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Home Culture The Secrets of Crystal Shrine Grotto
The Secrets of Crystal Shrine Grotto
Who was the man behind Memphis' greatest folk art treasure?
by Eileen Townsend
Photography of the Crystal Shrine Grotto by Mark Johnson
In 1935, a man by the name of Dionicio Rodriguez made his way to Memphis by way of southern Texas. Rodriguez, a Mexican sculptor of considerable renown, liked to dress in nicely pressed slacks and a crisp white shirt. He wore his black hair closely cropped and slicked back, in the style of the day. A sepia-tone photo, taken in 1937, shows Rodriguez standing near a footbridge that he sculpted for a cemetery in Maryland, his arm propped against a lighting feature at the base of the bridge. He appears relaxed and casually confident.
At first glance, it would be hard to guess that the clean-cut Rodriguez spent his days tying together iron rebar and wire and hand-pouring cement in order to create life-like imitations of the natural world. But for the six years he spent on and off in Memphis, the quiet sculptor worked eight- to ten-hour days in the service of his elaborate creations, gathering together roughshod elements to make faux bois (translation: fake wood) trees, footbridges, benches, and fountains.
Memphians may not know very much about Rodriguez, but they are probably familiar with one of his most famous works — the Crystal Shrine Grotto, an elaborate man-made cave located at the center of East Memphis' Memorial Park Cemetery. The Grotto is both the physical and spiritual center of the cemetery. The dark, crystal-studded enclosure is home to a ten-panel tableau depicting the life of Christ. It is surrounded, on the outside, by other unique features, all sculpted out of cement in a characteristic trabajo rustico (or "rustic work") style.
Among Rodriguez's creations are a hollow tree called "Abraham's Oak," a bench in the shape of a fallen tree limb, a "Fountain of Youth," a second tomb-like cave known as the "Cave of Machpelah," a "wishing chair," and a series of rustic footbridges that lead to what Rodriguez called "God's Garden."
The Crystal Shrine Grotto and the accompanying sculptures have been on a shortlist of off-the-beaten-path Memphis attractions for decades now. A 2014 segment called "Behind Closed Doors" by News Channel 24, for example, called the sculpture "a subterranean art museum of religious dioramas" while the ilovememphisblog.com recently surmised that the work has a "secret outdoor temple feel to it." The Grotto is now also something of a national attraction, drawing attention from art and travel writers from around the country. In 2013, the critic Allison Meier wrote for the national art blog hyperallergic.com that "the experience is alternately transporting and peculiar" and that, while inside the Grotto, "you feel alone in a sweeping stillness."
There is something transporting about walking into the Grotto. Sculpted stalactites emerge, in clusters, from a low ceiling, while five tons of raw crystals — brought to Memphis by Rodriguez from the Diamond Cave in Jasper, Arkansas — gleam under multicolored artificial lights. A leather-bound guest book sits adjacent to a wooden plaque that impels visitors to spend a moment of repose in the cave. Many of Rodriguez's dioramic paintings inside the Grotto are accompanied by carvings (added in the late 1970s and early 1980s) by Memphian David Day, which depict, variously, New Testament scenes such as the Raising of Jairus' Daughter, the Sermon on the Mount, and the Resurrection of Christ.
The air is cool, and plinky recorded harp music resounds throughout, contributing to the kitschy-ness of the place; a defunct Super 8 camera mimics surveillance in one corner. But the effect transcends kitsch. A first-time visitor cannot avoid the sense that he is inside a work of art, one that retains the feel and vision of the artist.
Despite ample press about the Grotto, little has been reported about the man behind its creation. Until eight years ago, not much was widely known about Rodriguez. In 2006, Memphis magazine historian Vance Lauderdale reported that, despite some digging, he had discovered no available photographs of Rodriguez in Memphis, much less anything resembling a complete biography. What was known was that Rodriguez was born outside Mexico City in 1891 and died in the states in 1955. He is buried in San Antonio, where he spent much of his career. Because little was known about his artistic training, it has often been assumed that he was a self-trained folk artist.
"Much of his life," wrote Lauderdale, "is shrouded in mystery. But somehow, he perfected a technique for chemically tinting concrete and then carving or molding it into naturalistic forms that closely resembled stones, branches, trees — whatever he wished — even down to artificial wormholes, cracked branches, and peeling bark."
In 2008, a Texan art historian named Patsy Pittman Light published a survey of Rodriguez's work across the United States called Capturing Nature: The Cement Sculpture of Dionicio Rodriguez. Light's book, based on extensive interviews with Rodriguez's niece and assistant, Manuela Vargas Theall, reveals much more about both the sculptor and his works, including a stunning series of faux bois structures in North Little Rock's Pugh Memorial Park, an achievement that Light calls a "lyrical fantasy" for its poetic use of faux bois forms.
Light's research into Rodriguez' life also drew on a correspondence between E. Clovis Hinds, the founder of Memorial Park Cemetery, and Rodriguez. The two men's relationship was defining for both Hinds and Rodriguez, as evidenced by a shared desire to create, as Hinds put it, "a landmark cemetery marked by beauty and serenity" that "will attract people." The letters reveal two men who, despite the financial adversity of the Depression years, stayed the course until the project was finished in 1941.
In 1924, Hinds sold his successful life insurance company, Cotton States Life Insurance, and started work on what would be his legacy, a "memorial park" cemetery in Memphis, in the style of Forest Lawn Cemetery in Los Angeles. As Hinds envisioned it, the cemetery would have hallmark flat grave markers, allowing for an unimpeded sense of the landscape, a vista that the proprietor hoped would draw the mind towards life and hope, and away from dreary visions of mortality.
