IC Smith and Nigel West to Co-Write Historical Dictionary Of Chinese Intelligence
Two noted Raleigh Spy Conference authors have been commissioned by The Scarecrow Press of Lanham, MD, to publish a new title on Chinese Intelligence in the publishing firm’s series on Intelligence and Counterintelligence Studies.
IC Smith, a former senior FBI counterintelligence expert and intelligence historian, will join with British intelligence expert and author Nigel West on the book project.
Scheduled for release in late 2010, the historical dictionary will augment the existing series by Scarecrow Press that has included British, United States, German, World War II, Cold War counterintelligence, Russian and Soviet, Israeli, Air, Naval, Middle East and International intelligence.
The series follows a standard format with a chronology of relevant events, a comprehensive bibliography and individual cross-reference entries that include organizations, personalities and incidents.
According to the authors, Chinese Intelligence poses special problems for Western researchers, causing a dearth of material in the open literature. In recent years, the Ministry of State Security suffered several setbacks, including the defection of a senior official — code-named PLANESMAN — stemming the flow of stolen military and commercial secrets to Beijing.
Go to www.raleighspyconference.com to access talks on Chinese espionage by Smith and to view a video of the keynote address at the 2009 conference by West. And go to www.scarecrowpress.com for more details on the new book addressing Chinese Intelligence.
Ramblers Salute The Old North State
The Old North State is
the muse that inspired the latest CD from the venerable Red Clay
Ramblers, the iconic and eclectic aggregation of down home musical
talent that keeps on keeping on. Clay Buckner, Chris Frank, Rick Good
and Rob Ladd join veteran Ramblers Jack Herrick and Bland Simpson —
with additional vocals by Lynn Davis, Sally Davis and the mellifluous
tones of Don Dixon and guitar by Thomas Couton — salute North Carolina
with songs and tunes, some that reach back into the heart of the
state’s musical heritage.
The selections will keep you jumping, from
old time fiddle music to the classic “Dinah”; from tearful ballads to
“My Baby Loves Kay Kyser” (whose wife, the “gorgeous Georgia Carroll,”
graced the cover of the October 2009 issue of Metro); from soulful
blues to Frankie and Johnny; from a rendition of the State toast to a
celebration of Mule Days in Bensongod, NC.
The CD concludes with the
song “Home,” a tribute to our friend the late Doug Marlette, the
nationally syndicated political cartoonist and novelist who worked with
the Ramblers on the musical stage version of Marlette’s Kudzu comic
strip.
Not since the talking musical North Carolina Is My Home,
Charles Kuralt’s paen to the Old North State, has anyone captured the
special spirituality of this “goodliest land.”
Go to www.redclayramblers.com or to www.metronc.com to order your copy.
— Bernie Reeves
Fantastic Ride
Basketball fans, especially those of Duke, North Carolina, NC State and Wake Forest, welcome another college basketball season. Their longtime Big Four rivalries intensified in the early 1950s when NC State Coach Everett Case brought big-time basketball to the area. Not to be outdone, Duke hired Case’s protégé Vic Bubas, Carolina imported Frank McGuire from New York City and Wake Forest (then in the Town of Wake Forest near Raleigh) enjoyed the colorful Bones McKinney. Those great coaches have been succeeded by other great coaches, and basketball has continued to dominate sports in the region with the intensity of the rivalries. For example, right here in the Triangle, Duke, Carolina and State each have won multiple national championships.
The story of the most recent national title is told in One Fantastic Ride: The Inside Story of Carolina Basketball’s 2009 Championship Season. Co-authors Adam Lucas, Steve Kirschner and Matt Bowers earlier co-authored Led by Their Dreams: The Inside Story of Carolina’s Journey to the 2005 National Championship. With their connections to Carolina athletics, the authors truly write from the inside. In addition to insights on games and anecdotes about the Carolina rivalries with Duke and State, One Fantastic Ride provides personality portraits of the players.
UNC Coach Roy Williams contributed a forward to the book, and the title comes from the tribute by Williams to his players for taking him “on one fantastic ride.”
For Carolina fans, the book is also a fantastic ride, enhanced by excellent color photographs of the championship players in action.
— Arch T. Allen
Gripping Memoir Of The Cataclysm Of War
In God’s Hands, a book written from the memoirs of Ellen von zur Muehlen — by her daughter Gisela Ives of Durham — chronicles the dramatic dislocation of Europe beginning with World War I in 1914. People from dozens of national and ethnic origins were literally flung across the continent by the tectonics of war and politics, most notably the upheaval of the Bolshevik revolution in Russia in 1917. The unstable economic and political chaos of the post-war period was followed by the cataclysm of World II and the immediate onslaught of the Cold War between the USSR and the West that lasted until the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1992. Ellen died in 1985 and missed the end of the story.
Her personal view of the human travails of this tumultuous and historically important era, observed through the eyes of a German noblewoman in the Baltic States, transports the reader through the period in a gripping memoir. Her account brings a confusing but relevant time in focus and serves as an unintentional travelogue, as well as a dramatic story set in tragic circumstances beyond anyone’s control.
Her life as a child growing up on a baronial estate in Livonia (the former name of the region now divided between the nations of Estonia and Latvia) evokes the lifestyle from another world that soon would end, casting Ellen and her family into the crucible of savage conflict. Her family was dislocated and separated several times. Her husband, a Tsarist Army officer, fought against the Bolsheviks in the Landswehr, a Germany-based army consisting mainly of noblemen fighting a lost cause. Ultimately, he was executed by the Soviets, as were several other members of her family. Ellen moved across the burning landscape, often in great danger under severe circumstances across frozen lakes and roads littered with dead and dying soldiers — even enduring the Allied bombing of Berlin at the end of the war.
