In the category of Historical Woman, I select Agnes of Rome.
The reason I choose her over so many worthier candidates is that she symbolizes for me, the suffering and woe that was attendant upon being a woman in a "man's world."
In the last century or two, things have certainly changed for the better. But for thousands of years before the life of the average woman could be terrible.
There are many fantastic legends grown up around this Agnes (not to be confused with other famed Agnes' in the Roman Cathoic church) but I choose to strip her story down to the basics.
She was betrothed against her will and refused the marriage. So at 12 years old she was condemned to death for her crime. Roman law did not allow executions of virgins, so she was dragged to a brothel to have that technicality corrected.
Shaka (sometimes spelled Tshaka, Tchaka or Chaka; sometimes referred to as Shaka Zulu; c. 1787 – c. 22 September, 1828) was the most influential leader of the Zulu Kingdom.
He is widely credited with uniting many of the Northern Nguni people, specifically the Mtetwa Paramountcy and the Ndwandwe into the Zulu kingdom, the beginnings of a nation that held sway over the large portion of southern Africa between the Phongolo and Mzimkhulu rivers, and his statesmanship and vigour marked him as one of the greatest Zulu chieftains.[1] He has been called a military genius for his reforms and innovations, and condemned for the brutality of his reign.[2][3] Other historians note debate about Shaka's role as a uniter versus a usurper of traditional Zulu ruling prerogatives, and the notion of the Zulu state as a unique construction, divorced from the localized culture and the previous systems built by his predecessor Dingiswayo.[4] Research continues into the character, methods and influence of the Zulu king, who still continues to cast a long shadow over the history of southern Africa.
At the time of his death, Shaka ruled over 250,000 people and could muster more than 50,000 warriors. His 10-year-long kingship resulted in a massive number of deaths, mostly due to the disruptions the Zulu caused in neighbouring tribes, although the exact death toll is a matter of scholarly dispute.[5] Further unquantifiable deaths occurred during mass tribal migrations to escape his armies.
Hey all, dunno when I'll be back in the draft...just moved into a new place, and don't have internet...although apparently the neighbours haven't locked theirs, so I might have free surfing for a while. Either way, you can just AK me for now.
__________________
Let's get drunk and do philosophy.
If you took a burger off the grill and slapped it on your face, I'm pretty sure it would burn you. - kermitology
In the category of vigilante/outlaw team Historyectomy is proud to select John Brown.
John Brown was an abolitionist and as such felt it was his duty to kill people who were pro-slavery. He led bands of similarly minded folk on raids into the slave state of Missouri to take action! Of course, the Missourians were raiding free state Kansas at the same time too, so his actions were not bourne purely from his abolitionist views and were not purely offensive in nature. Lincoln referred to him as a misguided fanatic.
In 1856 Brown and his Jayhawkers (now you know why the University of Kansas is the Jayhawks) killed 5 pro-slavery southerners in the Pottawattomie Massacre.
In 1859 he led an unsuccessful raid on the armory at Harper's Ferry, VA in an organized attempt to create a slave uprising there. It ultimately failed, but is often cited as a major piece of fuel for the Civil War which started less than two years later.
He was eventually arrested, tried and hung as a result.
__________________ I am in love with Montana. For other states I have admiration, respect, recognition, even some affection, but with Montana it is love." - John Steinbeck
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In the visual artists category, Strange Things Afoot at the Circle K is proud to select Jan Tschichold, one of the most influential graphic designers ever.
Born in Germany as the son of a signmaker, he learned calligraphic arts at an early age, and began to define his own personal style, looking at what was being done in the Bauhaus and Soviet Constructivist schools, and starting to put them to a more practical use.
As one of the leaders of the new modernist style, he was also responsible for writing and defining a lot of these rules. He pioneered how different weights and dimensions of fonts could be used to convey information and context, as well as the use of grid systems for page layout.
Unfortunately, his interest in constructivist design put him at odds with the fascist movement in Germany, and he was arrested 10 days after the Nazis came to power; his books were on the list of those that must be burned. However, sympathetic people within Germany helped he and his family to escape six months later, and he fled to Switzerland, where he'd spend most of the rest of his life.
His most important contribution to design, however, arguably came just after the war, when he was tasked with overseeing the redesign of a massive catalogue of Penguin Books - some 500 books in total. His work here is still in use today by Penguin, and the Penguin Composition Rules are easily the most influential four-page pamphlet in modern 20th century design.