According to Pittman Light, Memphis' Memorial Park Cemetery is one of "more than six hundred 'memorial park' cemeteries that were built in the country by 1935." Hinds, like many others, was influenced by a turn-of-the-century movement towards urban park space, which began in Europe and found American expression in Frederick Law Olmstead's Central Park in Manhattan and Prospect Park in Brooklyn.
In order to create Memphis' Memorial Park Cemetery, Hinds employed a landscape architect from the George Kessler firm of St. Louis. Kessler, a correspondent of Olmstead's, was the architect who built Midtown's sprawling Overton Park. The idea of adding sculpture to the cemetery came from Père Lachaise, the Paris cemetery that dates from 1804 and includes many notable works of art.
In 1935, Hinds engaged Rodriguez to start work on his sculptures, while he simultaneously was working on projects in Maryland, Alabama and Michigan, among other sites. Rodriguez was apparently protective of his methods; when he worked with a team, he mixed his cement tints in private and disposed of them so that no one else learned of his recipes. He wrote to Hinds asking that the proprietor not allow "anyone else to try and perform or practice any of my artistical [sic] work."
Memorial Park's uncluttered vistas — broken only by trees and bouquets of flowers that mourning relatives leave atop the graves of loved ones — make for a better view of Rodriguez's "Garden of the Gods," which includes three large, conical rock formations, the largest of which houses the Crystal Shrine Grotto. The Grotto, like the neighboring Cave of Malapach, is carved 59 feet into the hillside. It is fronted by the koi-filled "Pool of Hebron" (a grand name for a quiet, man-made pond) and the gnarled "Abraham's Oak," through which visitors can walk.
Though no one knows exactly where Rodriguez learned his craft, Pittman Light writes that many Mexican craftspeople emigrated to San Antonio in the 1920s, following difficult economic times and revolution in Mexico. There was an influential craft school in Mexico City that trained many of these artisans. Rodriguez was not the originator or sole practitioner of the trabajo rustico genre. Genaro Briones, who may have worked with Rodriguez in Memphis, was another adherent to the style. Briones and other artisans are well remembered for the faux bois work that they created throughout the American Southwest.
Despite this lineage, Rodriguez's work in Memphis is often grouped, stylistically, with work by environmental sculptures by self-taught and untrained artists such as the French postman Ferdinand Cheval's "Le Palais idéal" — an obsessive monument in the Rhone Valley made of small stones — or Florida's "Coral Castle," the solitary labor of a man named Ed Leedskalnin. These sculptures bear some surface similarity to Rodriguez's Crystal Shrine Grotto, but the comparison unfairly groups him with figures pejoratively classed as "naive artists," when the Mexican sculptor was a prolific professional.
Rodriguez worked to support his family (he was married and divorced twice, but had no children) and made good money from his skill. His work is more correctly identified as in the tradition of Mexican artists such as Diego Rivera and Jose Clemente Orozco.
Something else Pittman Light's comprehensive study makes clear: The Crystal Shrine Grotto and the biblically inspired scenic creations that accompany it are doubtless some of Rodriguez's finest works. With its elaborate use of tinted concrete, detailing, and embedded crystal, the Grotto is perhaps Rodriguez's most experimental undertaking. E. Clovis Hind's vision for Memorial Park was demanding, and Rodriguez met that challenge. His expansive, expressive work deserves recognition not only as a folk oddity, but as a considerable achievement in the tradition of Mexican art in the United States.
Arts December-2015 Features Memphis Magazine December 2015
Eileen Townsend
Eileen Townsend covers arts and culture for Memphis magazine. She has written about street racing, urban exploring and outsider art for the magazine, and writes a regular art column for the Memphis Flyer. She tweets at @eileen_townsend.
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Your source for CAWG and industry news
September 27 , 2018
CAWG PAC reception, Santa Maria
CAWG Board of Directors meeting, Santa Ynez
Unified Wine & Grape Symposium, Sacramento
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Governor Signs Wildfire Legislation - 29 Bills
Gov. Brown on Sept. 21 signed legislation to strengthen the state's ability to prevent and recover from catastrophic wildfires, including SB 901 (Dodd, D-Napa), which boosts the state's forest management activities, updates requirements for the maintenance and operation of utility infrastructure to reflect changing climate conditions, and protects ratepayers and utility workers. Dodd called the new law "the most comprehensive wildfire prevention and safety package the state has passed in decades." SB 901 was one of 29 bills signed by the governor related to wildfires, forests, emergencies/disasters, forests and insurance.
>READ MORE ABOUT SB 901 AND OTHER LEGISLATION
SIGNIFICANT RULING ON GROUNDWATER
The State Water Resources Control Board is arguably the most powerful agency in state government. That power may have been expanded even more last month, when using the "Public Trust Doctrine," the Third District Court of Appeal ruled that government agencies have a duty to regulate groundwater usage if there is reason to believe pumping groundwater drains adjacent waterways.
The case involves the Scott River in Siskiyou County, a tributary of the Klamath near the Oregon border. The potential ramifications of the ruling go far beyond Siskiyou.
Prior to this Third District Court of Appeal ruling, the Water Board's primary authority over groundwater was to step in if a local Groundwater Sustainability Agency fails to comply with its plan or doesn't put a viable plan together. Those plans are still in development and are not required in every groundwater basin.
However, under the Scott River ruling, the Water Board could potentially assert authority over any well that it believes may impact a river or stream, even if the well is nowhere near the waterway, and without regard to the sustainability of that particular groundwater basin.
Environmental groups may rely on this ruling to push the Water Board to develop regulations that provide restrictions on groundwater. This could potentially have long-term consequences for growers.
