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Name of vessel : REVE D'ENFANT
Year of manufacture: 2013
Registration number: YE 190281
Registration district: YE Île d'Yeu
Type: caseyeur canoe
Architect : Gendron
Construction site: Gendron Noirmoutier
Year of construction (or commissioning): 1974
Overall length : 7.13 m
Hull length: 7.13 m
Waterline length: 6.50 m
Master beam width: 3.12 m
Draught : 1.30 m
Air draft: 5.10 m
Displacement (in tonnes): 4.37 t
Hull: type of construction, materials: Oak wood shell
Deck and superstructures: description, materials: Pine bridge oak superstructures
Untitled (Hunger 4), 1996, 7" x 7" x 4", tempera on ceramic bowl. Private collection.
This painting is from a series of 21 paintings on the bottom surface of traditional Korean bowls - done for an exhibition I had at Art Space Seoul in Korea in 1997. A couple years ago, as I was writing some thoughts on my work to a colleague, it occurred that I had not explained publicly my thinking about and reason for making this work. This seems pretty important given the problematic territory that this work wanders into. What follows is an excerpt from my correspondence:
Around 1995 the “special needs” school that our daughter Temma had been attending for 6 years – Lakeview Learning Center – was preparing to close. I was working at the school on a large painting (titled Big Picture) of the classroom for “severely and profoundly disabled” children that Temma was part of. While working on this large painting I was given a collection of miscellaneous photographs documenting the students in their daily life at the school. Also around this time I was offered an exhibition with a gallery in South Korea, the country where I grew up (my parents were medical missionaries). I decided to make work for this show based on the photographs that I had been given of students from Lakeview Learning Center as a way of making present a population that was largely invisible / marginalized in Korea at that time. My goal in making these paintings was to select photographs that (for me) most powerfully expressed the humanity of these children. In making the paintings my intent was to try to represent them as best as I could in accordance to how I perceived them via the photographs: that is, as completely and compellingly human. Despite my ambivalence about using other people’s photographs as sources for paintings, these photographs – apparently taken by the staff of the school - offered a kind of “objective” perspective on the children somewhat fitting for my relative distance from them personally. That said, to the extent that these children were part of a community of which my daughter was a part I felt it was appropriate to make paintings based representing them.
This latter point is important in relation to the fundamental intent of this project. While I was attempting to portray the children in all their individuality evident in the photographic sources, I was doing so with the primary goal of presenting them as a community: a community as evidently diverse and complex (in various respects) as any other.
There is a well-known (in Korea) poem by the Korean Catholic “Minjung” writer Kim Chi Ha that has an essentially Eucharistic refrain: “God is rice”. In allusion to that poem I decided to do a series of 21 paintings on Korean rice bowls (a very commonly used kind of bowl). More specifically, as an allusion to the marginalization of this population I made the paintings on the bottom / underside (typically unseen) surface of the bowls. In using the rice bowl I not only wanted to draw a connection to Kim Chi Ha’s poem, but further to the movement of Minjung Art that had grown in vitality at the ending period of Korea’s long dictatorship (the early ‘80s). The Minjung Art movement (which, especially in the person of the artist Im Ok Sang, had been very influential for me) made the empowerment of the poor and the marginalized their priority. My hope was to situate the subject of the work I was making – at that time still a largely marginalized community - in the context of the Minjung political imperative.
In this work I was attempting to represent these children as faithfully as I could. It might be helpful to unpack my thinking “representation” a bit: Painting, particularly realistic / representational painting is frequently thought of / received in relation to the convention of “mastery”. That is, when one makes a realistic painting it might be understood as an artists’ claim of mastery and, implicitly, as their claim to an authority over the subject represented. I do not have any interest in that way of approaching painting. I am interested in painting that is a kind of conversation with the material used to make it (as opposed to painting as about control or domination of the material). No less importantly, I’m interested in painting as a regarding of the subject in humility: an attempt to represent the subject as honestly, accurately and respectfully as possible. Put another way: painting for me is learning how to make this painting in relation to trying to understand and represent this subject.
Taking that word representation a bit further: it is of course a reasonable question to ask whether one has the right to represent (make or take a picture of) another person – particularly someone who is not able to give consent. And it is reasonable to question whether I – even as the parent of a member of that community and trusted by the staff of that community – have the right to represent the students. But no less important is the other side of this question: the right of each person to be represented (both literally, in the sense of being pictured, and - via metaphoric implication - politically). In the case of this particular population and the particular context in which these paintings were being shown my intention was to make and show these representational paintings of these children as a claim to their right (authority) to be represented: Particularly towards the goal of advocating the presence of members of this population as they existed in that country at that time.
Click the following link for an essay on this and other work included in an exhibition at Art Space Seoul in Seoul, South Korea in 1997.
on earth comes water near a vast sea clear and compelling.
momentos que antecedem a noite-
diante da terra vem água perto de um imenso mar claro e instigante.
