March 29 – The Hyphen War?

Posted on March 29, 2018


Thank goodness, it wasn't really a "war."

But when a country cannot agree on its name, and passes bill after bill after bill changing the name, angering some people, and changing the name again...

Well, that country might be ready to split.

That's just what happened.

In late 1989, Czechoslovak Socialist Republic became a non-communist country after what is called the "Velvet Revolution." Students and other citizens protested, went on strike - and managed to end the one-party Communist rule over their nation! This change happened without battles and wars, so the revolution was called "Velvet."

This is the location in Europe of the land whose name
went through so many different versions in just a few years.

Some folks thought they should call the new, more democratic nation the Czechoslovak Republic. But Slovak politicians insisted that, coming second in the name, and not having a capital letter, the "Slovak" part waaayyy takes second place instead of being on equal footing.

Their solution? A hyphen: the Czecho-Slovak Republic.

Another suggested solution: the Republic of Czecho-Slovakia.

Apparently, Czech politicians didn't like those ideas, because it reminded them of a painful historical period.

How about the Czechoslovak Federative Republic? The name would be spelled without a hyphen in Czech and with a hyphen in Slovak: Československá federativní republika - or Česko-slovenská federatívna republika.

That's the compromise that lawmakers came up with on this date in 1990. Everyone was happy, right?

Well, I guess not...

In less than a month, the name changed AGAIN to the Czech and Slovak Republic!

The two parts of the nation couldn't even agree on whether the requested bit of punctuation was a hyphen or a dash. Like English, the Slovak language has different names for the two different pieces of punctuation - but the Czech language does not.

Thank goodness, after a peaceful transfer of power from the old communist leaders to a more democratic government, the Czechs and the Slovaks didn't actually fight a war over their name - but they DID eventually decide to split into two different nations: the Czech Republic and Slovakia. That decision was also peaceful, and it's called the Velvet Divorce. It became effective on January 1, 1993.


By the way, the Czech Republic is still futzing around with its name. In 2016 Czech lawmakers decided to shorten the long name ("the Czech Republic") to Czechia, although the long form is still in use for official business. From what I can tell, however, the name Czechia hasn't caught on. And the whole purpose of coming up with the short name was to be catchy...

It will be interesting to see if, a decade or so from now, there have been further changes - or if, perhaps, Czechia eventually does catch on...



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March 28 – Happy Birthday, Raphael


Posted on March 28, 2018


There are only a few European Renaissance artists more famous than today's birthday honoree (Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci come to mind!). Raphael is so famous, his name is used for one of the four Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles!

Actually, I read that Michelangelo, Leonardo, and Raphael are considered the "trinity of great masters."

Sadly, Raphael died at only age 37 - yet he was so prolific, he left us with a LOT of works - paintings, mostly, including frescoes on various walls of the Vatican Palace. He also did some architecture, drawing, and printmaking.

Raphael was born on this date in 1483, in the Duchy of Urbino (today a part of Italy). 

His father was a court painter to the Duke of Urbino - and Raphael grew up helping out in his father's workshop.

You see, back then, successful painters would run workshops and take on pupils or apprentices. They fed and housed the young artists - generally the parents of the youngsters would pay the master artist for this room-and-board - and they not only trained the young artists, they also paid them. Of course, as the young people got older and more skillful, they were paid more and more. 

The artists-in-training would start with tasks like preparing panels and grinding up materials to use as pigments for paint. They learned to draw by copying the drawings or paintings of their own masters and, usually, of other artists. The young apprentice-artists would travel with their master, when possible, to see more of the world, more art, and to thus increase their "visual education."

The next step for the young artists was to draw from statues and casts of statues. After mastering the conversion of non-moving 3-D objects into 2-D drawings, the pupils move onto drawing from live modes. 

Finally, artists-in-training would begin to paint. Once they demonstrated facility with painting, they would begin to paint in backgrounds and less-important parts of their masters' paintings. They would eventually paint more and more important parts of commissioned pieces. 

The result of this workshop-apprenticeship system is that a master artist's works are always collaborations of many artists, mostly younger and less capable artists. A master artist might paint only a few central figures. Or just the faces of a few central figures. Or...or nothing at all!

Modern painter Thomas Kinkade
was said to have many other artists
work on creating "his" paintings -
and then he'd add a stroke or
two of the brush and call it an
original.

I'm not sure if these stories are true...
Sometimes an entire work is painted by the artist's workshop of artists-in-training, based on his sketches - but with not a single stroke being painted by the master himself! His signature on the piece didn't mean that he painted in entirely - or even at all - himself, but it WAS supposed to mean that it met his standards of quality.

Raphael started in his father's workshop, as I mentioned, but he was orphaned by the time he was 11 years old, so he went to work in the workshop of Perugino. 

(The history is unclear - he may have apprenticed with Perugino earlier, while his father was still alive.)



Of course, eventually Raphael was considered a master, and he ran his own workshop. Art historians admit that the pieces that came out of his workshop were not up to the quality of the pieces he painted himself as a young, not-yet-fully-established artist.


 
Check out the Garden of Praise Raphael page for some puzzles and activities.

By the way, according to long-ago art historian Giorgio Vasari, Raphael was born on a Good Friday (March 28, 1483) AND died on a Good Friday (April 6, 1520). The latter date is well established, but scholars aren't totally sure about the first one. So it may be that this is NOT Raphael's birthday! He might have been born, for example, on April 6, 1483. There's not enough evidence to know....





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March 27 – World Theatre Day



Posted on March 27, 2018

Today is all about drama and comedy, plays and musicals (and even ballets and operas), all sorts of live stage performances.

Theatre was enjoyed by humans back in ancient times - and we can even read and act out Ancient Greek plays from around 470 BC (or BCE)!

Theatre often involves elaborate costumes and scenery - but sometimes theatre is just a bare stage, an actor or two dressed all in black, and passionate or funny lines that cause
audiences to leave saying, "We laughed; we cried; it was great!"


Actors are the central, most obvious participants in theatre, and sometimes actors do all sorts of other jobs in creating and putting on performances - but usually there are entire ensembles of people doing all manner of jobs:

Writers and playwrights
Composers and songwriters
Choreographers
Directors and producers
Stage managers and assistant stage managers
Scenic designers and set designers
Costume designers
Makeup designers
Lighting and sound designers
Property managers
Production managers
Technical directors
Show control designers
Music directors
Musicians and conductors
Carpenters
Charge artists
Electricians
Front of house and backstage managers
Paint crew
Playbill writers
Publicists
Scenic artists
Theatrical technicians
Technical directors
Stagehands
Wardrobe supervisors and dressers
Theatre directors of various specialties, including:
     Marketing directors
     Directors of special events
     Directors of development
Dramaturgs
House managers
Ushers
Ticketing agents
Crew Chiefs
Janitors
Stage crew
Grips
Call boys



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