My Dad Murdered My Mum | Extreme Families | Channel 4

Tasnim’s dad met her mum when she was aged just 13. At 16 months old, Tasnim Lowe lost her mum, auntie, nan and dog in a house fire - started by her dad. He was given four life sentences.

Leonardo Da Vinci had attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and was on the Neurodevelopmental spectrum

Leonardo was the 'universal Man who personified the flowering of human achievement known as the Renaissance', (Bramly, 1994). He painted the most famous painting in the world, Mona Lisa. He had problems with attention and concentration, often did not finish things. He was easily distracted. He had difficulty completing tasks. He was often moving from one activity to another. He moved a lot from place to place and was somewhat hyperactive. He showed a lack of motivation to complete tasks. He tended to move on a lot between art and science. He did move abruptly from one task to another, because this movement from one thing to another was what helped him to bring things together. White (2000) 'the many confused strands of human knowledge and lent a logic and cohesion to what he understood of the world'. The ADHD was critical for him becoming a polymath. Indeed, he would be seen as primarily a scientist and secondly as a painter. Leonardo 'got bored and distracted very easily, especially when a project became routine rather than creative', (Isaacson, 2020). White (2000) sees Leonardo as an 'untamable eccentric, a risk-taker, a man who strayed very close to the edge of heresy and necromancy, a man gifted in so many ways, it was almost impossible for him to settle upon anything that fascinated him or one skill above others'. Catani and Mazzarello (2019) discussed the issue of grey matter in Leonardi da Vinci: a genius driven to distraction. They pointed out that he had problems with 'procrastination', 'time management', was 'constantly on the go', 'jumped from task to task'.

Writing:

Bramly (1994) stated that Leonardo 'wrote backwards from right to left with inverted characters, so his manuscripts have to be read with a mirror … a trait commonly found in left handed people'. Schott (1979) proposed that 'Leonardo’s language skills were lateralized to the more unusual right hemisphere'.

Parents:

His father had a child, Leonardo, outside of wedlock by a neighbour. His mother, aged 16, Catriona, later married a local farmer and moved to live locally. His father was a notary. His mother moved away from his grandparents when Leonardo was three years old. She was in the neighbourhood, nevertheless. His mother lived nearby after her marriage. Leonardo was somewhat a loner in following his own company. He was brought before a Court for sodomy – the case was dismissed. He might have been set up. He had identity diffusion. He was an anti-sexuality person. He was poor and showed poor financial management, as people with ADHD often do. His uncle, Francesco also helped with his early education (White, 2000). He did not have a formal university education which would have filled his head with scholastic nonsense. He was lucky to have avoided this. He was a highly successful apprentice painter. He was a fashionable dresser. He was a very independent student and independent person in later life.

Childhood:

Being born out of wedlock had serious implications for life chances, including education and work. Leonardo was brought up by his grandparents and had a 'solitary childhood' (White, 2000). Sigmund Freud wrote a very poor paper on Leonardo mentioning a vulture rather than a kite and giving a convoluted and bizarre explanation of Leonardo’s homosexuality and creativity. This did serious damage to psychoanalysis and still does today. His uncle, Francesco, who was '16 years Leonardo’s senior, who lived for many years in the family home and was very close to Leonardo' (White, 2000). Francesco made Leonardo very interested in landscape, which stayed with him throughout his life. Leonardo possibly got a basic education at a local school, but this is disputed. He was apprenticed to Verrocchio, a painter, around puberty.

Science work:

His method was to 'consult experience first and then with reasoning, show why such experience is bound to operate in such a way', (Isaacson, 2020). White (2000) sees him as 'the first scientist'. He had antedated much later scientists, for example, Newton. He was an experimenter and engineer and always very autodidactic. He showed the characteristics of pure genius in his scientific work including engineering projects and mechanical projects. He was very interested in the overlap between disciplines in anatomy, architecture and mathematics. He was not interested in a 'singular discourse like an autistic artist'. He was brilliant in every discipline he took an interest in. He could hyperfocus on work for a very long period, like Newton (Fitzgerald & O’Brien, 2007). He would even forget to eat. He did dissection of corpses and anatomical work.

Mona Lisa:

This is the most famous painting in the world. The lady with the enigmatic smile. Certainly, Leonardo himself was enigmatic. There is a question about whether Mona Lisa’s face reflects his enigmatic personality. Mona Lisa only became famous after it was stolen from the Louvre in Paris. Alan Yentob (Brooks, 2003), claims Mona Lisa was probably 'pregnant'.

