Thucydides (Final)

Thucydides, to me, is one of the most important historical figures of all time. Not only did he take part in one of the world’s greatest wars, but he also provided an extremely accurate historical account from both sides of the conflict (war and history: my two favorite subjects to read about).
During the Peloponnesian war, Thucydides wrote the History of the Peloponnesian War, the world’s first accurate historical narrative. Accurate, because it contained no tales of the relations between gods and men. He wrote only about the deeds of mortals, and recorded exactly what happened from both sides of the conflict.
Thucydides had many powerful family connections, putting him in constant contact with important historical figures and giving hi first hand experience to record in his journals. In 424 B.C., he was made General and placed in charge of seven ships to aid in the defence of the coast. However, he failed to save the city of Amphipolis from Spartan attack and it was destroyed. Soon after, Thucydides was exiled for his failures, which allowed him to freely travel between both sides of the war. Having no allegiance, neither army thought of him as a threat, and he was able to write accounts from every angle, telling stories from both sides.
Not much is known of the death of Thucydides. His narrative ends very abruptly in the year 411 B.C., leading many people to believe that he was killed and his accounts rescued before he could finish them. However, the story ends very soon after the end of the war, not during it, and so there are those who believe he just stopped writing.
His accounts paved the way for historians everywhere to stop muddling up their accounts with sweeping tales of gods and heroes and false stories that never happened. He began a movement to record the truth, the beginning of a reliable recorded History. As a lover of history, how could he not be important to me?

Special Topics in Calamity Physics (Final)

Special Topics in Calamity Physics, by Marisha Pessl, is a murder mystery novel following the adventures of main character Blue van Meer. Daughter of a traveling professor, she spends most of her life on the road, a modern day nomad. She and her father settle in each location only for a semester of schooling, and then uproot and drive to the next location, all the while giving Blue a first rate ‘on-the-road’ education.
The story begins when she and her father settle down for her entire senior year of high school, and much of the book documents her exploits as she tries to fit in with the students there, and for the first time, makes some friends. The curious nature and subsequent death of friend/teacher Hanna Schneider during a non-school camping trip sparks the main plot of the story. Blue must overcome a tangled web of deception and apparent coincidence as she attempts to unravel the death of this teacher, and, ultimately, the disappearance of her father.
I am not normally a fan of murder mysteries, and certainly would never read this book on my own if not for this class. However, I found it brilliantly written and constructed, aside from a few points in the immediate beginning of the book. The authors dense, never-ending forest of metaphors and references make for an intellectually stimulating (and challenging) read. It also adds a curious new aspect to the diction that I have yet to see anywhere else: each person reads the book slightly differently. As it is neigh on impossible to be familiar with every single reference in the story (some of them are made up, for instance…), each person will relate to the book in different ways with different background knowledge. Excerpts that made me chuckle with underlying humor seemed to make no sense to some of my classmates, telling me that they were unaware of what Pessl was referring to in the text.
Overall: a solid read, and something I’m glad I was made to look into.

Colonal Kurtz (Final)

Colonel Kurtz is a character in the 1979 film Apocalypse Now, directed by Francis Coppola. He plays the part of an American colonel in the Vietnam War, driven insane by combat to the point that he has gone AWOL and taken command of a group of natives. These native people worship him and fight under him so vehemently that the American and Vietcong forces will not go near his "territory". 
In the movie, Captain Willard (Martin Sheen) is ordered to take down Kurtz by any means necessary. The story follows his trek through Vietnam, as the conflict grows more and more out of hand the farther into the jungle he goes. At the front lines, leadership is almost nonexistent, and battle between forces is chaotic at best. Graphic scenes of war and a few sub-plot elements ensue during his journey, but eventually he reaches the fortress Kurtz has established. 
Willard is soon taken captive and his team killed. Kurtz tells him his story of how he became involved in the war, and his steady decline into madness, which he describes as a loss of self-control to the point where he believes that senseless killing and brutality is the only way to win the war. Willard realizes that Kurtz wants to be killed, because he cannot control his own madness. In the end, Willard kills Kurtz with a machete, and the native forces try to take Willard as their new leader, but he refuses and leaves, which signals the end of the film.
War in general is a great interest of mine, and I spend much of my free time watching films and reading books on the subject. Apocalypse Now is an extremely dramatisized film, but at some points it very much shows the mindset and the environment of Vietnam during the war. I hadn’t seen the film before reading Calamity Physics, but watched it after I did the original post on the character of Kurtz, and liked it. The fictional mind of Colonel Kurtz is an exaggerated but acceptable view of what the rigors of jungle warfare are capable of doing to the human psyche.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colonel_Kurtz