In later years, he moved away from his hard-line modernist stance and began to re-embrace classicism; his most famous font, Sabon, was a serif and based on Garamond.
By first championing modernism and then rejecting it, he set down a lot of the doctrines on both sides of a design debate that continues today. Just about every book in publication today has been influenced by Tschichold's work and his writing.
Last edited by octothorp; 08-24-2009 at 01:25 PM.
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I really went back and forth between Barbarossa and Blackbeard when pickingmy outlaw. In the end, I figured Blackbeard had a pretty good chance of being taken by someone at some point, while Barbarossa was more likely to be passed over completely. So I'm glad to see Blackbeard get picked as well, because they're both such interesting characters.
Kalashnikov was conscripted into the Red Army in 1938, and became a tank driver-mechanic...He was wounded in combat during the defense of Bryansk and released for six months recuperation due to illness. While in the hospital, he overheard some soldiers complaining about the Soviet rifles of the time. He also had bad experiences with the standard infantry weapons at the time, so he was inspired to start constructing a new rifle for the Soviet military.
The design process culminated in 1947, when he created the AK-47 (standing for Avtomat Kalashnikova model 1947). In 1949, the AK-47 assault rifle became the Soviet Army's standard issue rifle; after that, the design became Kalashnikov's most famous invention. A range of the unified models of automatic small arms developed by Kalashnikov was adopted by the Soviet Army in 1950.
The Goverment highly estimated M. T. Kalashnikov's services to the country. He was twice honored as Hero of Socialist Labour (1958 and 1976) and became Stalin Prize (1949) and Lenin Prize (1964) laureate. In 1969 he was given the rank of Colonel and in 1971 awarded degree of Doctor of engineering science. M. T. Kalashnikov was decorated with three Orders of Lenin, Order of the Red Banner of Labour, Order of the Great Patriotic War of the First Class, Order of the Red Star and many medals. Since 1980 M. T. Kalashnikov has been a citizen of honour in his native village of Kurya. His bronze bust was placed there as he was twice awarded Hero of Socialist Labour. In 1987 he became a honourable citizen of Izhevsk.
The cause of such great popularity of Kalashnikov submachine guns is in fact that Mikhail has achieved an optimum combination of a number of qualities which provide the usage of guns with high efficiency of application and exclusive reliability in battles.
The bottom line on the AK-47 is that it is widely considered the greatest small arms rifle of all time by people that have used the rifle as well as faced it in battle. It has liberated nations, as well as been the face of terror in many countries. The rifle is so feared because it is so damn good at what it does. Kalashnikov's impact on historical events in the 20th and modern century cannot be denied.
Some U.S. military members believed that one of the issues the U.S. faced in Vietnam was the superiority of the AK-47 over the M-16 in the wet and muddy jungle environment. I've heard the same thing said from Marine buddies in Afghanistan and Iraq about the performance of the AK in the desert sands.
There are an estimated 100 million Kalashnikov rifles in circulation worldwide, Kalashnikov does not profit from their sale, living on a state pension.
Quote:
"My work is my life, and my life is my work. I invented this assault rifle to defend my country. Today, I am proud that it has become for many synonymous with liberty."
"It is the Germans who are responsible for the fact that I became a fabricator of arms. If not for them, I would have constructed agricultural machines. (...) If someone asks me how I can sleep at night knowing that my arms have killed millions of people, I respond that I have no problem sleeping, my conscience is clean. I constructed arms to defend my country."
Last edited by Montana Moe; 08-25-2009 at 06:39 PM.
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In the 9th round, team HeroQuest picks Robert Allen Zimmerman in the Living category. (Obviously better known as Bob Dylan.)
I'm sorry I don't have that much time to hype my picks, so I'll have to settle at a few wiki quotes.
Bob Dylan has been described as one of the most influential figures of the 20th century, musically and culturally. Dylan was included in the Time 100: The Most Important People of the Century where he was called "master poet, caustic social critic and intrepid, guiding spirit of the counterculture generation".[273] Dylan biographer Howard Sounes placed him in even more exalted company when he said, "There are giant figures in art who are sublimely good—Mozart, Picasso, Frank Lloyd Wright, Shakespeare, Dickens. Dylan ranks alongside these artists.
