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- Zachary Taylor was an American military leader who served as the 12th president of the United States from 1849 until his death in 1850. Taylor previously was a career officer in the United States Army, rising to the rank of major general and becoming a national hero as a result of his victories in the Mexican-American War. As a result, he won election to the White House despite his vague political beliefs. His top priority as president was preserving the Union. He died sixteen months into his term, having made no progress on the most divisive issue in Congress, slavery.
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Cyprian Kamil Norwid, a.k.a. Cyprian Konstanty Norwid (24 September 1821 - 23 May 1883), was a nationally esteemed Polish poet, dramatist, painter, and sculptor. He was born in the Masovian village of Laskowo-Gluchy near Warsaw. One of his maternal ancestors was the Polish King John III Sobieski. Norwid is regarded as one of the second generation of romantics. He wrote many well-known poems including Fortepian Szopena ("Chopin's Piano"), Moja piosnka ("My Song") and Bema pamieci zalobny-rapsod (A Funeral Rhapsody in Memory of General Bem). Norwid led a tragic and often poverty-stricken life (once he had to live in a cemetery crypt). He experienced increasing health problems, unrequited love, harsh critical reviews, and increasing social isolation. He lived abroad most of his life, especially in London and, in Paris where he died. Norwid's original and non-conformist style was not appreciated in his lifetime and partially due to this fact, he was excluded from high society. His work was only rediscovered and appreciated by the Young Poland art movement of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. He is now considered one of the four most important Polish Romantic poets. Other literary historians, however, consider this an oversimplification, and regard his style to be more characteristic of classicism and parnassianism.- Edward Jenner was born on 17 May 1749 in England. He died on 26 January 1823 in England.
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Sam Houston is an American soldier and politician. An important leader of the Texas Revolution, Houston served as the first and third president of the Republic of Texas, and was one of the first two individuals to represent Texas in the United States Senate. He also served as the sixth governor of Tennessee and the seventh governor of Texas, the only American to be elected governor of two different states in the United States.
Born in Rockbridge County, Virginia, Houston and his family migrated to Maryville, Tennessee when Houston was a teenager. Houston later ran away from home and spent time with the Cherokee, becoming known as Raven. He served under General Andrew Jackson in the War of 1812. With the support of Jackson and others, Houston won election to the United States House of Representatives in 1823. He strongly supported Jackson's presidential candidacies, and in 1827, Houston was elected as the governor of Tennessee. In 1829, Houston resigned from office, and joined his Cherokee friends in Arkansas Territory.
Sam Houston settled in Texas in 1832. After the Battle of Gonzales, Houston helped organize Texas's provisional government and was selected as the top-ranking official in the Texian Army. He led the Texian Army to victory at the Battle of San Jacinto, the decisive battle in Texas's war for independence against Mexico. After the war, Houston won election in the 1836 Texas presidential election. He left office due to term limits in 1838, but won election to another term in the 1841 Texas presidential election.
He was an unsuccessful candidate for the presidential nomination of the American Party in the 1856 presidential election and the Constitutional Union Party in the 1860 presidential election. In 1859, Houston won election as the governor of Texas. He was forced out of office in 1861 and died in 1863. Houston's name has been honored in numerous ways, and he is the eponym of the city of Houston, the fourth most populous city in the United States.- The youngest of the talented Brontë siblings, Anne was born January 17th, 1820 to Rev. Patrick Brontë and Maria Branwell Brontë. Her mother died of cancer when she was only a year old, and growing up Anne was especially close to her elder sister Emily Brontë. Along with their other sister, Charlotte Brontë and their only brother, Branwell Brontë, Anna and Emily invented the imaginary realms of Gondal and Angria, which absorbed most of their childhoods on the lonely Moors.
Despite her fragile health, Anne worked as a governess for some years before her brother, Branwell, entered the service of the same family she worked for. He was supposed to tutor the family's elder sons, but was dismissed in 1845 after having an affair with his employer's wife. Anne also resigned her position, and took up writing with her sisters, publishing "Poems" in 1846, a compilation of the Brontë girls' poetry. Encouraged by her literary success, Anne published two more novels, "Agnes Grey" and "The Tenant of Wildfell Hall".
