Remembering... Nodar Kumaritashvili

It was with a heavy heart that the Pop Culture Institute first reported on the death of Georgian luger Nodar Kumaritashvili, who died on this day in 2010 during a training run at the Whistler Sliding Centre, just hours before the Opening Ceremony of the 2010 Winter Olympics... He was 21.

Kumaritishvili's death was the fourth fatality as a result of injuries sustained during Winter Olympic competition since the Games began at Chamonix 1924; both British luger Kazimierz Kay-Skrzypeski and Australian skier Ross Milne died at Innsbruck 1964 while Swiss speed skier Nicolas Bochatay died at Albertville 1992.

Although it was initially thought that the track was at fault, investigators with the International Luge Federation (FIL) dissented with their president (Josef Fendt) in ruling the accident an accident. As a 'preventative measure', the walls at the exit of curve 16 - where Kumaritishvili perished - will be raised, and the ice profile will be adjusted.

The Georgian team made its entrance at the Opening Ceremonies, held just hours after Kumaritashvili's death at BC Place Stadium, to a standing ovation from the crowd; they and their fallen compatriot were further honoured by a minute of silence during which the Canadian and Olympic flags were lowered to half mast. Although Team Georgia participated in the parade of nations wearing black arm bands and matching scarves, his seven fellow team-mates did not remain for the ceremony.
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World City-Zen: Savannah

On this day in 1733 James Oglethorpe arrived in the New World having sailed from England aboard the Anne as one of 114 settlers; upon landing at what is now known as Yamacraw Bluff, (where he and his translator Mary Musgrove were welcomed by Yamacraw leader Tomochichi) Oglethorpe proceeded to establish both the Province of Georgia and its capital city, Savannah - an event still celebrated there as Georgia Day.

Savannah was one of the first planned cities in what would soon become the United States; as such, much of its tourism today derives from visitors eager to see the harmonious design and exquisite architecture of the Savannah Historic District. Long a bastion of tolerance, the city is home to one of the oldest extant Black Baptist congregations in America, First African Baptist Church, as well as the third oldest synagogue in the country, Temple Mickve Israel.

The city saw action in both the American Revolution as well as the Civil War; the Siege of Savannah lasted a month, ending with the British seizure of the city in October 1779, while it was spared the indignities suffered by Atlanta following Sherman's March to the Sea in December 1864 when Union General William Tecumseh Sherman offered the city to President Abraham Lincoln as a Christmas present.

Of course, no trip to Savannah would be complete without first reading John Berendt's 1994 novel Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, which spent an amazing 216 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list; in 1995 the book became a film, directed by Clint Eastwood, for which Eastwood got unprecedented access to shoot within the historic city itself and whose amazing soundtrack exclusively features modern-day versions of the songs of Johnny Mercer, himself a Savannah native.
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"I Put A Spell On You" by Screamin' Jay Hawkins

Screamin' Jay Hawkins - the charismatic performer with the pimp-tastic costumes who tears it up in the above clip - died on this day in 2000, but not before helping to imbue rock with blues, and along the way giving some of the finest performances of each... Only it might never have happened but for the intercession of pioneering radio disc jockey Alan Freed who suggested that Hawkins forego the straightforward blues persona he'd been developing in favour of the flashier costumes and stage antics of the 1950s rock era.

Hawkins' song I Put a Spell on You has been widely covered by other artists; I first heard it performed by Sonique, only to then be led to believe it was a Nina Simone original. Prominently featured in the 1993 film Hocus Pocus, where it's sung by Winifred (Bette Midler), Sarah (Sarah Jessica Parker), and Mary Sanderson (Kathy Najimy), The Animals, Ray Charles, Bryan Ferry, Diamanda Galás, and Bonnie Tyler are just a few of the other artists who've attempted it for themselves.
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Pop History Moment: The Theft Of 'The Scream'

On this day in 1994 one of the world's best-known paintings, Edvard Munch's The Scream (1893), was stolen from the National Gallery of Norway; the crime occurred on the same day as the opening festivities for the 1994 Winter Olympics, held in Lillehammer.

The painting was recovered unharmed on May 7th of the same year following a sting operation by Norwegian and British police.
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Gratuitous Brunette: Christina Ricci

I like to tell the story of walking away from the theatre, having just seen The Addams Family for the first time, and saying that the little girl who'd just owned the role of Wednesday Addams was going to be a big star some day; although she'd made her big screen debut in Richard Benjamin's Mermaids in 1990 (alongside Cher, Bob Hoskins, and Winona Ryder) this was the role that got her noticed, and not just by me, either.

