Chevalier de Saint-Georges

CHEVALIER | Official Trailer | Searchlight Pictures
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I haven't seen this movie, but the review in Variety piqued my interest:

Though his life and accomplishments were largely erased under Napoleon, the extraordinary figure at the center of Stephen Williams’ “Chevalier” really did exist. Born on the Caribbean island of Guadeloupe, the son of a white plantation owner and his Black slave, Joseph Bologne went on to excel in spheres rarely accessible to people of color in 18th-century French society. Here was a champion swordsman and celebrated musician invited to play his violin at Versailles, where Marie Antoinette reportedly accompanied him on the harpsichord. 

. . .

In a shameful reversal of Enlightenment progress, three years after Bologne’s death, Napoleon reinstated slavery, and his work was banned.

. . .

Under the Code Noir, French society can never fully accept Bologne as one of its own, 

Wikipedia:

The Code noir was a decree passed by King Louis XIV of France in 1685 defining the conditions of slavery in the French colonial empire. 

War Sailer - Netflix Series

WAR SAILOR Trailer | TIFF 2022
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A couple friends in Bergen, Norway, get jobs on a cargo ship just in time for WW2 to break out, so their 18 month voyage turns into five years. One guy has a wife and three kids, the other is a bachelor. Basically, life during wartime. Isn't that a Talking Heads song? Anyway, it's a pretty good show.

P. S. The Germans built a submarine pen in Bergen which led to trouble that shows up in the show.

Submarine Pen in Bergen Today

From BattlefieldsWW2.com:

When the Germans conquered Norway in 1940, it gave them a golden opportunity to move their U-Boats closer to the front. Construction of a U-Boat bunker in Bergen started in 1941. The bunker had 3 dry boat pens, 3 wet ones, and one that was used for storage.

It was the Kriegsmarines’ 11th U-Boat Flotilla, transferred from Germany, who made its new headquarters in Bergen.

After the Allied landings in France in June 1944, there was a massive expansion of the U-boat base in Bergen. This led to a massive English air raid in October 1944, involving over 150 aircraft. The attack ended in a disaster when 193 Norwegians, among them 61 children at a nearby school, were killed. The bunker took several hits, but remained intact. Only two U-Boats were damaged.  Later the same month ended another attack without success when the 244 aircraft could not find the target due to heavy clouds. A few planes dropped their bombs, but did not hit the bunker.

The third and last air raid took place in January 1945, when 33 bombers loaded with "Tallboy" bombs attacked the base. The bunker took 3 direct hits. One of the bombs penetrated through the roof, damaged two U-Boats and killed 20 Germans.

As with the other German naval bases, the base in Bergen was named using the German phonetic alphabet. As it was located in Bergen, and ”Bruno” is phonetic for"B," it thus became Bruno.

The bunker is used today by the Norwegian Navy for the repair of submarines as well as storage.

From Wikipedia:

A large part of the work to build the bunker was carried out by around 2,000 prisoners of war from the Soviet Union and Poland. The bunker's roof consists of five-metre-thick reinforced concrete, where an entire year's Norwegian production of cement was used for the construction.

. . .

The future of the submarine bunker is uncertain, as the Norwegian Navy's new submarines are too large for the docks in Bruno and will receive new service facilities at Haakonsvern .

P. P. S. Bombing of the school reminds me of another such incident during WW2 in Copenhagen.

 

San Cristobal Mine & Carbon Dioxide

Lake near San Cristobal Mine in Bolivia

The screen saver showed a portion of this lake. At least I think it's a lake. We might be looking at ice, we are up around 12,000 feet elevation. It was odd enough to get my attention. Looking at Google Maps I find it is near the San Cristobal Mine. Reading about the mine I come across this odd bit of information.

Silver was discovered at the Hedionda mine over three centuries ago. Repeated attempts to mine the silver ended in failure because of the presence of carbon dioxide gas which caused the death of many miners. The gas continues to issue from the wallrocks of the mine at the present time.

The Hedionda mine was rediscovered in 1896 by the Polish engineer J. Jackowski, who operated the mine from 1896 to 1901 and from 1927 to 1936, after having found a remedy for the carbon dioxide problem. This remedy was simply the excavation of a canal in the floor of the mine workings which allowed the gas to flow out of the mine like water. In addition, mining was confined to work above the adits.

Excerpted from page 3 of a USGS PDF.

 

Tried and True Redux

Details emerge of blast that killed Russian blogger:

War reporter Vladlen Tatarsky may have been killed by an improvised explosive device disguised as a statuette, Kirill Makarov, the youth policy minister of the Donetsk People’s Republic, told Russian media on Sunday. Tatarksy died on Sunday in an explosion while hosting a live event for his supporters at a St. Petersburg café.