One legacy of Dylan’s verbal sophistication was the increasing attention paid by literary critics to his lyrics. Professor Christopher Ricks published a 500 page analysis of Dylan’s work, placing him in the context of Eliot, Keats and Tennyson,[281] and claiming that Dylan was a poet worthy of the same close and painstaking analysis.[282] Former British poet laureate, Andrew Motion, argued that Bob Dylan’s lyrics should be studied in schools.[283] Dylan has been nominated several times for the Nobel Prize in Literature.[284][285][286]"
Similarly, Australian critic Jack Marx credited Dylan with changing the persona of the rock star: "What cannot be disputed is that Dylan invented the arrogant, faux-cerebral posturing that has been the dominant style in rock since, with everyone from Mick Jagger to Eminem educating themselves from the Dylan handbook."[307].
If Dylan’s legacy in the 1960s was seen as bringing intellectual ambition to popular music, as Dylan advances into his sixties, he is today described as a figure who has greatly expanded the folk culture from which he initially emerged. As J. Hoberman wrote in The Village Voice, "Elvis might never have been born, but someone else would surely have brought the world rock 'n' roll. No such logic accounts for Bob Dylan. No iron law of history demanded that a would-be Elvis from Hibbing, Minnesota, would swerve through the Greenwich Village folk revival to become the world's first and greatest rock 'n' roll beatnik bard and then—having achieved fame and adoration beyond reckoning—vanish into a folk tradition of his own making." [308]
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Round 9 - Political Leader - Augustus (Gaius Julius Caesar Octavianus) 63BC-AD14
A moon or two ago I took a course in Roman history and this character really stuck out for me. He seemed like a hell of a guy, but I'd never even heard of him. We all know Julius Caesar and, thanks to Bob Guccione, Caligula, but I didn't know this cool cat. He was way better at his job than the rest of those emperor clowns.
I'm retyping his bio from a book here, so read the damn thing.
Quote:
Augustus (Gaius Julius Caesar Octavius) 63 BC - AD 14
Founder of the Roman Empire, the son of Gaius Octavius, senator and Praetor, and great nephew (through his mother, Atia) of Julius Caesar. On Caesar's assassination (44 BC) he abandoned student life in Illyricum and returned to Italy where, using Caesar's money and name (he had acquired both in his will), he raised an army, defeated Antony and extorted a wholly unconstitutional consulship from the Senate (43 BC). When Antony returned in force from Gaul later that year with Lepidus, Octavian made a deal with his former enemies, joining the so-called Second Triumvirate with them, and taking Africa, Sardinia and Sicily as his province. A later redivision of power gave him the entire western half of the Roman world, and Antony the eastern. While Antony was distracted there by his military schemes against Parthia, and his liaison with Cleopatra, Octavian consistently undermined him at home. Matters came to a head in 31 BC, and the Battle of Actium followed, Octavian emerging victorious as the sole ruler of the Roman world. Though taking the inoffensive title princeps ("first citizen"), he was in all but name an absolute monarch. His new name, Augustus ("exalted"), had historical and religious overtones, and was deliberately chosen to enhance his prestige. His long reign (27BC-AD14) was a time of peace and reconstruction at home, sound administration and steady conquest abroad. In gratitude, the Romans awarded him the title of Pater Patriae (Father of his country) in 2BC and on his death made him a god (divus Augustus).
Thank you to the fine folks at the Cambridge Biographical Encyclopedia Concern.
A couple other things...
The prof in the class where I heard about this guy was giddy with excitement about the movie "Gladiator" that was soon to come out and how the CGI would recreate Rome like nothing he'd ever seen.
And I remember that I made up one of those studying "sentences" in which the first letter of each word helps you remember a list of names or something. I had to remember the Caesars in order (or thought I did, it wasn't on the final). So to match "Julius Augustus Tiberius Caligula..." I came up with "Just Ask Those Cretins...".
B+ if I recall correctly. I probably spent more time coming up with what I thought was a funny story based on those letters than I did actually studying.
I would first like to move Vlad Dracula to Political leader for now.
That opens up Military Leader for me to draft Skanderbeg.
Skanderbeg, or Iskender Bey in Turkish meaning Lord or leader Alexander, was an Albanian freedom fighter. He led the Albanians to a ridiculous number of victories against the invading Ottoman Turks.