Subsequent roles - in Addams Family Values, Casper, and Now and Then, in which she played the younger version of Rosie O'Donnell - rounded out her resume as a juvenile, while as a teen she appeared in such varied fare as Golddiggers: The Secret of Bear Mountain, That Darn Cat, and The Ice Storm.

Ang Lee's sensitive look at life in 1970s suburbia gave Ricci the chance to attempt more adult scenes, which she continued to do in Vincent Gallo's Buffalo '66, John Waters' Pecker, and Don Roos' The Opposite of Sex. While ill-suited to making a period piece, she gave it her all opposite Johnny Depp in Tim Burton's amazing Sleepy Hollow, and where Prozac Nation was gritty, the down and dirtiest Ricci ever got was when she starred opposite Charlize Theron in the film Monster (for which Theron was awarded an Oscar) although Black Snake Moan comes a close second.

Still working, Ricci seems to eschew the comedies which are her natural métier, preferring to seek credibility instead in dramas; by her own admission she is, at 5'1", too tiny to be an A-List actress - besides photographing small - but we at the Pop Culture Institute prefer to base our A-List (of women, at least) on talent, which puts her into the upper echelon around here, even if she is on tippy-toes.
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"I Think Of You" by Gregory Charles

Quebec's Gregory Charles is a national treasure there, and so naturally enough virtually unheard of in the rest of Canada; what better birthday present, then, than to give him a bit of publicity amongst the Anglos? Bonne anniversaire M. Charles!
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World City-Zen: Santiago

[Behind this view of modern Santiago is a fanciful image
of the city's founding, painted by Pedro Lira in 1889.]
On this day in 1541 Spanish conquistador Pedro de Valdivia (shown, below left) founded what would become the capital of and largest city in Chile on Huelén Hill (later renamed Cerro Santa Lucía); originally called Santiago del Nuevo Extremo - as an homage to both St. James and Extremadura, Valdivia's birth place in Spain - the site, straddling the Mapocho River, was chosen for its abundant vegetation, level elevation, and the ease with which it could be defended.

Construction on the site initially began with the assistance of the region's Picunche people, following the rigourous grid system favoured by colonial Spain; that assistance rapidly turned to hostility, and in September 1541 the city was attacked and destroyed by Michimalonco and an army of Mapuche. In de Valdivia's absence the defense of the city was left to his lover, Inés de Suárez. Although nearly successful in ridding the region of the Spanish, the colonists rebuilt and persevered despite food shortages and a scarcity of mineral wealth for trade. The city even received its own coat-of-arms, in April 1552.

Following the Disaster of Curalaba in December 1598 - in which the Mapuche, led this time by Pelantaru, attacked Spanish settlers in southern Chile, taking hostage the head of the governor, Martín García Óñez de Loyola - any Spaniards arriving in the region stayed put in Santiago, swelling the city's resident population exponentially.

The 17th and 18th Centuries passed with the occasional skirmish, a growth in trade, and the inevitable earthquakes - one in May 1647, the other in July 1730 - and following the War of Independence (1810–18) Santiago was named capital of the nascent republic. While still a small city, built around Joaquín Toesca's magnificent 1784 Palacio de La Moneda, Santiago began to grow into the largest conurbation in Chile and home to almost one-third of all Chileans.

Aside from the occasional earthquakes, the most earth-shattering thing to happen in Santiago in the modern era was the election of Salvador Allende in September 1970 and the subsequent coup - orchestrated by General Augusto Pinochet three years later, on the 432nd anniversary of Michimalonco's earlier attack. The Pinochet Regime was among the worst in living memory, surviving through torture and censorship until its inevitable defeat by a center-left coalition calling itself Concertación in October 1988.

Today, while it is the financial capital of Latin America, Santiago is faced with the usual problems of urbanization - namely smog, slums, and sewage; still, the past twenty years of democracy have rendered it a lively place for tourists, with the Santiago Metro the most extensive in South America.
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In Memoriam: Abraham Lincoln

For his opposition to slavery - which drew the United States into a Civil War and was thus the cause of much suffering throughout its duration - Abraham Lincoln was almost one of history's least popular American Presidents; an assassin's bullet (not to mention Lincoln's having been on the right side of history regarding the issue) have since rendered him one of the greatest persons - let alone politicians or statesmen and regardless of nationality - to have ever lived...

Born on this day in 1809 in a log cabin in Kentucky, as a child Lincoln and his family decamped to Indiana, which the future President would later relate was 'partly on account of slavery'. Before he was ten Lincoln's mother died of milk sickness; his father quickly remarried, and the younger Lincoln was always thereafter fonder of his stepmother than he was of his father. By the age of 21 Lincoln was living in Illinois, the state with which he would be most closely associated, and where his family had settled on public land.