Ellen’s daughter Gisela offers her personal memories interspersed in the book from World War II onward, including attending Hitler youth camps, suffering near starvation and finally reaching freedom in England with her mother. Later Gisela met and married George Ives of New Bern, NC, who was stationed in the UK with the US diplomatic corps. George worked with Gisela, helping to organize and translate Ellen’s notes to bring this important, informative and instructive memoir to the reading public. Ellen and Gisela’s story of human courage and faith reminds us of the lurking danger always present in the machinations of people and nations — serving as a reminder of the horrific events unleashed by National Socialism and communism.
In God’s Hands is available from Amazon and Barnes & Noble book stores, or by e-mailing givesjr@nc.rr.com, calling 919-489-5192 or writing to 53 Glenmore Dr., Durham, NC 27707.
— Bernie Reeves
CAM Names Jay Gates Interim Director
Jay Gates, director emeritus of The Phillips Collection in Washington DC — and formerly the director of the Dallas Museum of Art and the Seattle Art Museum — has been named interim director of the Contemporary Art Museum (CAM), a component of NC State University’s Art + Design in the Community Initiative. NCSU College of Design Dean Marvin J. Malecha announced the appointment, citing the experience Gates brings to the effort to establish a permanent home for CAM in downtown Raleigh’s Warehouse District on West Martin Street.
While serving as director at the Seattle Art Museum, Gates oversaw a $35 million fundraising drive to complete a new museum designed by Robert Venturi. At The Phillips Collection, Gates focused on a $30 million building project completed in 2007. Gates plans to create a strategic plan for CAM, establish partnerships in the community and work closely with the Contemporary Art Foundation to secure remaining capital funds needed for the building campaign.
CAM has plans to establish a presence for contemporary art and design, including a focus on technology-infused exhibitions and programming, K-12 educational outreach programs and continuing the museum’s Design Camp for middle and high school students. For more information, contact Sherry_oneal@ncsu.edu.
Woman’s Club Antiques Show Set For Three-Day Run
The Woman’s Club of Raleigh 2009 Fall Antiques Show & Sale opens Friday, Nov. 20, and runs through Sunday, Nov. 22, in the Kerr Scott Building at the NC State Fairgrounds in Raleigh. Hours are 10 a.m.-6 p.m. on Friday, 10 a.m.-5 p.m. on Saturday, and 11 a.m.-5 p.m. on Sunday. Admission is $7 per person and is good for all three days. Free parking is available at the Fairgrounds.
Antique dealers from Maine to Florida will be showcasing period furniture, fine and estate jewelry, silver, crystal, glass, botanical prints, English porcelain, American folk art and other items for sale.
On Friday, Nov. 20, at 2 p.m., Sheila Lund, a member of The Woman’s Club of Raleigh, will deliver a complimentary lecture on “The Story of Tea & Porcelain.” A crystal repair service will be available all three days of the Show.
Tickets are available from The Woman’s Club of Raleigh, Club members or by calling 919-782-5599. During the event, tickets will be available at the Kerr Scott Building box office located at the NC State Fairgrounds. More information is available online at www.womansclubofraleigh.org.
Proceeds from the Antiques Show & Sale will be used to support community services and philanthropic projects of The Woman’s Club of Raleigh.
UNC-TV Adds New Channel
On Nov. 1, UNC-TV launched UNC-EX, The Explorer Channel, featuring travel, culture, science, nature, history and outdoor adventure programming. UNC-EX will be available free of charge to over-the-air viewers who receive service using an antenna and via a digital cable subscription from local cable providers in North Carolina and parts of Virginia and South Carolina.
Programs include travel programming hosted by Rick Steves, Rudy Maxa and Burt Wolf; cooking programs such as New Scandinavian Cooking and Lidia’s Italy; adventure programs such as Globe Trekker and Passport to Adventure; science programs including NOVA, NATURE, and Secrets of the Dead; and UNC-TV original productions, special documentaries and related programming.
The Explorer Channel is in response to market research performed for PBS revealing that core public television viewers desire to experience places that they may never see — and identify strongly with the Explorer, one of the basic personality archetypes described in the writings of Swiss psychoanalyst Carl Jung. According to Jung’s theory, archetypes are concepts embedded in the human psyche — regardless of culture and history — that reveal basic attitudes about personal identity.
Coinciding with the launch of UNC-EX, the digital cable-only service UNC-ED will change to UNC-MX, signifying a mix of programming for adults separate from UNC-KD for children.
New Wake Tech Building Goes Green
“Building D,” the newest building in the Northern Wake Campus of Wake Tech Community College, and the third classroom building to be constructed on the 121-acre site, is the first in the nation to be completely LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certified by the US Green Building Council, according to school officials.
At just under 75,000 square feet, the building features 29 classrooms, including nine computer labs, two physics labs, two fine arts classrooms, a drama room and a distance learning classroom — as well as a coffee shop for students, staff and faculty.
Its sustainable features include “daylight harvesting,” which automatically adjusts
inside lighting according to available outside light, a white roof to reflect sunlight, and sun-blocking louvers on the south side.
Russian Art Gallery Celebrates
The Russian Art Gallery in Cary is celebrating five years of operations during November with a drawing for three original oil paintings — by Valeria Emets, Igor Shuliev and Mikhail Brovkin — Nov. 20 at 7 p.m. The gallery specializes in original Russian art. Go to www.russianart.us.com for more information or call 919-468-1800.