Carl Jung (Final)

Carl Gustav Jung was a Swiss psychiatrist and the founder of Analytical Psychology. Carl believed that too much of the field of psychology was based on logic, and that much could be learned through the study of dreams, art, philosophy and religion. His work was spread wide, as he studied fields from astrology to alchemy to literature.
Jung proposed many completely original concepts over the course of his studies, including but not limited to The Archetype, The Complex, The Collective Unconscious, and Synchronicity.
While working with Freud early in his career, he became fascinated with the unconscious human mind, and devoted his life's work to discovering its secrets.
Jung introduced many parts of the human unconscious not yet brought out into light. The Individuation is a person's gradual journey towards identifying him or herself. This process is what generally causes the "mid-life crisis" halfway through an adult's life, as they begin to understand long hidden desires and fear wasting the second half of their lifespan.
His Idea of the Anima and Animus within the human psyche was also a first in psychology. The anima is the female component of a male's mind, and the animus is the male component of a female's mind. People not in touch with their anima or animus may seem overly masculine or feminine, off balance from the social norm. Repression of one's Anima/us will result in this part of the human brain attempting to gain attention by manifesting itself in how that person sees others.
Another of his psychological discoveries is the idea of The Shadow. The Shadow of a human mind is the part of each person that we choose not to acknowledge and is general the exact opposite of how that person portrays him or herself. The shadow of a kind man will be overly cruel, and vice versa. It also works with one's mental projection of ones self, as a person convinced that they are beautiful will have a hidden, ugly shadow beneath. Jung’s further work involves the exploration of different psychological typed of people, including investigation of the introvert versus the extrovert. He also proposed spirituality as a cure for alcoholism. Connections in his life to the Nazi party overshadowed his work during the years of the war and after, though he was never proven to be part of the Nazi movement, he did write in favor of Hitler's book Mein Kampf, and he served as the president of the International General Medical Society for Psychotherapy, a Nazi dominated organization.
Carl Jung was not only a giant in the field of Psychiatry; he invented a lot of it. Because of this, he is a highly interesting figure to me, as the study of the human mind and human social interaction is something I take great interest in.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_jung

Hecuba

Hecuba was the wife of King Priam, ruler of Troy in the Greek mythological tale of the Trojan War. She had a son, Troilius, with the Greek god Apollo, and it was foretold that if he lived to the age of twenty, Troy would never fall. However, Achilles killed Troilius in the Trojan War. Tree different versions of Hecuba's fate exist today:
The Achaeans enslaved her;
She was given as a slave to Odysseus, but was turned into a dog by the gods and so escaped him;
She was driven mad by the sight of her dead offspring.

The character of Hecuba can also be seen in writings by Euripides, namely "Hecuba" and "The Trojan Women"

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hecuba

Thucydides

Thucydides (c. 460 B.C. - c. 400 B. C.) was a Greek historian and author of the classic History of the Peloponnesian War. This book is considered to be the first accurate historical narrative, following only the work of mortals, and not including any divine intervention. The book follows the Peloponnesian war, which lasted from 431 B.C. - 411 B.C., between Athens and Sparta. Thucydides himself lived in Athens, and his high family connections put him in constant contact with the main people in the war, which would write about.
In 424 B.C. he was appointed General and put in charge of seven ships to help defend the coast. However, this command was short lived, and he was exiled after he failed to save the city of Amphipolis from Spartan attack. Because of his exile, he was able to travel freely between both sides of the war, experiencing battle and meeting soldiers in both armies. This freedom enabled him to write his history far more accurately.
Thucydides narrative ends rather abruptly at the end of the war, in the year 411, leading many people to believe that he was killed before he could finish his book.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thucydides

