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Monday, July 8, 2019
Thrilling yarn: tapestry depicts ‘Game of Thrones’ saga
BELFAST - In a Belfast museum, seamstresses are at work depicting gory battles and warring kings in shimmering threads of red and gold -- an epic homage to the TV phenomenon “Game of Thrones”. The team of volunteers at the Ulster Museum are putting the final touches to a 90-metre (300-foot) tapestry depicting all eight seasons of the fantasy saga, which reached its dramatic conclusion in May. “Game of Thrones”, which first hit screens in 2011, was produced and chiefly filmed in studios in Belfast and in the Northern Irish countryside. The Northern Irish public have taken the series to their hearts. “A tapestry is, more than anything else, a great storytelling device,” explained Valerie Wilson, costume and textiles curator at National Museums Northern Ireland. “The length of the tapestry allows the story to unfold, so in many ways it’s the perfect medium for telling the story of the ‘Game of Thrones’ project.” Styled in the manner of the treasured Bayeux Tapestry -- which depicts the 11th-century Norman conquest of England -- the completed piece will be transported to France to hang near its predecessor
People gather around what conceptual artist Ales ‘Maxi’ Zupevc claims is the first ever monument of Melania Trump, set in the fields near the town of Sevnica, US First Lady’s hometown, during a small inauguration celebration on July 5, 2019.
in September. “This tapestry references the Bayeux Tapestry in that it has a series of repeated icons through it,” explained Wilson. The panels of the piece are woven by machine before the finishing touches are put on by hand. - Emerald green wildfire For two years, a team of 30 has been at work on and off stitching embellishments on the icons -- “blood red weddings”, “emerald green wildfire” and “cold-blue White Walkers” which prove pivotal in the blood-and-guts HBO drama. Such is the graphic nature of their handiwork, the museum display comes with a warning: “Due to the depiction of graphic scenes, viewing of the tapestry is not suitable for anyone under the age of 18.” The team has been working on stitching depicting the eighth and final series. Participants -- like actors in the show -- were also sworn to silence, forced to sign non-disclosure agreements to maintain the shroud of secrecy. “It was very crucial when the project launched that it had that new, fresh, almost surprise element,” Wilson told AFP. (afp)
Paul Faith / AFP
Embroidered scenes on the tapestry depicting the hit television series Game of Thrones are on show at the Ulster Museum in Belfast on July 5, 2019.
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Monday, July 8, 2019
Statue on Slovenia’s Melania tourist trail divides opinion
SEVNICA - After Melania cake, Melania honey, and even Melania slippers, the Slovenian hometown of the US first lady will now boast a statue of its most famous daughter -- albeit one that has faced decidedly mixed reviews. The life-size statue on the outskirts of Sevnica was inaugurated on Friday and is the brainchild of 39-year-old American conceptual artist Brad Downey, who says it’s the first monument anywhere dedicated to the wife of US President Donald Trump. The sculpture was carved into a tree using a chainsaw and depicts Melania in a blue dress raising her left hand in a waving gesture, emulating a pose she struck at her husband’s 2017 inauguration. Its somewhat naive style has led some critics on social media to brand it a “scarecrow”. “I can understand why people might think that this falls short as a description of her physical appearance,” Downey told AFP, but insisted that he found the end result “absolutely beautiful”.
Since Donald Trump took office in 2017, sleepy Sevnica has become a magnet for tourists and journalists searching for insights into the American first lady’s past. Entrepreneurial locals have been cashing in on the influx, offering a bewildering array of Melaniabranded food and merchandise as well as a tour of the area taking in the key sites of her early years. Downey came up with the statue as part of a project aimed at exploring the first lady’s Slovenian roots and commissioned local artisan Ales Zupevc -- also known as “Maxi” -- to actually carve the sculpture. Downey told AFP he was struck by the fact that Maxi was born in the same year and in the same hospital as Melania herself. He said conversations with Maxi
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had enabled him to see Melania’s ancestral region through local eyes. “You see this river that she would have seen as a child, you see the mountains,” he said. However, not everyone has been moved to wax lyrical about the artwork. Nika, a local 24-year-old architecture student, told AFP: “If the monument was meant to be a parody, then the artist has been succesful. “We in Sevnica can only laugh and, at the same time, hold our heads in our hands over their (the Trumps’) catastrophic reputation,” she added. Katarina, a 66-year-old resident of nearby Rozno, said that she thought the monument was a “good idea”. “Melania is a Slovenian hero, she made it to the top in the US,” she said. (afp)
AP Photo/Tatan Syuflana
In this March 18, 2019, photo, National Disaster Mitigation Agency spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho speaks during a press conference in Jakarta, Indonesia. Indonesia’s disaster agency spokesman Nugroho who was respected for informing Indonesians accurately and quickly about the country’s frequent natural calamities, has died on Sunday, July 7, 2019, in Guangzhou, China, where he had been undergoing medical treatment since June.
Indonesia’s famed disaster spokesman dies of cancer
Indonesia’s disaster agency spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho -- who shot to international fame for keeping up a 24/7 schedule while battling terminal cancer -- has died at the age of 49. Affectionately known as Pak Topo (Mr Topo), Nugroho was the face of government efforts to get word out on the latest developments in a string of natural disasters, including a quake-tsunami that killed thousands on Sulawesi island in 2018. He died early Sunday at a hospital in Guangzhou, China, where he was undergoing treatment for cancer which had spread to his bones and several vital organs, Indonesia’s disaster agency said.
“We all feel we have lost Pak Sutopo. (He was) the foremost and indomitable figure in delivering disaster information in Indonesia,” the agency said in a statement on Instagram. The disaster in the city of Palu highlighted Nugroho’s refusal to pass the torch as he dragged himself to daily press briefings, taking reporters’ calls and communicating on social media at a frantic pace even as the non-smoker got treatment for Stage IV lung cancer.
Pale and visibly thinner than in the past, Nugroho got the grim news in January 2018 that he was dying and might have as little as a year to live. Nugroho -- who is survived by his wife and two children -- held a PhD in natural resources and the environment, with an expertise in hydrology and cloud-seeding. He spent years as a researcher and dreamed of becoming a professor, rejecting offers to take up the government spokesman job three times until his then boss convinced him that his background would earn him the public’s trust. He took the position in 2010.
Widely recognised in Indonesia, Nugroho regularly updated his nearly 200,000 followers on Twitter and 70,000 followers on Instagram. He reportedly promised his wife to slow down his work schedule but still managed to get out a 200-word update on a deadly landslide back in February 2018 from his hospital bed, local media reported. Then in August of that year, he was sending out reports on a deadly quake disaster on Lombok island, next to Bali, minutes after finishing a chemotherapy session. Nugroho said he had more than 3,000 contacts in his mobile phone
while his social media feeds are filled with updates and dramatic images showing the aftermath of quakes, tsunamis, landslides and volcanic eruptions. He saw himself as a public servant to the end. “It’s not about how long your life is,” he said. “It’s about what you do in your lifetime.” (afp) News can also be heard in “Bali Image” at Global Radio FM 96.5 from 9.30 until 10.00 am. Listen to Global Radio FM at http:// globalfmbali.listen2myradio.com or live video streaming at http:// radioglobalfmbali.com and http:// ustream.tv/channel/global-fm-bali.