THE PURPLE SIMI VALLEY
The 38th Assembly District (38th AD) includes the north Los Angeles County suburbs of Santa Clarita and Simi Valley. It is home to the Ronald Reagan Library (host of several GOP debates) and has been solidly Republican for decades.
However, the 38th AD overlaps a highly contentious congressional race which pits incumbent Steve Knight (R) against challenger Katie Hill (D). Party registration has changed in the last two years with registration now at 35 percent Democrat, 35 percent Republican, and 24 percent no party. Consequently, this is one of the most targeted congressional races in the country and both parties are investing substantial resources in this race.
An innocent bystander in this is Assemblyman Dante Acosta (R-Santa Clarita). Acosta is a Gold Star father, very active in his community, well-respected for his pragmatic approach to public policy, and is one of only four Latino Republicans in the Assembly.
His opponent is Christy Smith. She is a Newhall School Board member since 2009, a mom, and is also very active in the community. Smith and Hill are coordinating their campaigns, doing multiple events together including a joint event with Gavin Newsom.
This Assembly seat is very purple and could go either way in November and will be influenced greatly by what happens in the congressional race.
-- Michael Miiller / michael@cawg.org / 916-379-8995
US, Japan to Open Negotiations on Free Trade Agreement
This week the United States and Japan announced plans ( joint statement) to enter into negotiations on a bilateral trade agreement. USDA Secretary Sonny Perdue said the trade agreement "is welcome news, since we know that export income is critical to the financial health of agriculture and is a key contributor to rural prosperity." In a statement, Sen. Pat Roberts said, "In 2017, the U.S. exported nearly $12 billion in agricultural exports to Japan, placing it as our fourth largest destination. There is a great deal of potential to continue to grow that market."
From a Wine Institute press release / March 2018: "U.S. wine importers in Japan hope the U.S. will establish a free trade agreement with Japan as soon as possible to abolish the heavy import duty disadvantage of U.S. wines, which will help the entire American wine category grow in Japan." Bottled U.S. wine exports to Japan decreased 20 percent by volume in 2017, but value increased 12.1 percent.
CDFA Accepting Proposals for 2019 Specialty Crop Grants
Proposals for the 2019 Specialty Crop Block Grant Program are due Nov. 2. Grant awards will range from $50,000 to $450,000 per project. Applicants can be nonprofit and for-profit organizations; local, state, federal and tribal government entities; and public and private colleges and universities. In October, CDFA will conduct four free workshops (in Merced, Sonoma, Los Angeles and Sacramento) and two free webinars to provide more guidance about the proposal process.
>FULL DETAILS
Small lot vintners in the Sacramento Delta write a new chapter for chenin blanc
CAWG member David Ogilvie of Wilson Vineyards is featured (read article or listen to four-minute story).
Capital Public Radio, Sept. 26
Wine industry frets over additional Chinese tariffs
Added duties that took effect this week raise the total tariff rate for California wines to 79 percent.
Western Farm Press, Sept. 26
Growers should keep a lookout for vine mealybug
The pest is the most significant one for San Joaquin Valley table grapes.
Winemaker is bringing Lodi's famous grape back to the glass
Winemaker harvested about eight tons of Flame Tokay grapes from two vineyards in Lodi.
Stockton Record, Sept. 25
Vineyard Team Educational Scholarship awards $20,000 in student scholarships
Nine students were awarded scholarships this year, more than double awarded in 2017.
GMO wine: Are we ready for it?
Genetic modification of grapes could help wine growers deal with a range of challenges. A number of studies are underway.
Genetic Literacy Project, Sept. 21
Farm bill not expected by Sept. 30 deadline
Senate Ag Committee chair Pat Roberts conceded this week a farm bill by the Sept. 30 deadline is not likely.
AgNet West, Sept. 26
California State Board of Food and Agriculture to meet Oct. 2
The board will hear from agricultural stakeholders, including California Farm Bureau Federation and Western Growers Association, on key issues related to farming and ranching.
Smoke Taint Information from Pan American
With a growing number of winegrape growers receiving a notice of rejection from a winery due to smoke taint, it is important to know there are key steps required when you have crop insurance. Missing one part of the process could result in the denial of your crop insurance claim. If you have a crop insurance policy and suspect you have smoke taint or you have received a letter of rejection from the winery, Pan American has provided some helpful information.
>LEARN MORE
A USDA Risk Management Agency representative provided the following guidance to CAWG:
Smoke Taint on Grapes: It is our understanding that lab tests are disclosing additional markers which are resulting in the rejection or devaluation of grapes. RMA has not (and will not) specify the markers that indicate smoke taint, and it is up to the AIPs to make a determination that smoke taint has affected the quality of the grapes based on the presence of the markers on a lab test. All other provisions regarding loss adjustment and claims still apply.
WATER & WEATHER
American Farm Bureau Asks Federal Court to Halt WOTUS Rule Nationwide
From AFBF: The American Farm Bureau Federation and a broad coalition of business groups this week asked a federal district court in Georgia to expand its prior order delaying implementation of the flawed 2015 waters of the U.S. rule in 11 states. The coalition asked that the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Georgia extend its previous injunction to block the WOTUS rule in the remaining 22 states that are currently subject to the controversial rule.
Groundwater Program Launches Online Survey on Water Quality Concerns
The Department of Water Resources Sustainable Groundwater Management Program (SGMP) is conducting an online survey on water quality concerns. The survey should take about 5-10 minutes. The purpose of the survey is for the SGMP to obtain feedback from groundwater sustainability agencies (GSAs) and interested parties on the water quality components of the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act and groundwater sustainability plan regulations. The survey will be open through Oct. 10.