After her brother Branwell and sister Emily died within three months of one another in 1848, Anne herself came down with consumption. She was taken to the seaside, which she adored, by her sole surviving sister Charlotte, in the hopes of finding a cure. Anne Brontë died at Scarborough in 1849, a victim of tuberculosis. - Music Department
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Schubert was musically educated at the "Hofkapelle" in Vienna where he sang as a boy but then had to quit in order to help his father at school. Four years later, he became an independent composer and was destined to live in poverty from then onwards. Having an introverted personality, Schubert played his songs mostly amongst a couple of friends who shared his romantic passion. Within his short life Schubert composed many pieces of music, including eight symphonies.- Nikolai (Mykola) Gogol was a Russian humorist, dramatist, and novelist of Ukrainian origin. His ancestors were bearing the name of Gogol-Janovsky and claimed belonging to the upper class Polish Szlachta. Gogol's father, a Ukrainian writer living on his old family estate, had five other children. He died when the Gogol was 15. Young Gogol was fond of the drama class at his high school in Nezhin, Ukraine. He was strongly influenced by his religious mother, as well as by the enchanting beauty of the Ukrainian folklore. He also called himself a "free Cossac".
At age 18 Gogol moved to St. Petersburg, became a student, and later a professor of history at the St. Petersburg University. His short stories, set in St. Petersburg, became a success. His play "Revizor" (1836, The Inspector General) had its premiere in St. Petersburg attended by the Tzar Nickolai I. But it also made him many powerful enemies who hated his satire on the corrupt Russian society. It was his friend Alexander Pushkin who suggested to him the subject for "Revizor". Pushkin also suggested the main idea of "The Dead Souls" (1842), a bitter satirical story of a crook, who was buying the names of dead surfs from various greedy landlords, for a tax-evasion scheme. In his other famous story "Shinel" (1842, The Overcoat) a poor clerk is intimidated both by thieves and by the government. Gogol's discontent against the slavery and social injustices in Russia caused him trouble. He escaped to Europe for 12 years, returning to Russia briefly to publish the 1st part of "The Dead Souls".
His religious beliefs were used by the State-controlled Orthodox Church to place guilt on him and to cause interruption of his literary work. In 1848 he made a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. After his return to Russia, he settled in Moscow, where he fell under the control of the fanatical Orthodox priest, Konstantinovskii, who demanded that Gogol quit writing and destroy the manuscript of the 2nd part of "The Dead Souls". Torn by his inner conflict with guilt and being under the pressure from the fanatical priest, Gogol burned his manuscript. He died nine days later in pain without having any food during his last days. In the 1931 excavation of his tomb, his body was found lying face down, which caused suspicion that Gogol was buried alive.
His style involves the elements of the fantastic and grotesque, with the taste for the macabre and absurd, following the tradition of E.T.A. Hoffmann. Fyodor Dostoevsky proclaimed, "We all came out from under his Overcoat", referring to Gogol's influence on Russian writers. Sometimes compared with Franz Kafka, Gogol had such followers, as Yevgeni Zamyatin, Vladimir Nabokov, and Mikhail A. Bulgakov. - Søren Kierkegaard, a Danish philosopher who imposed restrictions on his own love and emotions and declared the idea of subjectivity as truth, is now recognized as the founder of Existentialism, an influential author in psychology, and an important figure in Postmodernism.
He was born Søren Aabye Kierkegaard on May 5, 1813, into a wealthy family in Copenhagen, Denmark. He was the youngest of seven children. His father, named Michael Pedersen Kierkegaard, was married to his 3rd cousin Ane Sorensdatter Lund, and was a rigid religious man who suffered from depression and guilt, which he imposed on his children. From the young age Kierkegaard was disabled and suffered from complications after his fall from a tree when he was a boy. He was also strongly influenced by his father's depression and stubborn belief in a curse that all his children were doomed to die by the age of 33.
His philosophy and writing was also influenced by Regine Olsen, the love of his life and the muse for his writings. He and Regine met in 1837, while they were students at University, and they became engaged in 1840, but he harbored some undisclosed secret of dark and personal nature. A year later he chose to break off the engagement rather than to reveal his secret to Regine. She married another man and refused to see Kierkegaard ever again. He sank into psychoanalysis of the ethical and emotional aspects of breaking off in his book 'Repetition' (1843) which he published under the pseudonym Constantin Constantinus. At that time he was suffering from melancholy, probably a form of depression coming from his own trauma and disability. In his writings Kierkegaard used the word 'marriage' as a trope for the universal demands made by social mores.
Kierkegaard's works deal with problems of choice in many aspects, ranging from emotions and feelings of an individual, to religious, philosophical, and political aspects of human society. Kierkegaard offered no solutions but rather a variety of views on individual, social and political conundrums and unresolvable complexities, ranging from an "Attack on" approach to an observationist position. His masterpiece and arguably the greatest work, 'Either/Or', was written during his stay in Berlin in 1842, then was revised and completed in Copenhagen in the fall of the same year. In it Kierkegaard plays with his three incarnations, philosopher named "A", Judge Williams, author of rebuttals to "A", and editor named Victor Eremita. It was published in 1843 and found little understanding among the contemporaries. His other important works are 'The Concept of Irony' (1841), 'Fear and Trembling' (1843), and 'Works of Love' (1847), among others. In his later works Kierkegaard analyzed the detrimental effect of organized religion on individuals in Denmark caused by rigidity of established state church. His analysis of 'fear', 'sin', 'guilt', and other tools of control over minds, as well as his thoughts on the decay of the Danish State Church and failures of applied religion lead to his statement that "the human race has outgrown Christianity" which ignited attacks on him from many angered critics.