Arpoador-Ipanema
Todos os direitos reservados, sendo proibida qualquer reprodução ou divulgação das imagens para fins comerciais ou não, em qualquer mídia ou meio de comunicação inclusive na WEB, sem prévia consulta e aprovação, conforme LEI N° 96.610/1998, que rege sobre o Direito Autoral e Direito de Uso da Imagem
Built in the 15th century on the site of an earlier medieval fort, the Gothic Château de la Roche-Jagu was much larger originally. The one main wing left standing has severe good looks. There are few openings of any sort on the side dominating the river, reflecting its defensive role. However, a staggering line of 19 chimneys in a row adds a decorative flourish along the crest of the building. The façade on the other side is much lighter and more charming, with a fair number of windows, plus an eccentric tower perched up high.
The building has undergone major restoration work since the Côtes d’Armor county council took it over and began putting on events here. The grand hall on the ground floor was where functions were traditionally held; exhibitions today focus on themes to do with Côtes d’Armor, for instance the county’s hidden treasures, or its maritime riches. The grounds have been beautifully replanted, and awarded the status of Jardin Remarquable. A wonderful new terrace looks down on the dramatic, densely wooded banks of the Trieux from on high.
Story by my Twin Sister
Pict by me
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
2023 A New Year's Eve Soliloquy
I was asked recently by a friend if I would ever be likely to teach someone what
he/she felt were my skills at pickpocketing.
Extremely flattering as the question was, I had never thought of what we do as a skill. Rather than just role play, or taking advantage of a friend’s condition ( like Pissed drunk, or compellingly overwhelmed emotionally) that makes them vulnerable.
We had a discussion over this with my brother and our group of friends, concluding that since non of us would ever try to do a lift on a stranger for keeps, the topic of this being an actual skill is pretty much mute.
That all being said, if there are professional pickpockets that are adept enough to actively lift jewelry from a victim, then either they are incredibly skilled, or just know how to spot an advantage brewing that would cook up into a victim’s concocting condition as described above.
For a clearer example of a concocting condition, let me relate my own experience this past New Year’s Eve.
As is our habit, my friends and I celebrated New Year's Eve at our local “The Poet & Peasant Pub”.
I was on the decorations committee, so I was there to observe most of the guests coming in.
I was at the top of the stairs leading to the upper rooms, placing a party hat on Erik, the skull of the medieval poet who is the pub’s namesake. The macabrely grinning thing sits high on a ledge of the stairs overlooking the pub and its guests (peasants).
So I had a great vantage point to take an early drink and watch.
A friend(and he knows of whom I speak) had sorta challenged me to make a lift this evening. So it was with a thief’s eye that I tried to look innocent as I watched the partiers coming in.
The pub proper is not large, but it has two larger first-floor rooms, one for dance, the other for dart competitions. Since we usually can expect a crowd of two hundred, all three areas come into play.
The upstairs rooms are old bedrooms used for various pub-related antics.
Now, It’s not supposed to be a dressy affair at this party, but the guests, regulars, and visitors make it one.
The gents in suits, and tuxes, the lady’s getting a second chance to show off by wearing an old gown or dress they’ve only worn once.
Rhinestones and pearls are the majority of jewels worn with splashy brilliance.
This year was no exception.
Once it was in full swing one would have thought it was an after-party at a actors' awards show.
Use that thought to picture in your mind a quick visual without me going into boring paragraphs of detail.
But for a brief idea, I’ll describe what my clique was wearing…
Which, since it was one(or more)of us girls that became a victim that evening, it appears appropriate to do so.
So, In my role-play thief's mind I observed:
First off, myself.
I had on a smart ocean blue coloured satin dress with a below-knee length skirt and a slick solid top with a mock turtleneck collar. The sleeves flared out just below my elbows. I was wearing my gold necklace set with diamond Sapphire rhinestones with matching long earrings. Also being worn was my rhinestone cuff bracelet. The same one my brother once nicked from me at the very pub we were now partying at.
I also added two of my real cocktail rings to complete the glittery effect.
As far as the type of mark I’d be for a thief? Well if being a twit came in degrees, and I was in my monthly period, I would be certified as a solid brown belt. If I was wearing real jewels, thieves would be able to have a field day lifting the bloody things, as did actually happen to me in a very similar situation as this evening. But it was not done by a real thief, just by an opportunist who took advantage of a victim who had been having herself a pisser.
But then, this is not that story.
My friend Byrne was wearing an old-fashioned black tux, black vest, black shirt, and blue bow tie, topped off by a black bowler. He had to work late at the Dyfed station that day and said he was wearing the suit he had on. So it was a pleasant surprise to see him dressed up, and I let him know it in no uncertain terms.
My brother was dapper in his tawny-colored herringbone vest suit, brown silk shirt, and gold satin necktie. A gold satin handkerchief stuck jauntily out from a vest pocket.
Ginny had again poured her lithe figure into the sleek satin Japanese-style Qipao sheath dress she had bought to wear in a play she acted in last spring. It was midnight black with a brite lime green inner lining and tight lime green Lycra pants. The only decoration on the elegant dress was a glittery silver rhinestone Dragon, with green slanted eyes and a red fiery tongue. It was embroidered crawling up one side of the dress, reaching around up towards her bosom.