CAWG PAC
CAWG PAC Reception ~ Nov. 7 ~ Join Us!
The flyer and registration form will be available next week.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Iv'e been learning ASL for three years now and I would love to practice with you guys if that is okay.
I don't have a skype do you have a snapchat or something so we can chat a little but before video chatting? I'm just cautious with new people online.
If possible I would love to practice with you guys! I'm pretty bad at signing right now, but I'm hoping I can improve.


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Sony Music München
Sony Music Entertainment GmbH
Property analysis and selection, Capacity planning, Space allocation program, Tenant support in negotiating lease, Definition of fit-out standards, Colour and material concept, Layout design, Design of office support spaces, Project management, Change management
6.600 m² BGF / GFA
Building Architect
Weickenmeier, Kunz + Partner
Initial Situation
After the corporate separation of the Bertelsmann Group, Sony Music will again re-establish its own corporate identity at a new site. This should be reflected in the address, the type of office concept and the work culture.
Analogous to the corporate culture of Sony which, of course, is already being experienced at other locations in the world, the primary goal of the spatial restructuring is the change from classical single and double offices from the former publishing structure towards an open, communicative office world.
The move towards a modern, flexible office should be able to strengthen and promote the communication between the departments and the labels, and respond flexibly to the future demands of the company. From these parameters, a specific requirement profile has been created with which the property information provided by the real estate business CBRE Real Estate could be evaluated in terms of location, infrastructure, efficiency and flexibility.
For Sony, a drafted and moderated 3-stage workshop process was used by CSMM in which, together with the management, the internal project management and representatives of all departments, the foundations for the further space allocation planning could be developed.
In the case of Sony, the specificity of the requirement profile consists of a mix of 'normal' work places with typical requirements for office tasks, as well as of a number of special work places that arise from the specific needs of the music business. For the music boxes, within which work-related music is heard, the subject of acoustics and media technology must be questioned intensively, as there must be also places of rest and concentration, or spontaneous brainstorming. In order to approach the complexity of the task in tangible steps, the collected requirements were divided into three sub-projects – work places, IT and office support spaces – clustered and worked on in various steps and with the respective decision makers.
That realisation was not decided according to the top-down approach, but could be implemented as a jointly drafted result, speaks for the foresight of management. The early involvement of representatives of the departments is beneficial for the later acceptance of spatial change and cultural identity.
Here, CSMM makes the pitch available, the utilisation of which is the responsibility of the company and employees. An accompanying project book transparently details the processes and steps for decision making, budget and deadlines for all parties involved.
Sony Music Berlin


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Archives|Ken Kesey, Author of 'Cuckoo's Nest,' Who Defined the Psychedelic Era, Dies at 66
Ken Kesey, Author of 'Cuckoo's Nest,' Who Defined the Psychedelic Era, Dies at 66
By CHRISTOPHER LEHMANN-HAUPT NOV. 11, 2001
Ken Kesey, the Pied Piper of the psychedelic era, who was best known as the author of the novel ''One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest,'' died yesterday in a hospital in Eugene, Ore., said his wife, Faye. He was 66 and lived in Pleasant Hill, Ore.
The cause was complications after surgery for liver cancer late last month, said his friend and business associate, Ken Babbs.
Mr. Kesey was also well known as the hero of Tom Wolfe's nonfiction book about psychedelic drugs, ''The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test'' (1968). An early flowering of Mr. Wolfe's innovative new-journalism style, the book somewhat mockingly compared Mr. Kesey to the leaders of the world's great religions, dispensing to his followers not spiritual balm but quantities of lysergic acid diethylamide, or LSD, to enhance their search for the universe within themselves.
The book's narrative focused on a series of quests undertaken by Mr. Kesey in the 1960's. First, there was the transcontinental trip with a band of friends he named the Merry Pranksters, aboard a 1939 International Harvester bus called Further (it was painted as ''Furthur'' on the bus). It was wired for sound and painted riotously in Day-Glo colors. Neal Cassady, the Dean Moriarty of Jack Kerouac's ''On the Road,'' was recruited to drive. The journey, which took the Pranksters from La Honda, Calif., to New York City and back, was timed to coincide with the 1964 New York World's Fair. Its purposes were to film and tape an extended movie, to experience roadway America while high on acid and to practice ''tootling the multitudes,'' as Mr. Wolfe put it, referring to the way a Prankster would stand with a flute on the bus's roof and play sounds to imitate people's various reactions to the bus.
''The sense of communication in this country has damn near atrophied,'' Mr. Kesey told an interviewer from Publishers Weekly after the bus arrived in New York City. ''But we found as we went along it got easier to make contact with people. If people could just understand it is possible to be different without being a threat.''
Then, back in California, there were the so-called Acid Tests that Mr. Kesey organized -- parties with music and strobe lights where he and his friends served LSD-laced Kool-Aid to members of the public and challenged them to avoid ''freaking out,'' as Mr. Wolfe put it. They were interrupted by Mr. Kesey's flight to Mexico in January 1966 to avoid going on trial on charges of possession of marijuana. Finally, after he returned to the United States in October and was arrested again and waiting to stand trial, there was the final Acid Test, the graduation ceremony ostensibly designed to persuade people to go beyond drugs and achieve a mind-altered state without LSD.
This was the public Ken Kesey, the magnetic leader who built a bridge from beatniks on the road to hippies in Haight-Ashbury; who brewed the cultural mix that fermented everything from psychedelic art to acid-rock groups like the Grateful Dead and Jefferson Airplane to the Trips Festival dance concerts in the Fillmore auditorium in San Francisco; and who, in the process of his pilgrimage, blew an entire generation's mind.