Like Dracula, Skanderbeg was forced as part of tribute to be raised as a Muslim Turk, and he eventually rose to become an honoured member of the Ottoman army.
He rebelled against the Turks during a battle with John Hunyadi's Hungarians. Skanderbeg marched to Albania and raised the double headed eagle banner, which remains to this day the flag of Albania.
Skanderbeg fought the turks for twenty years, and won many huge battles in Albania, the Balkans and in Italy.
The castle at Kruje (below) was laid to seige several times by the Turks, and only after his death, and two more seiges did ut finally fall.
I choose George Kastrioti (Skanderbeg) because of his will to fight for his country against almost over whelming odds. He is revered today as the national hero of Albania.
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I select in the Musician/Composer Category, from East St. Louis, Illinois, MILES DAVIS (1926-1991):
The greatest musician of the 20th Century. I selected Davis in the first Music Draft. Bitches Brew gives me chills every time I hear it - this is spooky, ethereal, sublime stuff.
Throughout a professional career lasting 50 years, Miles Davis played the trumpet in a lyrical, introspective, and melodic style, often employing a stemless Harmon mute to make his sound more personal and intimate. But if his approach to his instrument was constant, his approach to jazz was dazzlingly protean. To examine his career is to examine the history of jazz from the mid-'40s to the early '90s, since he was in the thick of almost every important innovation and stylistic development in the music during that period, and he often led the way in those changes, both with his own performances and recordings and by choosing sidemen and collaborators who forged new directions. It can even be argued that jazz stopped evolving when Davis wasn't there to push it forward.
Very, very few artists can be said to have changed the course of their medium even once. Miles Davis changed the direction of jazz three times.
First with 1949's The Birth of the Cool, Davis, early in his career as a bandleader, slowed the frantic tempo of bebop down, and introduced the world to cool jazz. This would be the dominant form of jazz, especially as played by west coast musicians, for the next decade.
In 1969, Davis released Bitches Brew, a double album of what would eventually be described as jazz-rock fusion. Fusion of course, would be the dominant form of jazz (for better or worse) for the next decade, and the players on Bitches Brew (which include John McLaughlin, Joe Zawinul, Wayne Shorter, and Chick Corea) would be its chief proponents.
In between those two extremes, in 1959, Davis introduced modal jazz to the world [with his album, Kind of Blue, (the making of which would make for an excellent documentary itself).]
In the Humanitarian category team Historyectomy is proud to select John Lennon.
I have to admit, I am not choosing Lennon based solely on his humanitarian efforts, though I believe them to be worthy of selection. The man changed the world, musically, among other things. His contributions to music alone have rarely been rivaled. He was a fantastic poet, composer and by all accounts a fantastic human being.
Maybe being born during a Nazi air raid determined his future would be dedicated to bringing peace to the world, something the somewhat less popular Jesus Christ was unable to do. Who knows, had his life not ended prematurely he might have done it.
He promoted peace through music, that he knew would reach massive numbers of people. Songs like "Give Peace a Chance" and "Imagine" were powerful messages at peace and no doubt helped shape the anti-war sentiment of a generation.
The benefit concerts that Lennon organized, performed in and/or inspired are far too many to list here. The amount of money donated by him, because of him or in honor of him to charitable causes around the world is incalculable.
Just a few of those benefit shows are:
November 1, 1971: John Lennon appears at a benefit concert at the Apollo Theater for the families of inmates at Attica Prison
The concert for Bangladesh (which I believe continues today)
One to One Benefit for the Willowbrook Institution for ######ed Children.
"Come Together: A Night for John Lennon's Words and Music" benefit for the American Red Cross
Imagine A Cure benefits
The greatest song written about John Lennon, IMHO and one that speaks to the void on many levels.
__________________ I am in love with Montana. For other states I have admiration, respect, recognition, even some affection, but with Montana it is love." - John Steinbeck
In the musician category, Strange Things Afoot at the Circle K selects George Gershwin.
Born in Brooklyn to Russian Jewish immigrant parents, Gershwin began writing songs professionally at the age of 15, and by the time he died at age 39, he had contributed more to the American music landscape than any other composer up to that time.
Early on, he wrote music for the broadway scene in tin pan alley, and then moved on to broadway, where his brother, Ira, served as librettist on much of his most famous work. He also spent time in Paris, largely focusing on more classical projects, and finally he worked in Hollywood doing film scores. His music was distinct in the way it merged classical and jazz elements together, and achieved a musical complexity unlike anything else being done on broadway or Hollywood.