Balzac

Honore de Balzac (20 May 1799 - 18 August 1850) was a French Novelist and Playwright during the period after the fall of Napoleon Bonaparte. His work was mostly of satirical nature, and he introduced a new form of writing, where his characters would appear in many different novels, switching between background characters and protagonists, as if their stories were all intertwined and making his novels more realistic. This can be seen in his series of almost 100 works, titled La Comedie Humaine.
Honore was a legendary work-a-holic, oftentimes writing for up to fifteen hours a day, and staying awake by drinking massive amounts of black coffee. His ambition was unending, and he constantly strove to advance farther in life, believing that he could enter politics and continue his writing at the same time. This lifestyle would ultimately prove too strenuous for him, and his health failed him early.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balzac

Richard Burton

Richard Walter Jenkins Jr. (10 November 1925 - 5 August 1984) was a welsh actor. He was born the 12th of 13 children, his mother dying during the final childbirth. Soon after he is sent away and eventually is adopted by a man named Phillip Burton, and later in life takes this last name. He served in the RAF, was nominated for Best Actor seven times, and was best known for his distinguished speaking voice. After training himself to lose his welsh accent, he gained a distinct oratory voice that is still studied and copied by actors today. At one point in time, he is said to have been the highest paid actor in Hollywood.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Burton
http://www.jesuslist.com/blog/images/richard-burton.jpeg (image source)

Colonel Kurtz

Colonel Kurtz is a character in the 1979 film Apocalypse Now, directed by Francis Coppola. He plays the part of an American colonel in the Vietnam War, driven insane by combat to the point that he has gone AWOL and taken command of a group of natives. These native people worship him and fight under him so vehemently that the American and Vietcong forces will not go near his "territory".
In the movie, Captain Willard (Martin Sheen) is ordered to take down Kurtz by any means necessary. The story follows his trek through Vietnam, as the conflict grows more and more out of hand the farther into the jungle he goes. At the front lines, leadership is almost nonexistent, and battle between forces is chaotic at best. Graphic scenes of war and a few sub-plot elements ensue during his journey, but eventually he reaches the fortress Kurtz has established.
Willard is soon taken captive and his team killed. Kurtz tells him his story of how he became involved in the war, and his steady decline into madness, which he describes as a loss of self-control to the point where he believes that senseless killing and brutality is the only way to win the war. Willard realizes that Kurtz wants to be killed, because he cannot control his own madness.
In the end, Willard kills Kurtz with a machete, and the native forces try to take Willard as their new leader, but he refuses and leaves, which signals the end of the film.


Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colonel_Kurtz

Fronte Del Porto

Fronte Del Porto is the Italian name for the American film "On the Waterfront", directed by Elia Kazan in 1954. The movie is mainly about gang violence, following the story of Terry Malloy (Marlon Brando), a dockworker under local gang boss Johnny Friendly. When Terry becomes romantically involved with the sister of a man who was killed by th mob, she tries to sway him to stand against friendly, with the help of a local priest. Malloy finally does turn against the mob when he is ordered to kill Friendly's brother, and testifies against him in court. Following these events, the other dockworkers turn against him and keep him from having any work. The climax of the story occurs on the docks, when Terry has a brawl with Friendly and comes out the winner, freeing the dockworkers of mob rule and he is once again accepted among his peers.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_the_Waterfront

John Barrymore

John Sidney Blyth Barrymore (14 February 1882 - 29 May 1942) was a famous American actor, and grandfather of film actress Drew Barrymore. Early in life he was nicknamed "The Profile" for his facial features, and was kicked out of school in 1898 for being caught in a Bordello.
In 1906, when "The Big Earthquake" struck San Francisco and reduced the city to rubble, Barrymore created a fake account of things he had seen there and reported them as eyewitness testimony in order to gain publicity. His ploy worked, and his career was boosted higher than ever, so that later when he confessed to his lie, nobody seemed to care.
His early work in the theatre included plays such as Richard III and Hamlet, and he appeared in over 60 films, including Don Juan, Moby Dick, Sherlock Holms, and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Barrymore