Yet Mr. Wolfe also narrated the adventures of a more private Ken Kesey, one who in addition to his quests took the inner trips that gave him his best fiction. It is true that by 1959, when he had his first experience with drugs, he had already produced a novel, ''End of Autumn,'' about college athletics, although it would never be published. But after he volunteered at a hospital to be a paid subject of experiments with little-known psychomimetic drugs -- drugs that bring on temporary states resembling psychosis -- his imagination underwent a startling change.
To earn extra money and to work on a novel called ''Zoo,'' about the beatniks of the North Beach community in San Francisco, Mr. Kesey also took a job as a night attendant on the psychiatric ward of the hospital. Watching the patients there convinced him that they were locked into a system that was the very opposite of therapeutic, and it provided the raw material for ''One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest.'' One night on the ward, high on peyote, he suddenly envisioned what Mr. Wolfe described as ''a full-blown Indian -- Chief Broom -- the solution, the whole mothering key, to the novel.''
As Mr. Kesey explained, his discovery of Chief Broom, despite not knowing anything about American Indians, gave him a character from whose point of view he could depict a schizophrenic state of mind and at the same time describe objectively the battle of wills between two other key characters, the new inmate Randle Patrick McMurphy, who undertook to fight the system, and the tyrannical Big Nurse, Miss Ratched, who ended up lobotomizing McMurphy. Chief Broom's unstable mental state and Mr. Kesey's imagining of it, presumably with the help of hallucinogenic drugs, also allowed the author to elevate the hospital into what he saw as a metaphor of repressive America, which Chief Broom called the Combine.
Mr. Kesey would ''write like mad under the drugs,'' as Mr. Wolfe put it, and then cut what he saw was ''junk'' after he came down.
''Cuckoo's Nest'' was published by Viking Press in early 1962 to enthusiastic reviews. Time magazine call it ''a roar of protest against middlebrow society's Rules and the invisible Rulers who enforce them.'' Stage and screen rights were acquired by the actor Kirk Douglas, who the following year returned to Broadway after a long absence to play McMurphy in an adaptation by Dale Wasserman that ran for 82 performances at the Cort Theater during the 1963-64 season. The play was revived professionally in slightly different form in 1970, with William Devane playing the part of McMurphy, and again in 2001, with Gary Sinise in the part.
Even more successful was the film version, which was released in 1975 and the following year won five Oscars, for best picture; best director, Milos Forman; best actor, Jack Nicholson as McMurphy; best actress, Louise Fletcher as Nurse Ratched; and best screen adaptation, Lawrence Hauben and Bo Goldman.
But Mr. Kesey was not happy with the production. He disapproved of the script, thought Mr. Nicholson wrong for the part of McMurphy and believed that the producers, Michael Douglas and Saul Zaentz, had not lived up to the handshake deal he insisted he had made with them. He sued them for 5 percent of the movie's gross and $800,000 in punitive damages and eventually agreed on a settlement. But he still refused to watch the film.
Although Mr. Kesey wrote several more books during his life, ''Cuckoo's Nest'' remained the high point of his career. Reviewing the film version in The New Yorker, Pauline Kael wrote that ''the novel preceded the university turmoil, Vietnam, drugs, the counterculture.'' She continued, ''Yet it contained the prophetic essence of that whole period of revolutionary politics going psychedelic.''
''Much of what it said,'' she concluded, ''has entered the consciousness of many -- possibly most -- Americans.''
''Sometimes a Great Notion'' followed in 1964. It was a longer and more ambitious novel about an Oregon logging family and, in the strife between two brothers, the conflict between West Coast individualism and East Coast intellectualism. Written under the influence of both drugs and Mr. Kesey's exposure to modern literature -- ''an 'Absalom, Absalom!' set in Oregon,'' one critic called it -- the novel received mixed reviews, some impressed by its energy and others annoyed by its wordiness. In 1971, a film version appeared, directed by Paul Newman and starring Mr. Newman, Henry Fonda and Lee Remick. It left so little an impression that when it was released for television, its title was changed to ''Never Give an Inch.''
Initially Mr. Kesey acted undaunted by the negative reaction to the novel's appearance, which was timed for the arrival of the Pranksters in New York. He told his bus mates that writing was an old-fashioned and artificial form, and that they were transcending it with their experiments in metaconsciousness. A decade later, however, he told an interviewer, ''The thing about writers is that they never seem to get any better than their first work,'' and, ''This bothers me a lot.'' He added: ''You look back and their last work is no improvement on their first. I feel I have an obligation to improve, and I worry about that.''
Yet he never did surpass his first two books. During the remainder of his life, he published two more novels, ''Sailor Song'' (1992), about civilization contending with nature in Alaska, and ''Last Go Round: A Dime Western'' (1994), an account of a famous Oregon rodeo written in the form of pulp fiction, with research done by his friend and fellow Prankster, Mr. Babbs. He also published three nonfiction works, ''Kesey's Garage Sale'' (1973), a miscellany of essays by himself and others; ''Demon Box'' (1986), a mix of essays and stories; and ''The Further Inquiry'' (1990), his own history of the Prankster bus trip, as well as two children's books, ''Little Tricker the Squirrel Meets Big Double the Bear'' (1990), which he often performed to music, and ''The Sea Lion: A Story of the Sea Cliff People'' (1991).
Ken Elton Kesey was born on Sept. 17, 1935, in La Junta, Colo., the older of two sons born to the dairy farmers Fred A. and Geneva Smith Kesey. Early in his life, the family migrated to Springfield, Ore., where he underwent a rugged upbringing. Although following the move his father founded a prosperous marketing cooperative for dairy farmers, the Eugene Farmers Cooperative, and established the family in a comfortable suburban setting, Mr. Kesey and his brother were taught early to hunt, fish and swim, as well as to box, wrestle and shoot the rapids of the local rivers on inner-tube rafts.