According to several Russian media outlets, a young woman presented a figurine to the war correspondent and blogger during the event. Her identity is unknown so far. The police have not commented on this version of events but have confirmed that Tatarsky was killed in the blast, which also left 30 people injured.

Earlier, a source within the emergency services told TASS that an improvised explosive device was detonated near the stage in the café. 

Russia’s REN TV reported, citing a witness, that the statuette blew up as Tatarsky was holding it.

Previous Tried and True

The Foreign Correspondent by Alan Furst

French Postcard Dewoitine D.338 Airliner

On page 175, our correspondent Carlo Weisz flies from Paris to Berlin on a Dewoitine D.338 airliner:

"On his lap, an open copy of Dekobra's La Madone des Sleepings - the Madonna of the Sleeping Cars - a 1920s French spy thriller, wildly popular in its day, which Weisz had brought along for the trip."

Goodreads has heard of the book:

One of the biggest bestsellers of all time, and one of the first and most influential spy novels of the twentieth century, is back in print for the first time since 1948

Alan Furst fans will note that train passengers in his bestselling thrillers are often observed reading The Madonna of the Sleeping Cars. It’s a smart detail: First published in 1927, the book was one of the twentieth century’s first massive bestsellers, selling over 15 million copies worldwide. 

It was made into a movie twice, a silent version in 1928 and a talkie in 1955.

On the return flight (on page 187), Alfred Millman, The New York Times correspondent, quotes Karl Kraus:

"How is the world ruled and how do wars start? Diplomats tell lies to journalists and then believe what they read."

Alfred and Carlo were in Berlin to report on Germany and Italy signing The Pact of Steel. Did you know that Benito Mussolini wrote a novel? I didn't. It's The Cardinal's Mistress.

 

Lagos, Not Lagos

Lagos

Lagos, Nigeria*

In the last episode of Sky High: The Series, our gang flies to Lagos, Nigeria for a meeting with a bunch of other gangsters. It opens with the above shot of the Third Mainland Bridge across Lagos Lagoon. It's kind of a weird bridge, it follows the shore line due north from Lagos Island, the essential center of the city and the government.

Third Mainland Bridge, Lagos, Nigeria

We also get some street scenes that look like you might expect Lagos to look. Here our gang has bailed out of a tuk-tuk and are hustling to the airport terminal. That building in the background looks very distinctive, and it is:

Nawair-ru-deen Central Mosque, Lagos, Nigeria*

It was a little hard to track down because there are at least three mosques with that name in Lagos, and Google Maps doesn't know where all of them are. Even given the address, it isn't sure. The Streetview hasn't recorded the street it's on, but I was able to get a couple of shots from nearby streets:

Nawair-ru-deen Central Mosque, Lagos, Nigeria

Nawair-ru-deen Central Mosque, Lagos, Nigeria

Not Lagos

Then there's the hotel. It seems plausible that it's in Lagos. The performance by the 'native dancers' was a little over the top. I dunno, maybe that's what fancy hotels in Africa do.

Hotel*

I was able to pick out the name of the hotel from a couple of scenes: NAU Hotels & Resorts. They are in  Algarve, the southernmost province of Portugal. Problem is there are several of them, however with a little pointing and clicking I was able to find it:

NAU Hotels & Resorts Algarve Portugal

The meeting with all the other gangsters takes place in this fancy building:

Fancy Meeting Place on Breakwater*

Looking at Google Maps I couldn't find any sign of a building on a breakwater. Breakwaters do tend to stand out. An inquiry on reddit turned up the answer.

Building of control CCS of the outer harbour of Ferrol, Spain

Ferrol is on the northwestern corner of Spain.

When our gang finally makes their getaway, they board a Pilatus PC-12 Turboprop.

Pilatus PC-12 Turboprop*

You can't see the registration number here, but is does show up for a second, so now we have it.

Pilatus PC-12 NGX

From FlightAware, this plane operates mostly in eastern Europe. Then I got to wondering - could it even fly all the way from Madrid to Lagos? Not quite. It's 2,400 miles and the PC-12 only has a range of about 2,100 miles. Stopping in Morocco for fuel would knock 400 miles off the trip, so Morocco to Lagos would only be 2,000 miles, which would be doable.  The PC-12 cruises at 325 MPH so it would take about eight hours. There is no restroom, so you might want to make a couple of pit stops. Me, I wouldn't survive.

* images are screen shots from Netflix. Looking over this post I noticed all the screenshots have a yellow tint. I wondered if maybe that was Google's doing, but no, that's just the way the show looks, though I didn't notice it while we were watching it.

La Sagrada Familia Temple

Ceiling Columns La Sagrada Familia Temple

La Sagrada Familia Temple (the holy family temple) is the elaborate Catholic cathedral in Barcelona Spain. Designed by Antoni Gaudi, construction was started in 1882 and is still ongoing.