Christopher Plummer

Arthur Christopher Orme Plummer (13 December 1929 - ) Is a Canadian Television, Theatre and Motion Picture Actor. Born in Toronto, he is the great grandson of the former Prime Minister of Canada, Sir John Abbott. He has appeared in over one hundred films, the most notable of which is The Sound of Music, in which he played key character Captain Von Trapp. He became interested in the theatre in high school while studying to be a pianist, and since that time has won various awards for his acting, including Emmys, Tony awards, the Jason Robards Award for Excellence in Theatre, and the Edwin Booth Lifetime Achievement Award.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Plummer

Bloody Henry Starfish

The "Bloody Henry Starfish" (Henricia Oculata) is a type of starfish living largely in the areas around the British Isles. It gets its name from the sometimes blood-red color which is splashed across its surface, often times over other vibrant colors in hues of red, orange, yellow and purple.

Source: http://www.marlin.ac.uk/species/Henriciaoculata.htm

Fragonard's The Swing

The Swing is a painting done by Jean-Honore Fragonard (5 April 1732 - 22 August 1806) in the year 1767. Fragonard is known for his Rococo style, bright colors and exuberant themes. His work is greatluy influenced by the Italian work he studied when he toured the country with his fellow painter Hubert Robert, and has been described as "voluptuous". He is widely considered one of the great French painters of all time.
Though he created a large number of paintings in his time, The Swing is one of only a few dated works, setting it apart from the rest. The painting shows a woman in a large dress swinging highly from a tree branch, being pushed by a character almost hidden in shadow, painted into the background. The woman is lit up brightly from sunlight streaming through the foliage, and a man lies on the ground in front of her, looking up.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fragonard

Carl Jung

Carl Gustav Jung (26 July 1875 - 6 June 1961) was a Swiss psychiatrist and the founder of Analytical Psychology.
Carl believed that too much of the field of psychology was based on logic, and that much could be learned through the study of dreams, art, philosophy and religion. His work was spread wide, as he studied fields from astrology to alchemy to literature.
Jung proposed many completely original concepts over the course of his studies, including but not limited to The archetype, The complex, The collective unconscious, and Synchronicity.
While working with Freud early in his career, he became fascinated with the unconscious human mind, and devoted his life's work to discovering it's secrets.
Jung introduced many parts of the human unconscious not yet brought out into light. The Individuation is a person's gradual journey towards identifying him or herself. This process is what generally causes the "mid-life crisis" halfway through an adult's life, as they begin to understand long hidden desires and fear wasting the second half of their lifespan.
His Idea of the Anima and Animus within the human psyche was also a first in psychology. The anima is the female component of a male's mind, and the animus is the male component of a female's mind. People not in touch with their anima or animus may seem overly masculine or feminine, off balance from the social norm. Repression of one's Anima/us will result in this part of the human brain attempting to gain attention by manifesting itself in how that person sees others.
Another of his psychological discoveries is the idea of The Shadow. The Shadow of a human mind is the part of each person that we choose not to acknowledge and is generall the exact opposite of how that person portrays him or herself. The shadow of a kind man will be overl cruel, and vice versa. It also works with one's mental projection of ones self, as a person convinced that they are beautiful will have a hidden, ugly shadow beneath.
Jung's further work involves the exploration of different psychological typed of people, including investigation of the introvert versus the extrovert. He also proposed spirituality as a cure for alcoholism.
Connections in his life to the Nazi party overshadowed his work during the years of the war and after, though he was never proven to be part of the Nazi movement, he did write in favor of Hitler's book Mein Kampf, and he served as the president of the International General Medical Society for Psychotherapy, a Nazi dominated organization.

