways with George Lynch, gained guitarist Reb Beach, and later kicked off a new era with guitarist John Norum after the departure of Reb Beach. however That union didn’t last long, as Norum soon departed to re-unite with Europe. Norum was briefly replaced by Italian guitarist Alex De Rosso for the live tour until 2003 when guitarist/lawyer Jon Levin joined the band. Since 1994, Dokken has released six studio albums, two live albums, a Greatest Hits album, as well as their first two DVDs. In 2008 Don Dokken released a new solo album titled Solitary and Dokken released a new album titled Lightning Strikes Again. in 2010,, Dokken released a second greatest hits album, aptly titled Greatest Hits. 

Clint Boon (inspiral Carpets)

Famous for being the keyboards player (and sometimes vocalist) with alternative rock band Inspiral Carpets, the English musician and D.J.Clint Boon was born 28th June 1959. The Inspiral Carpets were formed by Graham Lambert and Stephen Holt in 1983. The band is named after a clothing shop on their Oldham estate. Their sound is based around psychedelic keyboards and guitars. They came to prominence, alongside bands like The Stone Roses and Happy Mondays, in the ‘Madchester’ scene of the late 1980s. After a flexi-disc featuring Garage Full Of Flowers given free with Manchester’s Debris magazine in 1987, followed by the Cow cassette, their first release proper, the 1988 Planecrash EP on the Playtime label received much airplay from Radio 1 DJ John Peel, who asked the band to record a session for his show. At the time of their initial success, the band earned some notoriety for their squiggly-eyed cow T-shirts; They reworked their single “Find Out Why” as the theme tune to the 8:15 from Manchester.

As their popularity grew, Playtime’s distributor Red Rhino Records went bust, leading the band to form their own label, Cow Records in March 1989, the labels’ first release being the Trainsurfing EP. After a handful of singles on their own label, the last of which, “Move”, came close to the UK top 40, they signed a deal with Mute Records, and immediately had their first top 40 chart success in the UK with “This Is How It Feels”, which is a song about unemployment and touches on themes of domestic violence. The single reached #14 in the singles chart, and debut album Life reached #2 in the album chart, both in 1990. In 1991 the band released The Beast Inside featuring The songs “Caravan” and “Please be Cruel”. The band gained astrong following in Portugal, Germany, and Argentina, with the band’s 1992 album Revenge of the Goldfish featured the songs She comes in the Fall and Dragging me Down. The next album, Devil Hopping (1994) reached number 10 in the album chart, with “Saturn 5″ and “I Want You” giving them top 20 hits, from that LP. (The latter’s single version featured Mark E. Smith) Next single “Uniform”. Sadly in 1995, after the release of a Singles collection, the band were dropped by Mute, and split up soon after.

After the Inspiral Carpets split in 1995, Boon went on to form The Clint Boon Experience releasing two albums under this name – The Compact Guide to Pop Music and Space Travel (1999), and Life in Transition (2000). They also released the single “Do What You Do (Earworm Song)”, which featured Fran Healy, the lead singer of the band Travis. Boon made a cameo appearance on the 2002 film, 24 Hour Party People as a train conductor. He lso worked with Cosgrove Hall providing voice-overs and music for the Engie Benjy cartoon series. Boon has his own record label, ‘Booney Tunes’, signing artists such as Elaine Palmer, and has also been a regular DJ at a number of nightclubs around England, and in Wrexham, North Wales. He rejoined the Inspiral Carpets for two sell-out tours in 2002 and 2003. Boon is still a presenter on Xfm Manchester. He hosts the afternoon show from Monday to Friday between 2pm and 5pm, and often covers Xposure. In 2008 Boon had his portrait painted by Manchester based artist Adam Hayley. The portrait represents many aspects of Boon’s life and incorporates references to his Manchester roots. The portrait was unveiled at Manchester’s Mooch Art Gallery on Oldham Street, in the Northern Quarter