Kierkegaard published his works under various pseudonyms. He used several pseudonyms to create an imitation of a discussion between several pseudo-authors, all of those in fact being one man, Kierkegaard. For that reason and also because of his complex personality and intricate thought and reasoning, he made it difficult to distinguish between what he truly believed and what he was making up for a mere argument. He died in a hospital on November 11, 1855, of complications from his fall from a tree in his childhood, and was laid to rest in the Assistens Cemetery in Copenhagen, Denmark. His works were little known outside Denmark until professional translations were made in the 1920s. His works has been extremely influential ever since. His arguments against objectivity and emphasis on skepticism, especially concerning social morals and norms, laid groundwork for the 20th century Existentialism and Postmodernism.
Along with Friedrich Nietzsche, he is regarded as the father of Existentialism and existential psychology. Kierkegaard's influence may be found in many art movements, such as Dada, Futurism, and other movements in modern art. He influenced Martin Heidegger, Jean-Paul Sartre, Martin Buber, Albert Camus, Simone de Beauvoir, Franz Kafka and John Updike among many other thinkers and writers. - Music Department
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Jakob Ludwig Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy (3 February 1809 - 4 November 1847), born and widely known as Felix Mendelssohn, was a German composer, pianist, organist and conductor of the early Romantic period. Mendelssohn's compositions include symphonies, concertos, piano music, organ music and chamber music. His best-known works include the overture and incidental music for A Midsummer Night's Dream, the Italian Symphony, the Scottish Symphony, the oratorio St. Paul, the oratorio Elijah, the overture The Hebrides, the mature Violin Concerto and the String Octet. The melody for the Christmas carol "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing" is also his. Mendelssohn's Songs Without Words are his most famous solo piano compositions.- Writer
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E.T.A. Hoffmann was born on the 24th of January 1776 in Königsberg (now Russia) as the son of a lawyer. After his father's death he has a very bad childhood ending when he went to university to study law between 1792-95. He managed to get into the bureaucratic services of the state Prussia, but was not considered too well. Stations in Bamberg, Poland and elsewhere followed until he succeeded in getting good jobs in Berlin, lastly as a judge after 1814. Hoffmann died on the 25the of June 1822. Hoffmanns interests were widespread. He wrote music, painted pictures and, of course, wrote excellent examples of German literature. His scurrile style of writing, together with a critical tone in many of his works, earned him not too much renommee during lifetime. Today his music and paintings are nearly forgotten, but his writings stand as fantastic examples of German late "Romantik", for example the "Kater Murr" or the "Sandmann". Often connected to the dark side of the soul or the human being, Hoffmann wrote "normal" literature too, but his fame is basicly grounded on the "dark" literature.- Michael Faraday was an English scientist who contributed to the study of electromagnetism and electrochemistry. His main discoveries include the principles underlying electromagnetic induction, diamagnetism and electrolysis.
Although Faraday received little formal education, he was one of the most influential scientists in history. It was by his research on the magnetic field around a conductor carrying a direct current that Faraday established the basis for the concept of the electromagnetic field in physics. Faraday also established that magnetism could affect rays of light and that there was an underlying relationship between the two phenomena.
He similarly discovered the principles of electromagnetic induction and diamagnetism, and the laws of electrolysis. His inventions of electromagnetic rotary devices formed the foundation of electric motor technology, and it was largely due to his efforts that electricity became practical for use in technology.
Albert Einstein kept a picture of Faraday on his study wall, alongside pictures of Isaac Newton and James Clerk Maxwell. - Karel Jaromír Erben was a Czech folklorist and poet of the mid-19th century, best known for his collection Kytice (Czech: Bouquet), which contains poems based on traditional and folkloric themes. He also wrote Písne národní v Cechách (Folk Songs of Bohemia) which contains 500 songs and Prostonárodní ceské písne a ríkadla (Czech Folk Songs and Nursery Rhymes), a five-part book that brings together most of Czech folklore.
- After graduating from college in 1809, Buchanan became a lawyer. In 1814 he entered the Pennsylvania Assembly as a Federalist representative. In 1820 Buchanan was elected to the US House of Representatives, where he served until 1831. At the same time he served as envoy to Russia from 1823 to 1833. He became a leading figure in the newly emerging Democratic Party in Pennsylvania. From 1834 to 1845 he served in the US Senate, where he supported the southern states' position on the slave issue. Under the presidency of James Knox Polk (1845-1849), Buchanan played a key role in his expansionist policies as Secretary of State.