These all-American he-man lessons took, at least up to a point. Mr. Kesey developed great physical power; Mr. Wolfe writes that ''he had an Oregon country drawl and too many muscles and calluses on his hands.'' He became a star football player and wrestler in high school and was voted ''most likely to succeed'' in the graduating class of 1953. At the University of Oregon, where he devoted himself to sports and fraternities, he acted in college plays and he won the Fred Lowe Scholarship, awarded to the outstanding wrestler in the Northwest. In May 1956, he married Norma Faye Haxby, his high school sweetheart. He even considered trying to become a movie star, moving to Los Angeles after graduation and playing bit parts in several films.
But his imagination exerted a counterattraction. After graduating from Oregon in 1957 and winning scholarships to Stanford University's graduate writing program, he moved to Perry Lane, the bohemian section of Palo Alto.
There he met Vic Lovell, a graduate student in psychology who told him about the drug experiments at the Veterans Administration Hospital in Menlo Park that were paying $75 a session to volunteer subjects. His journey to the interior began.
After the bus trip, the Acid Tests, and a six-month sentence on a work farm in 1967 for drug possession, he moved back to his father's farm in Pleasant Hill.
Shunning a second Prankster bus trip in 1969, its destination this time the Woodstock rock festival in the New York countryside, he settled down with his wife to raise their children -- Shannon, Zane, Jed and Sunshine -- work the farm, involve himself in community activities and write. In later years he insisted that he had always been a family man with strong ties to the community.
Over the next three decades, he raised cattle and sheep, and grew blueberries. He joined school boards; helped out several local businesses; ran a Web site, Intrepid Trips; edited a magazine, Spit in the Ocean, which he founded in 1974; and worked on completing the films and tapes of the bus trip. He coached wrestling at several local schools and taught a graduate writing seminar at the University of Oregon, in which he collaborated with 13 students on ''Caverns,'' a mystery published in 1990 under the pen name O. U. Levon. He practiced his lifelong hobby of magic, developing a trick in which he made a rabbit disappear. He occasionally visited the original Prankster bus, which he kept hidden in the woods on his farm.
As for drugs, Mr. Kesey's relationship with them was revealed in an interview last April in The Times Union of Albany. Two weeks earlier, he told the interviewer, Doug Blackburn, he and a few close friends had gone on their annual Easter Sunday hike up Mount Pisgah, near his home. For the first time in more than three decades, he had decided to skip LSD for the event. Having recently taken medication for both diabetes and hepatitis C, he said that an additional substance was unnecessary.
''I felt like I was high enough just walking up the hill with nothing but adrenaline,'' he said. ''Besides, I figured I ought to try making the hike at least once without psychedelics. The past few years that's been the about the only time I've taken acid, and even then not much. Just enough to make the leaves dapple.''
He is survived by his wife; his mother; his brother, Joe, known as Chuck; his two daughters, Shannon and Sunshine; a son, Zane (his other son, Jed, died in a car accident in 1984); and three grandchildren.
A version of this obituary; biography appears in print on November 11, 2001, on Page A1 of the National edition with the headline: Ken Kesey, Author of 'Cuckoo's Nest,' Who Defined the Psychedelic Era, Dies at 66. Order Reprints| Today's Paper|Subscribe


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How to delete files completely
Eraser (Windows)
Are you interested in understeing how to completely delete your files and are you using a computer running Windows? Then you can rely on Eraser. This is a free software that once installed adds a special item to the Trash menu through which you can perform the definitive and therefore safe deletion of the files it contains. It also offers some advanced settings through which you can program the execution of the operation in question.
To use it, first of all download it by connecting to the program's website, by clicking on the menu Download at the top right and then on the first link you find in the column Build Name to the left.
When the download is complete, open the executable file you just obtained, click on Yes / Run e install Eraser on your computer by clicking Next, by checking the box relating to the terms of use of the software and clicking again on Next. Then click on Typical, Then install and to conclude press on Finish.
From now on, to safely empty the Recycle Bin and not make it possible to recover deleted data, just right-click on it, choose Eraser from the menu that appears, select Clear and confirm the execution of the operation by clicking on the button Yes in the window that appears on the screen. And voila!
In addition to the way I just indicated, you can permanently delete your files without first moving them to the Trash. To do this, right click on the file you want to delete and choose Earser from the menu that appears, then Clear and then click on Yes to confirm what your intentions are.
If, on the other he, you don't want to manually perform the operation of safe file deletion every time, you can program the execution of the thing automatically by opening the program through its icon that has been added to the desktop and Start menuby clicking on arrow pointing down next to the item Erase Schedule that you find at the top of the window that has opened and choosing New Task from the menu that appears. Then use the attached commes in the further window displayed to define everything.
If you are interested in this, I also point out that you can also customize the settings relating to file deletion and software operation as needed from the program window.
Freeraser (Windows)
Didn't the program to completely delete files that I mentioned earlier convince you in a particular way and are you looking for an alternative resource? Then try taking a look at Freeraser and you will see that you will not regret it. It is a free software, always for Windows that allows you to delete files from the system without leaving traces. It does not integrate directly with the system recycle bin but allows you to take advantage of an alternative one.
You ask me how to use it? I'll explain it to you immediately. To begin with, connected to the download page of the program, then click on the item Download Freeraser now! which is to the right. When the download is complete, open the executable file obtained, click on Next three times in a row, then up install and subsequently on Finish to complete the software installation.