Peter Paul Rubens

German born Flemish Baroque painter Peter Paul Rubens was Born 28th June 1577. He was a prolific artist and was a proponent of extravagant Baroque style that emphasised movement, colour, and sensuality, he was known for his Counter Reformation altarpieces, portraits, landscapes, and history paintingso mythological and allegorial sujects.In addition to running a studio in Antwerp that produced paintings popular with nobility and art collectors throughout Europe, Rubens was a classically educated humanist scholar and diplomat who was knighted by both Philip IV, King of Spain, and Charles I, King of England. Religion figured prominently in much of his work and Rubens later became one of the leading voices of the Catholic Counter-Reformation style of painting .In Antwerp, Rubens studied Latin and classical literature. By fourteen he began his artistic apprenticeship with Tobias Verhaeght. Subsequently, he studied under two of the city’s leading painters, Adam van Noort and Otto van een. his earliest training involved copying woodcuts by Hans Holbein the Younger and Marcantonio Raimondi’s engravings. Rubens completed his education in 1598, and entered the Guild of St. Luke as an independent master. In 1600, Rubens travelled to Venice, Italy, where he saw paintings by Titian, Veronese, and Tintoretto, before settling in Mantua at the court of Duke Vincenzo I Gonzaga. The style of Veronese and Tintoretto had an immediate effect on Rubens’s painting, and his later, mature style was profoundly influenced by Titian.

With financial support from the Duke, Rubens travelled to Rome via Florence in 1601. There, he studied classical Greek and Roman art and copied works of the Italian masters, the Hellenistic sculpture Laocoön and his Sons was especially influential on him, as was the art of Michelangelo, Raphael, Leonardo da Vinci and Caravaggio. He later made a copy of Caravaggio’s Entombment of Christ. He recommended that his patron, the Duke of Mantua, purchase The Death of the Virgin and was instrumental in the acquisition of The Madonna of the Rosary for the Dominican church in Antwerp. Whilst invRome, Rubens completed his first altarpiece commission, St. Helena with the True Cross for the Roman church of Santa Croce in Gerusalemme. Rubens travelled to Spain on a diplomatic mission in 1603, delivering gifts from the Gonzagas to the court of Philip III. In Spain he studied the extensive collections of Raphael and Titian that had been collected by Philip II. He also painted an equestrian portrait of the Duke of Lerma during his stay . He returned to Italy in 1604, and stayed for the next four years, first in Mantua and then in Genoa and Rome. In Genoa, Rubens painted numerous portraits, such as the Marchesa Brigida Spinola-Doria and the portrait of Maria di Antonio Serra Pallavicini. He also began a book illustrating the palaces in the city, which was published in 1622 as Palazzi di Genova.

Rubens

Rubens returned to Antwerp in 1608 during a period of renewed prosperity in the city, he was appointed as court painter by Albert VII, Archduke of Austria and Infanta Isabella Clara Eugenia of Spain, sovereigns of the Low Countries. In 1610, Rubens moved into a new house and studio that he designed. Now the Rubenshuis Museum, in the centre of Antwerp, it accommodated his workshop and made the most of his extensive collection of paintings, and his personal art collection and library,. During this time he created.Altarpieces such as The Raising of the Cross (1610) and The Descent from the Cross (1611–1614) for the Cathedral of Our Lady which were particularly important in establishing Rubens as Flanders’ leading painter . The Raising of the Cross also demonstrates the artist’s synthesis of Tintoretto’s Crucifixion for the Scuola Grande di San Rocco in Venice, Michelangelo’s dynamic figures, and Rubens’s own personal style. The Spanish Habsburg rulers also entrusted Rubens with a number of diplomatic missions, Between 1627 and 1630, Rubens’s diplomatic career was particularly active, and he moved between the courts of Spain and England in an attempt to bring peace between the Spanish Netherlands and the United Provinces. He also made several trips to the northern Netherlands as both an artist and a diplomat. It was during this period that Rubens was twice knighted, first by Philip IV of Spain in 1624, and then by Charles I of England in 1630. He was awarded an honorary Master of Arts degree from Cambridge University in 1629.

In 1621, the Queen Mother of France, Marie de’ Medici, commissioned Rubens to paint two large allegorical cycles celebrating her life and the life of her late husband, Henry IV, for the Luxembourg Palace in Paris. The Marie de’ Medici cycle was installed in 1625 Rubens’s reputation with collectors and nobility grew during this decade, and his workshop continued to paint monumental paintings for local patrons in Antwerp. Such as The Assumption of the Virgin Mary for the Cathedral of Antwerp. Rubens’s last decade was spent in and around Antwerp. He continued to paint Major works for foreign patrons stsuch as the ceiling paintings for the Banqueting House at Inigo Jones’s Palace of Whitehall. In 1630, he married 16-year-old Hélène Fourment who inspired the voluptuous figures in many of his paintings from the 1630s, including The Feast of Venus, The Three Graces and The Judgment of Paris . In an intimate portrait of her, Hélène Fourment in a Fur Wrap, also known as Het Pelsken Rubens’s wife is even partially modelled after classical sculptures of the Venus Pudica, such as theMedici Venus. In 1635, Rubens bought an estate outside of Antwerp, the Steen, where he spent much of his time. Landscapes, such as his Château de Steen with Hunter and Farmers Returning from the Fields, reflect the more personal nature of many of his later works. He also drew upon Pieter Bruegel the Elder for inspiration in later works like Flemish Kermis.