Source:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_jung

Cole Porter

Cole Albert Porter (9 June 1891 - 15 October 1964) was an American composer and songwriter, from Indiana. He is best known for his highly sophisticated lyrics and rhymes, and wrote for many famous musicals including Kiss Me, Kate (1948), a musical based on Shakespeare's "Taming of the Shrew". He died of kidney failure at age 73.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cole_Porter

Vanessa Redgrave

Vaessa Redgrave is a famous English actress of the "redgrave acting dynasty", born on the 30th of January in 1937. Her entire family is tied to film in some way shape or form. Her sisters Corin and Lynn are also actresses. She married Tony Richardson, a director, and their two daughters Joely and Natasha are actresses as well. She has a son, Carlo, who is from a different father but also works in show business as a film director.
Far from just an actress, Vanessa Redgrave is also a social and political activist for human rights, among other causes over the years.
In 2006, she was given the Ibsen Centennial Award.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vanessa_Redgrave

Seven Year Itch

Seven Year Itch was a three act play written by George Axelrod. The romantic comedy debuted on November 20, 1952 but was soon turned into a film, released in 1955. Starring Marilyn Monroe and Tom Ewell, it is called one of the greatest comedies of it's time, and is famous for multle scenes and quotes, including the ever-famous picture of Monroe's white dress flying up because of a passing subway train.
The comedy tells the story of Richard Sherman, who is reading a book that will soon be published by his company, which tells about a 7 year itch, explaining that the vast majority of men will deviate from their wives after seven years of marriage. After sending his family to Maine for the summer to avoid the heat, he meets a 22 year old blonde model, who lives above him. As he spends time with her, his over-active imagination takes over the story with his fantasies about cheating on his wfe, his wife cheating on him up in maine, and his wife catching (and sometimes killing) him while he cheats on her with this blonde girl (nameless).

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seven_year_itch

Leopold and Loeb

Nathan Leopold, Jr. (19 November, 1904 - 30 August, 1971) and Richard Loeb (11 June, 1905 - 28 January, 1936) are better known as Leopold and Loeb. They were both wealthy Jewish students from the University of Chicago, and were both incredibly smart. Using their superior intellect, they attempted to perform "the perfect crime", for no reason other than excitement. In 1924 they murdered another Jewish boy, Bobby Franks, by kindapping him, hitting him in the head wth a chisel, and then suffocating him. They hid the body and burned it with hydrochloric acid, to make identfication more dffcult. Following the murder, to avoid a homicide investigation, they wrote a ransom note to his family to the amount of ten thousand dollars. However, Franks' body was found before the ransom could be paid, and the two men were discovered when a pair of eyeglasses found on the body were traced back to Nathan. They also found a connection between his papers written at university, and the ransom note, which were typed on the same typewriter.
The trial was the first to ever be called the "trial of the century" and cased a great uproar in the Jewish community, as well as a rise in anti-semitism which was kept in check only by the fact that Franks was also Jewish. The two men pled guilty and seemed to enjoy the publicism, and after a twelve hour speach by their lawyer were sentenced to life in prison plus 99 years for the kidnapping. Loeb was killed while in prison, but Leopold lived and was released after 33 years. He later wrote and published a book titled "Life Plus Ninety-Nine Years". He died of a heart attack in 1971 at the age of 66.


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Sunny Von Bulow

Martha Sharp Crawford von Bulow (Sunny von Bulow) was born on the first of September in 1932. Amercan Heiress and wife of Claus von Bulow, she went into a deep coma in 1981 follwing an injection of Insulin into her bloodstream. She did not die, but remained in a state of vegitation, where she still is today. Her husband Claus was tried and found guilty of attempted murder, but the finding was upturned in the court of appeals. The story was later told in a movie titled Reversal of Fortune. Following the trial, Claus gave up the rights to most of her inherited fortune and passed it down to their daughter.

Source:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunny_Von_Bulow

Gilda

Classified as Film Noir, the black and white film "Gilda" was released in 1946, directed by Charles Vidor. Gilda (Rita Hayworth) is the wife of an illegal casino owner. The story takes place in Argentina, the location of the casino, and begins as Gilda's husband hires John Farrell (Glenn Ford) to keep track of his wife. Farrell secretly is a former lover of Gilda's, which forms many of the movies plot twists. Over the course of the film, all the character's secrets are gradually revealed.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gilda

Annabel Lee

"Annabel Lee" was the title of Edgar Allen Poe's last poem before his death in 1849. Published posthumously, the poem talks about a man mourning a dead lover, much like one of his earlier works, "The Raven". Speculation about the meaning behind the poem ranges from his own personal mourning of his dead wife, to nothing at all. The poem is as follows:


It was many and many a year ago,
In a kingdom by the sea,
That a maiden there lived whom you may know
By the name of Annabel lee;
And this maiden she lived with no other thought
Than to love and be loved by me.
I was a child and she was a child,
In this kingdom by the sea;
But we loved with a love that was more than love-
I and my Annabel lee
With a love that winged seraphs of heaven
Coveted her and me.
And this was the reason that, long ago,
In this kingdom by the sea,
A wind blew out a cloud, chilling
My beautiful Annabel lee
So that her highborn kinsman came
And bore her away from me,
To shut her up in a sepulchre
In this kingdom by the sea.
The Angels, not half as happy in heaven,
Went envying her and me-
Yes!- that was the reason (as all men know,
In this kingdom by the sea)
That the wind came out of the cloud by night,
Chilling and killing my Annabel lee.
But our love it was stronger by far than the love
Of those who were older than we-
Of many far wiser than we-
And neither the angels in heaven above,
Nor the demons down under the sea,
Can ever dissever my soul from the soul
Of the beautiful Annabel lee.
For the moon never beams without bringing me dreams
Of the beautiful Annabel lee;
And the stars never rise but I feel the bright eyes
Of the beautiful Annabel lee;
And so, all the night-tide, I lie down by the side
Of my darling- my darling- my life and my bride
In the sepulchre there by the sea,
In her tomb by the side of the sea.
-Edgar Allen Poe

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Annabel_Lee

Peyton Place

"Peyton Place" is a novel by Grace Metalious, published in 1956. The book was one of the first "blockbusters" of literature history, selling sixty-thousand copies in the first ten days of it's release. It then remained on the New York Times best seller list for 59 consecutive weeks. The book included controversial themes such as incest, abortion, adultery and murder, and followed the lives of three women as they struggled to find themselves in society. A movie was spawned off of this story the year after it's release, in 1957. A sequel was then made, Titled "Return to Peyton Place".

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peyton_Place_(novel)

Modern Warriors

Modern Warriors is a movie released in 2002. More of a documentary than a typical hollywood film, it showed the world's top matial artists demonstrating all the avrious styles of their art. Stepping away from purely action film, the movie also included commentary and interviews from the martial artists, talking about theory and philosophy behind the scenes. The film gives the viewer exclusive information about the spiritual styles and rising popularity of Martial Arts in recent history.

Source: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0330648/

Al Jolson

Al Jolson was an American Singer and Actor in the early 1900's. Born may 26, 1886 in Lithuania, his career influenced popularly known names in history such as Bing Crosby and Eddie Fisher. On October 23, 1950 he had a massive heart attack while playing cards, and died. After his death, Hollywood dimmed all its lights for over 10 minutes in rememberance of his career, and a statue was erected in his honor.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al_Jolson

El Dorado

El Dorado is spanish for "the Golden One". It is a legend that began in South America with a tribal Chief who covered himself in gold dust and dove into mountain water. Through the legend, El Dorado became the myth of a kingdom ruled by the Golden King. When the Spanish Conquistadores moved in, they heard stories of the fabled golden city, but were never able to find such a place. However, historical accounts of tribal rituals suggest that kings would eminate this story, and have themselves covered in gold dust from nearby mines.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/El_Dorado

Trotsky

Lev Davidovich Bronstein (Leon Trotsky) was born on November 7, 1879. He was an incredibly important figure in Soviet history. As a politician, he played a crucial role in the rise of that movement and was one of the first members of the Politburo. He then went on to create the Red Army. His marxist ideas put him at the head of the government under Lenin, but after Lenin's death he was thrown out of the Communist Party and exiled by Stalin. During this time he is rumored to have appeared in a couple of American films, though nothing has been proven. Trotskyism rose after his death in 1940, a communist thoery opposting Stalinism.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leon_Trotsky