Among his songs, the most iconic include the jazz standards "Not for Me," "Embraceable You," "I Got Rhythm," (which contains a chord progression that's still a favorite amongst jazz musicians today), "Summertime," from his opera Porgy & Bess, "A foggy day," "They Can't Take that Away from Me," "Let's Call the Whole Thing Off", and many others.
But his orchestral works are the most historically significant, with Rhapsody in Blue and American in Paris, the former of which has become synonymous with New York, and is perhaps the most recognizable piece of classical music written in the 20th century.
I think the brilliant thing about Gershwin is that he could fuse the various styles he used without seeming patronizing: in growing up in a very ethnically mixed and vibrant Brooklyn, working in vaudeville from an early age, studying in Paris, he came by all of his influences very sincerely, and his music never sounds like a classical musician experimenting with jazz, or a jazz musician experimenting with classical.
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Sorry I've been away so long, I was off on vacation (again ).
For my long-past 7th round pick, team Five-hole selects, in the category of Wildcard, Lorenzo de' Medici (also known as Lorenzo the Magnificent).
Lorenzo was born into the ultra-rich Medici family and used his wealth and influence to propel Florence into its golden age. He was a patron of many important Italian Renaissance artists such as Botticelli, da Vinci, and Michelangelo. He was also a poet and writer himself.
He was also something of a Gangster Pioneer. I like this passage in particular: "Lorenzo, like his father and grandfather, ruled Florence indirectly, through surrogates in the city councils, through threats, payoffs, [and] strategic marriages." He was the "de facto" ruler of Florence.
He was also the victim of a conspiracy involving the local Archbishop and the Pope in which he was stabbed but escaped and survived. "The conspiracy was brutally put down, with measures including the lynching of the archbishop and the death of the entire Pazzi family." True Italian style. This erupted into being excommunicated, Medici assets being seized by Papal authority, and Florence being put under interdict. Serious business. Eventually, Lorenzo resorted to diplomacy and everything was right with the world.
With my 8th round pick, in the category of Women, team Five-hole selects Billie Holiday.
To me Billie Holiday characterizes many of the triumphs and tragedies of the Black jazz culture of America in the 40s and 50s. She was incredibly talented, perhaps the most celebrated female jazz vocalist of all time (Ella deserves some consideration too), but fell in to the familiar traps of many jazz musicians -- especially black jazz musicians -- drug abuse, poor health, and financial exploitation.
One of her most famous pieces -- though she didn't write it, she popularized it and the song is connected intimately with her -- is Strange Fruit, based off a poem about the lynching of African Americans. It was incredibly controversial. She performed it at an integrated night club in 1939 in Grenwich Village, though she feared retaliation for the at-the-time taboo anti-white sentiment. "In a 1958 interview, she also bemoaned the fact that many people did not grasp the song's message: "They'll ask me to 'sing that sexy song about the people swinging'", she said."
Billie was arrested several times for possession of narcotics and imprisoned for almost a year. "On May 16, 1947, Holiday was arrested for the possession of narcotics and drugs in her New York apartment. On May 27, 1947, she was in court. "It was called 'The United States of America versus Billie Holiday'. And that's just the way it felt," Holiday recalled in her autobiography, Lady Sings the Blues. Holiday pleaded guilty and was sentenced to Alderson Federal Prison Camp in West Virginia. Holiday said she never "sang a note" at Alderson even though people wanted her to." Holiday was arrested again on January 22, 1949 inside her room at San Francisco's Hotel Mark Twain.
"By the 1950s, Holiday's drug abuse, drinking, and relations with abusive men led to deteriorating health. As evidenced by her later recordings, Holiday's voice coarsened and did not project the vibrance it once had. However, she retained — and, perhaps, strengthened — the emotional impact of her delivery."
"On May 31, 1959, she was taken to Metropolitan Hospital in New York suffering from liver and heart disease. Police officers were stationed at the door to her room. She was arrested for drug possession as she lay dying and her hospital room was raided by authorities. Holiday remained under police guard at the hospital until she died from cirrhosis of the liver on July 17, 1959. In the final years of her life, she had been progressively swindled out of her earnings, and she died with $0.70 in the bank and $750 (a tabloid fee) on her person."
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