Sadly Rubens died 30 May 1640 from heart failure, brought on by his chronic gout. He was interred in Saint Jacob’s church, Antwerp. The artist had eight children, three with Isabella and five with Hélène; his youngest child was born eight months after his death. Rubens was a prolific artist. His commissioned works were mostly religious subjects, “history” paintings, which included mythological subjects, and hunt scenes. He painted portraits, especially of friends, and self-portraits, and in later life painted several landscapes. Rubens designed tapestries and prints, as well as his own house. He also oversaw the ephemeral decorations of the Joyous Entry into Antwerp by the Cardinal-Infante Ferdinand in 1635. His drawings are mostly extremely forceful but not detailed; he also made great use of oil sketches as preparatory studies. He was one of the last major artists to make consistent use of wooden panels as a support medium, even for very large works, but he used canvas as well, especially when the work needed to be sent a long distance. For altarpieces he sometimes painted on slate to reduce reflection problems. His fondness of painting full-figured women gave rise to the terms ‘Rubensian’ or ‘Rubenesque’ for plus-sized women.Rubens was a great admirer of Leonardo da Vinci’s work. Using an engraving done 50 years after Leonardo started his project on the Battle of Anghiari, Rubens did a masterly drawing of the Battle which is now in the Louvre in Paris.

Charlie Clouser (Nine inch nails)

Best known as a former a member of the industrial rock band Nine Inch Nails from 1994–2000, American singer-songwriter, Film & TV composer, record producer keyboardist, and remixerCharlie Clouser was born 28th June 1963.. Clouser plays keyboard, synthesizer, theremin, drums, music programming, engineering, and mixing. Before joining Nine Inch Nails, he was in the alternative band Burning Retna with former L.A. Guns guitarist Mick Cripps and fellow Nothing Records employee Sean Beavan. Clouser also was a member of the band 9 Ways to Sunday, which released a self-titled album in 1990.

Clouser has remixed artists such as Nine Inch Nails, Marilyn Manson, Rammstein and Meat Beat Manifesto. In 2004, Clouser produced the Helmet album Size Matters. Consisting mainly of collaborations between Clouser and Page Hamilton, it was intended to be a Hamilton solo album. The first release from the collaboration, known as Throwing Punches, appeared on a soundtrack in 2003 for the film Underworld, and was credited as a Hamilton track. Clouser created one of FirstCom music’s master series discs, only sold for commercial use, in the late 1990s. Two songs programmed by Clouser were nominated for Grammy Awards in 1997, for best metal performance: White Zombie’s “I’m Your Boogie Man” and Rob Zombie and Alice Cooper’s “Hands of Death (Burn Baby Burn),” the latter of which Clouser also co-wrote and mixed.

He has also worked with Trent Reznor on the soundtrack of Natural Born Killers, helping record and produce a new version of “Something I Can Never Have,” the original version of which appeared on Nine Inch Nails’ Pretty Hate Machine album. Clouser’s remix of Zombie’s “Dragula” can be found on The Matrix soundtrack. Another Zombie track remixed by Clouser, “Reload”, appears on The Matrix Reloaded soundtrack. He produced the unfinished Hamilton project Gandhi and also provided the live synth for Alec Empire’s “Intelligence And Sacrifice” tour in 2001. He appears in the Moog documentary about electronic-music pioneer Robert Moog and composed the song “I Am a Spaceman” for the original soundtrack of that movie. Clouser has also worked as a film and television composer, scoring the Saw series of films, as well as Death Sentence (2007), Resident Evil: Extinction (2007), Dead Silence (2007), and Deepwater (2005).He composed the ending theme “Hello Zepp” for Saw. On television, he was the composer for the TV series Las Vegas (NBC), Fastlane (Fox), and NUMB3RS (CBS) as well as American Horror Story.