Che Guevara

Ernesto Guevara de la Serna (Che Guevara) was born in Argentina on May 14, 1928. Early in life he studied medicine around central and latin America. His travels convinced him that the only solution to the impoverished nations was a revolution against the current government. He joined Fidel Castro's revolution, the 26th of July Movement and helped take power there in 1959. After this he traveled to New York City at the head of a delegation to speak to the United Nations. He supported not only the Communist Bloc in eastern Europe, but also North Vietnam during the Vietnam war. Afterwards, he disappeared from the public eye and traveled to other countries. He helped to incite rebellion in Congo-Kinshasa, and the Bolivia. Che was captured by the CIA and executed by the Bolivian government on October 9, 1967

Source:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_guevara

Streetcar Named Desire

A Streetcar Named Desire is an American play by Tenessee Williams. It won the pulitzer prize in 1948 for best Drama. The story chronicles a cultural clash between Blanche Duboise and Stanley Kowalski. Blanche Duboise was a pretenious, alcoholic southerner whose obsessive addiction to virtue and need to be seen as "good" hid her alcoholic nature and shielded her from reality. Stanley Kowalski was an overpowering, crude, brutish inner-city immigrant and husband of Blanche's sister Stella. The play spawned a movie in 1951, and later became an opera in 1955.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Streetcar_Named_Desire_(play)

Sal Mineo

Born on January 10th, 1939, Salatore Mineo Jr. was an American actor. He played a part opposite James Dean in the popular film "Rebel Without a Cause" and was nominated for an acadamy award for the part. His hollywood fame lasted for a short time and then slowly died down. On February 12, 1976, after a series of failed projects, he was stabbed to death in an allyway. His career was beginning to start back up when he died.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sal_Mineo

Tin Pan Alley

In 1885 when a bunch of song publishers all moved into the same area of Manhattan (originally West 28th Street between Broadway and Sixth Avenue), they adopted the name Tin Pan Alley. The name was spawned because of the many musical instruments in the area all being played at the same time, causing a general ruckus down the street. The song writers/publishers created a majority of the popular american music in the later 19th - early 20th centuries. It's slow decline occurred between the 1930's-50's, when sheet music and eventually rock&roll took over american culture.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tin_pan_alley

Pablo Neruda

Born Ricardo Eliecer Neftalí Reyes Basoalto, he took the pen name Pablo Neruda for his literary works, which were translated into dozens of different languages around the world. Born in Chile, the communist poet has been called the most read poet since Shakespeare, and Gabriel Marquez (see entry below) titled him "the greatest poet of the 20th century in any language".
His works covered a wide array of styles, touching on almost every subject in his career. He also read his work to the two largest crowds of any recorded poet in history (100,000 and 70,000).
He served as a senator for the Chilean Communist Party, but a warrant was issued for his arrest when Communism was outlawed a short while after. Escaping into Argentina, he lived there until he was able to return to Chile when then Socialist party weakened. Nominated for the Chilean Presidency shortly thereafter, he withdrew and gave his support to future president Salvadore Allende.
Ricardo Basoalto won the Nobel Prize in 1970, but died a few years later due to Heart Failure.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pablo_neruda#Return_to_Chile_2
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Jayne Mansfield

Actress/Playboy centerfold Jayne Mansfield was a short term movie star/sex symbol in the 1950's. Her first stage performance came in 1953 in a performance of Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman. Her success as one of the era's many busty blonde bombshell actresses was short lived and died out even before her own early death at the age of 34. By the time she died, her stardom had diminished to small roles in low budget films as the fast moving hollywood crowd passed her by in favor of newer actors.

Source:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jayne_Mansfield

One Hundred Years of Solitude

In 1967 Gabriel Marquez published (in spanish) One Hundred Years of Solitude, a novel following the "imaginary" town of Macondo, Colombia for one hundred years. Later on, he admitted that the town was actually based on the area he grew up in.
The story begins with the founding of Macondo, and follows through its early stages of political developement. As civil war breaks out, some of the villagers take on roles in the militia. With the absence of it's main leaders, Macondo quicky becomes a dictatorship. The overthrow of this government and subsequent peace treaty make up the next part of the story, followed by the settlement of foreigners into the town. The resulting story is considered Marquez's greatest work, and was published in English in 1970.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One_hundred_years_of_solitude