Although Lincoln's formal education lasted about 18 months in total, this gifted orator and compassionate observer of the human condition was always a voracious reader, and had even managed to teach himself law prior to his admission to the bar in 1837. Shortly thereafter he set himself up in practice - first with John T. Stuart then later with William Herndon - before embarking upon his political career.

Never considered a serious candidate for the Presidency before May 1860, he had nevertheless impressed enough people during the Lincoln-Douglas debates of 1858 that he won the Republican endorsement; during the election of 1860 he won 18 states outright and garnered 40% of the popular vote in a four way race that set the stage for the withdrawal of the Confederacy and the subsequent battle to win them back which not only defined but also ended Lincoln's life.

A grateful nation has eagerly sought to repay its 16th President's martyrdom with immortality; his image appears on the US $5 bill (not to mention the penny), as well as on Mount Rushmore, and of course within the majestic structure of the Lincoln Memorial itself. There, an interior scuplture by Daniel Chester French has become a place of pilgrimage where those disaffected by the craven greed and short-sightedness of their contemporary leadership go to reconnect with the spirit of greatness with which the United States was forged.
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"Hold On" by Wilson Phillips

Birthday wishes go out today to Chynna Phillips, one-third of early-90s harmonizers Wilson Phillips. Hold On was the trio's first ever single, originally appearing on their self-titled 1990 album; that same album also produced the Top-5 singles Release Me, Impulsive, and You're in Love. Naturally, the video for Hold On isn't available, but this fine live performance gets the point of it across.

Looking back on it now, Wilson Phillips was one of the first inklings that show business was set to become hereditary... Carnie and Wendy Wilson, of course, are the daughters of Brian Wilson of The Beach Boys, while Chynna is the daughter of John Phillips and Michelle Phillips of The Mamas & the Papas. Not that pedigree alone is a determining factor in success; the band broke up after the release of their second album Shadows and Light when Chynna decided to pursue a solo career, a career which fizzled before it even appeared.
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Pop History Moment: The Execution of Lady Jane Grey

That Lady Jane Grey was a pawn, sacrificed to the ambition and greed of her father the Duke of Suffolk, is blatantly obvious to most historians and scholars of the Tudor period today; in fact, it must have been pretty clear to all but the most blood-thirsty Catholics even then. Nevertheless, for having Protestant forces raised in her name, and for having had them do battle against the rightful heir - as named in the 1543 Act of Succession - on this day in 1554 the condemned traitor was led to Tower Green. In a touching show of respect by the Queen, whose throne she had sought to usurp, Jane was afforded a private execution; the same courtesy was not offered to her husband Lord Guildford Dudley earlier that same day, who met his fate before the howling rabble on Tower Hill like so many others before and since...

Such was the misogyny of the times that not even her birth date has been recorded; this despite her having been both noble (her grandmother was Henry VIII's sister Mary - widow of France's Louis XII - her grandfather the English King's best friend Charles Brandon) and, for those fabled nine days in 1553 at least, the best hope England had to avoid the sectarian strife which eventually came about under the reign of Bloody Mary, beginning with the execution of Jane herself.

Sadly, there's no credible evidence that any of the portraits thought to be of her (including this one) actually depict her; this matter is discussed entertainingly - and at predictable length - in an article by Cynthia Zagan which appeared in an October 2007 issue of The New Yorker.

Yet despite what little we do know about her, interest - and therefore scholarship - proceeds undaunted; trust Alison Weir to have dug into the story afresh and come up with an engaging new take on an old tragedy in her 2007 book Innocent Traitor. In the end it seems to be the lack of information surrounding Lady Jane Grey which imbues her and her tragic story with a kind of emotional credibility that should - but doesn't need to - be backed up by facts for maximum impact.

Following the separation of their heads from their bodies Jane and Guildford were buried in the Chapel of St Peter ad Vincula within the Tower of London; in the end Suffolk outlived his daughter by a week, when he was executed both for his role in the earlier Wyatt's rebellion and his more recent efforts on behalf of his offspring. Within a month after her family was doubly riven by execution Jane's mother - the formidable Lady Frances Brandon - married her chamberlain Adrian Stokes and was never heard to mention either of their names again.

Although the 16 or 17 years of the life of Lady Jane Grey have always served as a subplot within the panoply of the Tudor era, in 1985 she was given her rightful place at the centre of her own saga in the film Lady Jane, played as she was by the brilliant Helena Bonham Carter.
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