At this point, you will see a large icon with a basket transparently on the desktop. Right-click on it e, from the menu that appears, choose the item Systemwhy are you cheating?. Now, right click on the icon again and select Choose the file to be shredded ... from the menu then select the files you want to permanently delete and click on the item Continue in the comic that appeared on Freeraser's trash icon. Done!
If you want, you can also use the program from the Windows notification area by right-clicking on the icon of the same that was added there and proceeding in a similar way to what we saw together earlier.
If you then want to customize the operation of the program, right click on its icon (the one on the desktop or the one in the notification area, it makes no difference) and choose Appearance, to access options for customizing the icon, or System, to adjust the other settings relating to the program operation and the file deletion mode.
Moo0 FileShredder (Windows)
An other useful tool to scopo that I invite you to prove è Moo0 FileShredder. It is always for Windows operating systems, it is free, it has a very simple user interface, it is also and allows you to permanently delete files through four levels of deletion. In short, try it now and I'm sure you won't regret it.
To use it, first connect to the program's website and then download it to your computer by clicking on the button Download which is at the bottom and pressing the button Download Now on the new page displayed. Then start the executable file obtained and in the window that appears remove the ticks related to the installation of additional programs and then click on the button Next>. Accept the conditions of use of the software and click again on Next> three times, then press on Install ed infine your Close.
Once the small Moo0 FileShredder window is displayed on the desktop, drag over it the files you want to completely delete, in correspondence with the section Release areaclick on your Si. Here it is!
If you need, you can also set the effectiveness level of the program (i.e. the method by which the latter must permanently delete the data), using the drop-down menu located next to the item Method:, in the main window of Moo0 FileShredder. To get a description of the various methods agolable click on the button Detailed Description>>.
Simple! File Shredder (Mac)
Are you using a Mac and looking for a resource that allows you to delete files completely? Then you must first know that the function is active by default on the most recent versions of macOS FileVault, which encrypts the contents of the disk e, therefore, makes the secure deletion of data superfluous, as even if recovered, the deleted data would be encrypted and therefore illegible.
To verify that FileVault is activated on your Mac, go to System preference and click on Security and Privacy: from here, select the card FileVault e, if necessary, activate the function (you may have to unlock the changes by clicking on the lock icon located at the bottom left and entering the Mac administration password).
If, despite FileVault, you want to delete files safely, I can't help but suggest you try Simple! File Shredder. It is a small application at no cost that goes to delete files in an irrecoverable way by overwriting the data several times. It is very simple to use and allows you to act on the Recycle Bin and on individual files (or groups of them) located in other locations on macOS. You can download it directly from the Mac App Store.
When installation is complete, start the program, drag the files you want to delete in its window and press the button Shred, to delete them safely. Easier than that?
App to delete files completely
As anticipated at the beginning, deleting files completely is an operation that can also be done from smartphones and tablets, without having to connect the devices to the computer but using some applications designed precisely for the purpose in question. Their operation is good or bad similar to that of the programs I told you about in the previous lines, thus making deleted files on mobile devices practically irrecoverable.
If this interests you, below you will therefore find listed those that in my humble opinion represent some of the best apps belonging to the category in question. Take a look at it now and download the one you think will do the most for you. However, I would like to clarify that these are resources only for Android. As far as the other mobile platforms are concerned, in fact, at the moment there are no such resources agolable.
Secure Delete - Free and easy-to-use app that allows you to permanently remove files in the device's internal memory or those on the SD card. It does not require special permissions or root to be used. Free.
Secure Wipe - Another app belonged to the category in question which acts by deleting all the free space (the one where the remains of the deleted files are located and therefore the "place" where they can be recovered) on the device. It does not require root to function. Free.
iShredder - Valid app to delete completing files that acts by overwriting with military-level security algorithms. It is also possible to set the execution of several steps as desired. It is free to download but offers in-app purchases.
Shreddit – Data Eraser - From the name it is quite easy to underste: it is another useful application to delete data in a definitive way on Android. It works on both internal and external memory but, keep this in mind, it doesn't work in the background. It is free to download.
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Home Travel Australia Dreamworld theme park, Queensland Australia
Dreamworld theme park, Queensland Australia
Dreamworld is one of my favourite theme parks in Australia, namely for the sheer park size and the number of rides they have at the park. The 85 hectare park located beside the Pacific Motorway in Coomera is largely accessible using direct public buses from Surfer's Paradise. The park was founded by businessman John Longhurst in 1981 and has 28 rides in total, comprising of 5 Roller coasters and 2 Water rides.
The park brands itself as the premiere and biggest theme park in the region, and is segmented into seven main themed sections, namely the Ocean Parade, DreamWorks Experience, Wiggles World, Gold Rush Country, Rocky Hollow and zoo-themed animal areas such as Tiger Island and the Dreamworld Corroboree.
Park Entrance
Dreamworld Express
Opened in 1981, Dreamworld is the biggest theme park in the Australian Gold Coast. It was said that John Longhurst hired previous Disneyland and Walt Disney World engineers who worked on the US theme park to design the park. You can see traces of Disney land style theming with an assortment of "conventional" themed sectors in the park, namely a staple Main street sector with stores, a Wild-west section called the Gold Rush Country and an animal zoo area.
There are 9 biggest rides in the park, comprising of a combination of roller coasters and flat rides which make sup what Dreamworld calls the Big 9 thrill rides. If you feel like it, you can buy an assortment of achievement medals or T-shirts on your completion of riding the "Big 9".
Greeting you right at the front of the park is the main street, comprising mostly of shops and the park's central fountain as well as entrance to the Park's looping transport train (the Dreamworld Express) built by C&S.