Leonardo wanted to 'know everything' and was massively observant. He suffered anxiety and depression. He was anti-authority. He had identity diffusion and was probably a practicing homosexual. He was fascinated by music, both composition and performance. He does not appear to have related well to the Medici, the rulers of Florence. This inhibited his career. He was somewhat arrogant and narcissistic and didn’t follow contracts he made, correctly. This led to conflicts including legal conflicts. Leonardo was 'misanthropic', had a 'suppressed hatred for humanity', (White, 2000). He saw humans as 'latrine fillers', (White, 2000). Paradoxically, he was detail focused in his own terms. He was hyperkinetic and 'a ceaseless wanderer among the avenues and byways of knowledge', (White, 2000). White (2000) points out that Leonardo was 'paranoid, constantly afraid his ideas would be stolen, and his work plagiarized' and employed 'codes and ciphers' in his notebooks. He saw the world and people as rather dangerous. He was a suspicious character. He felt safer and not threatened by a 10 year old boy, Sali, who he took on and kept with him for the rest of his life. Sali was early on, a conduct disordered boy but this interested Leonardo. He was more interested in understanding problems than continuing to sort them out to their conclusion. Leonardo was a kind of 'magpie', (White, 2000). Leonardo was a compulsive note-taker and list-maker. He had obsessive compulsive traits. He had no problem in working with tyrants and doing engineering work for them. Leonardo said, 'I would prefer death to inactivity', (White, 2000). Michelangelo (Arshad & Fitzgerald, 2004) was envious of Leonardo, (White, 2000). Michelangelo shouted an insult at Leonardo on one occasion. Leonardo developed a reputation for 'unreliability', (White, 2000).

Conclusion:

Leonardo da Vinci painted the most famous painting in the world, Mona Lisa. Michael White sees him as the First Scientist. Indeed, he seemed more interested in science then art. He was one of the greatest men of the Renaissance. He had neurodevelopmental disorders, (Fitzgerald, 2004) which are very common in great creators, including ADHD.

- Michael Fitzgerald, Former Professor of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry

John W. Campbell Jr. ‘Who Goes There?’ Review

https://horrornovelreviews.com/2012/06/16/john-w-campbell-jr-who-goes-there-review/

In general, I’ll be reserving this site for full blown novels, as you may have guessed given the title of the blog (I think it’s pretty self-explanatory). However, from time to time I will be exploring some collections, novellas and even short stories, as is the case with this particular installment. Don’t expect to see too many shorts reviewed, as I’ll only be touching down on those works that I feel are truly spectacular. Such is the case with John W. Campbell Jr.’s sci-fi/horror hybrid, Who Goes There?, which most are probably familiar with, whether they realize it or not. See, this eerie little tale serves as the source material for Christian Nyby’s thrilling motion picture, The Thing from Another World (1951) as well as John Carpenter’s far more faithful rendition, The Thing (1982).

While Nyby’s film strays quite far from John’s original story, Carpenter’s take on this one is extremely accurate, so you’ve got a great idea of what this story is about, assuming you don’t live under a rock and have seen The Thing. A group of researchers, stuck in the hazardous climate of Antarctica discover an alien space craft, and one of its inhabitants, frozen deep beneath the surface. A wealth of curiosity and a little thermite leaves the ship a lost commodity, but the alien being is unearthed, salvaged and ultimately taken to this group’s camp for a thorough examination. Scientific inquisitiveness leads to all out chaos when this creature is thawed, and proves to be a shape-shifting menace willing to travel great lengths to ensure survival.

The intensity of this story really resides in the suspense and paranoia that Campbell Jr. creates. There’s nowhere to run for this group, and the capabilities of the creature are far beyond that of mankind, which leaves a stranded band of men thoroughly outclassed, on both a physical and mental level. The impending doom that McReady, Garry, Blair, Clark, Copper and company, face manifests itself quickly, as complete distrust sweeps through the camp faster than a case of the flu. The men learn rather early that the creature is able to mimic the physical and emotional traits of just about any living entity, and that drives everyone in camp to call into question the true identity of the man beside him. Claustrophobic settings only intensify the edge of the story, as it becomes obvious that at the very least, one man has already been absorbed and mimicked by the alien, and he’s got virtually nowhere to go. But, who is The Thing, when will it strike, and has it somehow managed to spread further throughout camp than perceived? Not a soul knows, and that drives the reader about as loony as those who breathe within the pages. And believe me, a handful of these guys really plunge off the deep end.

The pace with which the story unravels is as fluid as one could request, and the mystery reaches a climax at the perfect point. McReady, though second in command, reads as the true hero of the story, while Blair plays the perfect counter: an over the top fanatic completely convinced that everyone in camp must be slaughtered in order to ensure the beast has no means of reaching civilization. In a sense, it forces readers to make a far more in depth examination of the characters within this tale: McReady seems to be the level headed one here, but Blair’s logic holds weight and his intent, though expressed in maniacal fashion, is actually pure and rather selfless. So who is the hero, and who isn’t? Who is the The Thing, and who isn’t? Can anyone escape this terrifying ordeal, or is this base camp destined to freeze to death? John W. Campbell Jr. delivers the answers, and a shitload of taut drama and visceral terror to boot.

If you’re a fan of either cinematic transfer (or even Matthijs van Heijningen Jr.’s “prequel”), and you’ve yet to read this story, I highly recommend it. There’s a suffocating quality (now that sounds like an oxymoron to me) to this tale that commands full attention, and leaves the reader (at least this one) on the cusp of constant panic, considering a seemingly unending level of anxiety. After getting to know the characters portrayed on film, it’s really rather rewarding to meet their original predecessors, as they more than live up to what fans of each feature have grown familiar with.

