Alastair Sooke

Alastair Sooke is an art critic and broadcaster, most notably, reporting and commenting on art for British media, and writing and presenting documentaries on art and art history for BBC television and radio. His BBC documentaries include Modern Masters for BBC One, and two three-part series, the Treasures of Ancient Rome and the Treasures of Ancient Greece for BBC Four.. He is also a deputy art critic at the The Daily Telegraph, writing regularly on art and art history, including on the Turner prize and contemporary art. He is a regular reporter on The Culture Show.

Education

Sooke was educated at Westminster School, a boarding independent school in the Westminster area of Central London, where he was a Queen's Scholar, followed by a Westminster Scholarship to Christ Church at the University of Oxford, where he read English language and literature and won the university’s Charles Oldham Shakespeare Prize. After graduating with a First, he studied for an M.A. at the Courtauld Institute of Art in London, specialising in ancient Greek and Roman art.

Sooke

Sooke /suːk/ is a district municipality situated on the southern tip of Vancouver Island, Canada. About a 30 minute drive from the city of Victoria (the capital of British Columbia), Sooke is considered the westernmost of the Greater Victoria region's "Western Communities." It is situated to the north and west of the Sooke Basin.

Education

Sooke is a part of the School District 62 Sooke. There is one high school, Edward Milne Community School, and one junior high school, Journey Middle School. Continuing adult education programs are offered by the Edward Milne Community School (EMCS) Society, which also operates with day, evening and weekend programs.

Tourism and recreation

Sooke's popularity as a scenic tourist destination has existed for generations. Well-known destinations in Sooke, such as Whiffin Spit Park, the Sooke Potholes Regional Park, and adjacent Sooke Potholes Provincial Park attract visitors both locally and from around the world. Sooke is also home to the Sooke Region Museum and Visitor Centre; where visitors and locals are able to get information on regional attractions and history. The area's popularity has increased as a base for visiting the wilderness parks of Vancouver Island's southwest coast — the West Coast Trail and the Juan de Fuca Provincial Park which includes the now highly popular Juan de Fuca Marine Trail. Sooke, BC is also famous for it's beaches just on the outskirts of it's neighboring communities such as Shirley and Jordan River. These beaches include Sandcut, French beach, Fishboat bay, China beach, Mystic beach, and more.

T'Sou-ke Nation

The T'sou-ke Nation of the Coast Salish peoples, is a band government whose reserve community is located on Vancouver Island, in the province of British Columbia, Canada. In February 2013, the T'sou-ke Nation had 251 registered members, with two reserves around the Sooke Basin on the Strait of Juan de Fuca at the southern end of Vancouver Island, with a total area of 67 hectares (165 acres). The T'Souk-e people are the namesake of the town of Sooke, British Columbia and its surrounding harbour and basin.

Etymology

The name "T'Sou-ke" is derived from the Sook tribe of Straits Salishans. Their name was derived from the SENĆOŦEN language word T'Sou-ke, the name of the species of Stickleback fish that live in the estuary of the river. The T'Sou-ke came into contact with Europeans through the Hudson's Bay Company. The anglicized version of the SENĆOŦEN word was first Soke (pronounced "soak") and then Sooke. The name of T'Sou-ke Nation's neighbouring town, river and basin and the main road, are based on the anglicized name, Sooke.

Alistair

Alistair (also Alasdair and variants) is a male given name. Alasdair is the Scottish Gaelic spelling of the name, in origin the Gaelic form of the name Alexander (Greek Αλέξανδρος Aléxandros). Also common is the anglicised spelling Alistair.

Originally a Scottish given name, it became widespread throughout the Anglosphere during the 19th and 20th centuries. Previous to that, it was considered exclusively a Scottish name.

The Scottish Clan MacAlister is on record as a branch of Clan Donald from the mid-16th century. Its eponymous founder is traditionally held to be Alasdair Mòr (fl. 1250s), a younger son of Domhnall mac Raghnaill.

Variations

Spelling variants of the name include:

Alasdair, Alasdhair, Alastair, Alastar, Alaster, Alastor, Alaisdair, Alaistair, Alaister, Aleister, Alestair, Alester, Alisdair, Alistair, Alistaire, Alistar, Alister, Allastair, Allaster, Allastir, Allester, Allistair, Allistaire, Allistar, Allister, Allistir, Allysdair, Allystair, Allyster, Alysdair, Alysdare, Alystair, Alyster, Aldair

Alastair (Baron Hans Henning Voigt)

Hans Henning Otto Harry Baron von Voigt (20 October 1887 – 30 October 1969), best known by his nickname Alastair, was a German artist, composer, dancer, mime, poet, singer and translator.

Biography

Mysterious, flamboyant, enigmatic and attractive to many people, Baron Hans Henning Voight was born of German nobility in Karlsruhe. In his youth he joined the circus and learned mime. Shortly after leaving school he studied philosophy at Marburg University where he met the writer Boris Pasternak. He was self-taught as an artist, and he was also was a proficient dancer and pianist.

He died in Munich in 1969.

Art

He is best known as an illustrator, under the nom de plume "Alastair". His career as an artist was launched in 1914, when John Lane published Forty-Three Drawings by Alastair.

His drawings, which are often decadent in spirit and have the look of Art Deco, are influenced somewhat by the drawings of the English artist Aubrey Beardsley, who illustrated works by Oscar Wilde, as Alastair would later do. His ‘serpentine line’ often depicts characters whose outlines are lightly drawn with the main areas filled in with ‘broken dotted lines’. His drawings were in black and white ink, sometimes with one colour added. Alastair's illustrations show a strong influence from the Decadent movement in art and poetry that had begun decades earlier, with the "perverse and sinister" a recurring theme. Intricate decorative elements and fine detail are apparent in his works.

Alastair (Supernatural)

Alastair is a fictional character on The CW Television Network's drama and horror television series Supernatural, appearing in its fourth season. A particularly infamous torturer in Hell, he is portrayed in succession by actors Mark Rolston, Andrew Wheeler, and Christopher Heyerdahl due to his demonic ability to possess human hosts. The writers created the character to explore series protagonist Dean Winchester's experiences while in Hell, particularly Alastair's tutelage of Dean in torturing other souls. The character received generally favorable reviews from critics, with fans at the time considering him one of the series' best villains.

Plot

When Dean Winchester is sent to Hell at the end of the third season, it is the demon Alastair who tortures him, stopping only when he eventually convinces Dean to torture other souls himself. Alastair begins training Dean as one of his apprentices until fourth season premiere "Lazarus Rising", in which Dean is rescued from Hell by the angel Castiel, who requires his assistance in stopping Lilith from breaking the mystical seals on Lucifer's prison.