Dreamworks experience
Pandamonium
Escape from Madagascar
The Dreamworks experience is the newest addition to the park, comprising of an assortment of flat rides and a game arcade. Notable rides here will include the "Escape from Madagascar" a suspended family roller coaster "Pandamonium" a Zamperla Air Race as well as bumper cars. Next to the Dreamworld section is the classic Ocean Parade.
Zamperla Air Race
The Claw
Traditional staples here includes the classic Vekoma Waikiki Wave Super Flip (Wipeout) and Intamin Gyro Swing called and themed to "The Claw", the gyro swing is probably one of the few exciting rides here towering over most of the rides in this sector.
There is also Gingy's Glider Kite flyer and Shockwave (Zamperla Disk'O Coaster). The Kite flyer is a ride for all ages, where you can control the ride intensity based on how you rock your plane by controlling and oscillating the pitch of your wings.
Gingy's Glider Kite flyer
Cyclone roller coaster
Cyclone queue areas
Roller coasters are always the highlight of any theme park, the Cyclone roller coaster here was installed in 2001 to replace the ageing dual-looping Thunderbolt coaster erected in March 1982 as the park's first roller coaster. This new yellow Arrow Dynamics Steel coaster peaks at 85km/hr with two inversions running through the Whitewater park. Go for a ride on the coaster!
Front seat video of the Cyclone roller coaster
The steel sit down coaster currently set and accessible via the Motorsport Experience sector in the south east part of the park. The coaster is built running through the park's water park, at times even running outside of the Dreamworld park, with most of it's track encroaching into the water park compound, circling and crossing several of the water park tube slides.
Cyclone Train
Whitewater park
Florider
This "newer" roller coaster is starting to show its age too, and the ride area leading up and down the ride is rather derelict in comparison now. Good thing it goes with the ride theming! Dreamworld has now also has expanded their waterpark previously located at the North (bottom left) of the park where the big brother studio is to a new independently dedicated water park located south of the park called Whitewater park.
The water park itself is about a quarter of the total park size but is much smaller than their other competing waterpark in the region (Wet and wild), but has some pretty cool theming to go with the rather fun atmosphere.
The animals of Dreamworld
Dreamworld is notably one of the few themeparks with an extensive wildlife section. Corroboree is a collection of wildlife attractions at the Australian wildlife.
Corroboree
Kanagaroos
It is home to a variety of Australian animals notably dingos, kangaroos and the trademark Koalas alike, where you can get up-close to the animals. The place teaches of the native Australian aboriginal culture as well as the wildlife in the region.
Dingos
Emus
In addition to Dreamworld Corroboree, the Koala Country and here opened In 1987 and offers visitors an Indigenous tourist experience comprising of the Dreamworld Woolshed (an Australian Sheep Shearing Show) and also features presentations based on the Aboriginal culture, including demonstrations of traditional music, making fire, and cultural weapons.
Intamin Giant Drop
Tower of Terror II
Moto coaster
Other cool coasters in Dreamworld will include a new Intamin Moto coaster (Mick Doohan's Moto coaster) and the Intamin Tower of Terror II Shuttle Roller coaster which is shared with the Giant Drop tower ride. I particularly like how Dreamworld kept the greenery around the rides, which unlike most theme park with big open concrete areas.
The forest greenery in the park does make the park a lot more conducive to be in, not to mention more cooling and shady to be in and adding to the theming too. One such ride benefiting from the greenery will be the Rocky Hollow Log Ride in the Gold Rush area- a Log flume designed by Dreamworld themselves through reverse engineering of other log flume rides of its time.
Rocky Hollow Log Ride
Wild west gold rush area
Many of the rides are starting to show their age, especially in the Wild West area. The western Gold rush area is pretty much sitting derelict as a dead town, with most of the rides built in the 1980 going out of commission now and left in state of neglect. Maybe the gold rush is now over?
This section was definitely one of the quieter areas of the park now with most people only passing through the area. The Skylink chairlift which opened in 1989 previously connects this area to Corroboree over the park's main lake now sits defunct with only its support structures of the ride remaining.
Now a lone pathway leads you direct to Corroboree. Even the Eureka Mountain Mine Ride (built in 1980s) was not operating, and Intamin Thunder River Rapids Ride is now all drained out and bare. What's only left keeping the trills in this area is the Buzz Saw Steel roller coaster, a looping Maurer Söhne shuttle coaster as part of a recent acquisition.
Dreamworld always has a place in my heart as one of the first few theme parks of Australia. It is just a pity to see the place in such a sad state now. The park is definitely a lot much quieter than Movie world, possibly for the reason that most of the rides are in-due for replacement. I am really looking forward to a refresh of the rides, only then will we see guests coming back for more.
Check out more Dreamworld photos here.
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Robert A. Swanson (1947—1999) foi um capitalista de risco estadunidense que co-fundou a empresa de biotecnologia Genentech em 1976, ao lado de Herbert Boyer. A Genentech é pioneira neste campo, e permanece ainda hoje como uma das empresas líderes em biotecnologia no mundo.

Histórico
Graduou-se em Química pelo MIT e possuía um MBA da MIT Sloan School of Management. Ambos os títulos lhe foram conferidos em 1970.

Swanson é considerado uma figura-chave no lançamento da revolução biotecnológica. Os autores do livro 1,000 Years, 1,000 People: Ranking the Men and Women Who Shaped the Millennium o relacionam na posição 612.

Em 6 de Dezembro de 1999, ele faleceu de cancro no cérebro, aos 52 anos de idade.

Ligações externas
Robert Swanson

Empreendedores dos Estados Unidos

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