Rating: 4/5

Don't Remake SILENT HILL 2

I don't believe SH2's story will work in a modern remake.

Now listening to Piano Sonata No. 23 by Ludwig van Beethoven and Moana by various artists...

At the Pacific National Exhibition in Vancouver. Summer of 2018.

The Pacific National Exhibition (PNE) is a nonprofit organization that operates an annual 15-day summer fair, a seasonal amusement park, and indoor arenas in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. The PNE fair is held at Hastings Park, beginning in mid-to-late August and ending in early September, usually Labour Day.

The organization was established in 1907 as the Vancouver Exhibition Association, and organized its first fair at Hastings Park in 1910. The organization was renamed to the Pacific National Exhibition in 1946. During the mid-20th century, a number of facilities were built on the PNE grounds, including Pacific Coliseum and the PNE Agrodome. In 1993, the amusement park adjacent to the PNE, Playland, became a division of the PNE.

The Vancouver Exhibition Association (VEA), the predecessor to the Pacific National Exhibition organization was first formed in 1907; although the association was not incorporated until 18 June 1908. The VEA had petitioned Vancouver City Council to host a fair at Hastings Park; although faced early opposition from the city council and the local jockey club that used the park for horse races. However, the city council eventually conceded to the VEA's request and granted the association a 5-year lease to host a fair at Hastings Park in 1909.

The VEA held its first fair at Hastings Park in August 1910. It was opened by then Canadian Prime Minister Sir Wilfrid Laurier as the Vancouver Exhibition. The biggest attractions of the two-week fair are its numerous shops, stalls, performances, a nightly fireworks show, and the exhibition's Prize Home. From its beginnings, the exhibition was used as a showcase for the region's agriculture and economy.

In the initial years of the Second World War, the fairgrounds saw an increased military presence. However, the exhibition itself was not cancelled until 1942, after the Canadian declaration of war against Japan was issued. From 1942 to 1946 the exhibition and fair was closed, and like the Canadian National Exhibition in Toronto, served as a military training facility for the duration of World War II. During this time, the exhibition barns that were used to house livestock, were used as processing centres for interned Japanese Canadians from all over British Columbia. The interned Japanese Canadians were later shipped away to other internment camps throughout British Columbia, and Alberta. The Momiji (Japanese word for Maple) Gardens on the PNE's grounds serves as a memorial for the event. The barns used for the internment of Japanese Canadians are still used to house livestock during the annual fair, and serve as storage area to house some of the PNE's property the rest of the year.

On 7 February 1946, the Vancouver Exhibition Association changed its name to its current moniker, the Pacific National Exhibition; and later reopened the fair to the public under that name in 1947. The organization was formally reincorporated as the Pacific National Exhibition in 1955.

The highest attendance at the fair was recorded in 1986, with 1.1 million guests visiting the PNE, most likely due to Expo 86 that was occurring at the time. In 1993, the amusement park adjacent to the PNE, Playland, became a division of the PNE organization.

During 1997-1998, the PNE grounds was transformed with the demolition of a number of buildings including the Food Building, Showmart and the Poultry Building. This gave way to the Sanctuary, a parkland setting with a pond. The pond restored part of a stream that once flowed in the park out to the Burrard Inlet. The city restored a large portion of the park. Many old fair buildings have been demolished and replaced by a more natural character. Although land was purchased in Surrey that was to become the fair's new home, the PNE has since transferred ownership from the province to the City of Vancouver and will remain at Hastings Park. The PNE is a registered charity.

Two attractions at the PNE were named as heritage sites by the City of Vancouver in August 2013. The Pacific Coliseum and the Wooden Roller Coaster were added to the list.

In 2020, the fair went on hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic, alongside other agricultural and county fairs across Canada, including the Calgary Stampede, the Canadian National Exhibition, and K-Days.

In the early hours of February 20, 2022, a major fire broke out on PNE grounds, where multiple vehicles, tools and equipment, and buildings were destroyed as a result.

The PNE grounds contains several buildings and exhibition halls. The PNE Forum is a 4,200 square metres (45,000 sq ft) exhibition facility that is used for large displays and trade shows. Rollerland is a 1,840 square metres (19,800 sq ft) exhibition, banquet hall and venue for the Terminal City Roller Derby.

Two buildings on the PNE grounds are indoor arenas. The Pacific Coliseum is multi-purpose arena that holds 15,713 permanent seats, with provisions for 2,000 temporary seats for concerts and certain sports. The PNE Agrodome is a smaller indoor arena with 3,000 permanent seats, with provisions to expand up to 5,000 seats. Entertainment facilities includes the Garden Auditorium, a building that features a built-in stage and dance hall. The PNE grounds also feature amphitheatre with bench-style seating for 4,500 visitors.

Other buildings on the PNE grounds includes the Livestock Barns, a large multi-use facility, and the organization's administrative offices.

 

Now reading Stronghand by Gustave Aimard...