Meanwhile, he was chairman of the United States Senate Committee on Foreign Relations from 1836 to 1841. He reached an agreement with Great Britain on the Oregon issue. In the war against Mexico (1846-1848) he advocated the annexation of large parts of the neighboring country. President Franklin Pierce sent Buchanan as an envoy to Great Britain from 1853 to 1856. In 1856 he won the US presidential election as the Democratic candidate. The following year he began his term in the White House. Buchanan was the only unmarried President of the United States. His niece, Harriet Lane, served as "First Lady" during his term.
As with his predecessor Franklin Pierce, Buchanan's efforts at reconciliation and compromise were doomed to failure in view of the increasingly irreconcilable conflict over the slave issue. During his presidency, the Democratic Party was increasingly divided into northern and southern factions. An economic depression and conflict with the Mormons in Utah continued to complicate the domestic political environment of Buchanan's administration. Having already lost the 1860 presidential election to Abraham Lincoln, Buchanan faced his final crisis in office with the secession of South Carolina.
The US President lacked the ability to take decisive action to counteract the southern state's secession from the Union. Amid allegations of having been responsible for the dissolution of the Union and the outbreak of the American Civil War, Buchanan bitterly withdrew from the presidency and politics in 1861.
James Buchanan died on June 1, 1868 in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. - Writer
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Charles Baudelaire was a 19th century French poet, translator, and literary/art critic. At his birth, Baudelaire's mother, Caroline Archimbaut-Dufays, was 28; his father Francois Baudelaire was 61. Charles' father instilled in him an appreciation for art, taking his young son to museums and galleries, and teaching him to paint. When Charles was six, his father died and Charles became very attached to his mother, but when she remarried, he was sent to boarding school. The school was ruled by military discipline which caused much of Baudelaire's solitude and fits of crushing melancholy. Baudelaire resented the strictures of his life and was, in turn, difficult and rebellious. He frequently fought with students and teachers. He began to write poems, which were not well received by his masters, who felt them examples of precocious depravity, unsuitable for his age. He eventually attended the College Louis-le-Grand, but was expelled in April 1839.
In an attempt to draw him away from the company he was keeping, Baudelaire's stepfather sent him on a voyage to India in 1841. Baudelaire jumped ship and eventually made his way back to France in February of 1842. On his 21st birthday, Baudelaire received his father's inheritance, but his lavish and extravagant lifestyle (including use of hashish and opium) dwindled his fortune. He fell prey to cheats and moneylenders, which led to heavy debt. He also contracted the venereal disease that eventually took his life. His parents obtained a court order to supervise his money and Charles received only a small allowance. In 1842, Charles met a Creole woman named Jeanne Duval, who became his mistress and dominated his life for the next 20 years. Jeanne would inspire Baudelaire's most anguished and sensual love poetry, provoking such masterpieces of the exotic-erotic imagination as "La Chevelure" ("The Head of Hair").
Baudelaire used his writing to shock and astonish society, likely because of his strict upbringing and strong opposition to authority. He often focused on the immoral and cynical. He felt that his ideas where very similar to those of Edgar Allen Poe, who focused on beauty, death, and the bizarre. Baudelaire began to translate volumes of Poe's work into French, and much of Poe's popularity in England and France is attributed to Baudelaire. In 1857, Baudelaire's most well-known work, "Les Fleurs Du Mal" ("The Flowers of Evil") was seized by French authorities and Baudelaire was forced to omit six poems and pay a fine; today, it stands as perhaps the most influential poetry collection published in Europe in the 19th century. He continued to publish "salon" studies and critical reviews of other artists, including Flaubert's "Madame Bovary". In 1860, he began publishing prose poetry, a poetic form unknown in France, and became renowned for his innovation in prose experiments.
Near the end of his life, Baudelaire's agonizing moods of isolation and despair, which he called his moods of "spleen," returned and became more frequent. In 1867, while in Belgium, Baudelaire developed hemiplegia and aphasia. He was brought back to Paris, where he died.- Charles Fechter was born on 23 October 1824 in London, England, UK. He was a writer, known for Monte Cristo (1922) and The Count of Monte Cristo (1913). He was married to Mlle. Robert (actress) and Lizzie Price (actress). He died on 4 August 1879 in Rockland Centre, Quakertown, Pennsylvania, USA.
- Abner Doubleday was born on 26 June 1819 in Ballston Spa, New York, USA. He died on 26 January 1893.
- James Hoban was born in 1762 in Ireland. He died on 8 December 1831 in Washington D.C., USA.