Ginny was wearing a bib-style necklace of rhinestone emeralds with matching earrings.
The necklace she usually wore was still in a police evidence locker at Dyfed ( see my tea party story).
Her hair was held up on one side by a glittery clip. She wore no gloves, so her diamond rhinestone cuff bracelet lay on bare skin, as were the 3 cocktail rings she was wearing.
Ginny would be a tougher nut for thieves to crack. For she is logical to a fault and witty. She is also a black belt in Jiu-Jitsu.
But one really after her jewels, would just have to follow her around to see she is on the wee bit clumsy side. I immediately thought how useful a satin handkerchief could be if employed along the high, partially exposed neckline of her gown to acquire her necklace. And I happened to now know where to obtain one ….
Two other two close friends (members of our role-playing troupe) also eventually showed up.
Merrick was dashing in a James Bond-styled black tux. The vest he wore had a gold and black calico silk pattern.
His Heather enticingly was wearing a very shiny black satin, slightly off shoulders gown with long white lace frills hanging down from the neckline and the gown’s puffy elbow-length sleeves.
Her jewellery was a ruby rhinestone necklace with matching earrings. Like Ginny, one side of her hair was pulled back and held by one of her real diamond chip hair clips. She wore black satin gloves, and around one wrist was the wide tennis bracelet Merrick had given her last Valentine’s Day. It was a beauty, two rows of diamonds and a centre row of round rock rubies. She also wore twin ruby cocktail rings.
Heather is a timid meek little thing who blushed easily and turn her head away whenever complimented(think of Actress Alison Pill ). Also, those black satin gloves of hers would hinder feelings of lifting from her skin.
Mum and Auntie were also in attendance.
Mum was wearing a shimmering dress of silvery metallic material. She was wearing a necklace of round diamond rhinestones, with matching earrings and bracelets. They were ones I first “borrowed “, sneaking them out of mum’s day jewel case and started wearing as my twin and I began first exploring our games of thievery.
Her personality and looks matched the actress Haley Mills. Her eyes getting delightfully large as she was surprised by something. It would be worth trying for her necklace just to witness that reaction.
Father was working the Dyfed station this evening, so my bodyguard-built uncle was the escort of both ladies.
Uncle(or the man from U.N.C.L.E . As I thought of him) was a rugby player in his youth and still had the physic for it. The tight tux he wore looked like it was bursting from the seams over his muscular build. But for all his looks he was a pussycat. Though a fierce darts competitor.
Auntie was very elegant in a long white silk dress with a red and green flowery print. She was wearing her gleaming set of pearls.
Our Aunt reminded me of the actress Janine Duvitski, in looks, and the way she was insecure, like Janine’s character in the Telly series” Waiting for God.” She was a foil to far too many things in her life and would offer no challenge to a proper thief, which may be her saving grace.
Then there was our cousin Michelle(Micke)
She has come there with a group of her coworkers but divided her time with us.
Micke was enticingly wearing a very sleek, slick brown satin fully off-shoulder number that nicely outlined her petite figure as it poured along it down to her silver high heels.
Her Jewels were a sparkling collection that consisted of a wide V-shaped necklace that looked like a falling river of rhinestones, amazingly sparkling chandelier earnings, her favorite diamond-appearing bracelet, and several enticing rings.
But the real showpiece was the eye-grabbing broach she had pinned to the gown just at her waistband. It had a sparrow egg-sized diamond at its centre.
Now blonde Micke just wears her heart upon her sleeve. Just as gullible as her mum, she has fallen victim to many of our pranks. Micke was easy prey to a compliment or falling into a tight, searching hug.
And by now most of the rest of the crowd had entered.
I tapped Erick’s boney jaw open so the poor sod of a poet was grinning, then came down from my perch to begin mugging, er, mingling.
^^^^^^^^
And so the party rambled on, properly behaving like most pub-held New Year’s Eve affairs.
I highly recommend going to one if you have never been.
Plenty to drink, and eat, games to play dancing to music( ours was live this year) camaraderie, storytelling and jokes, attempts to lite the cigar someone had stuck in Erik’s mouth, etc
Oh, And did I mention games?
Especially the one I was playing on my own, pretending to be a thief on the prowl.
I did miss one early opportunity on me mum’s necklace when I stood behind her in the snack line. She had literally backed into me and was reaching down to snag a small pork pie, exposing her throat and necklaces' clasp. But uncle was in front of her and turned to look as she asked him if he had one for himself.
Victims 1 Thief 0
But then as the night went by quickly and since I’m not a real thief, I found myself having so much fun I almost forgot I was looking for a further lifting opportunity.
Almost…
End Acte 1
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Acte 2
Almost forgot I had been dared to do a lift, that is until I had l came out of the loo around 11:00 and realized I was on my own.
For the first time that evening.
Everyone I had been with was split up into small groups now doing their own thing
I could either join in, watch, or….
And now I thought licking my freshly touched-up lips, time to do something on my own.
So like my pretend thief, I decided to have a walk around and seek an opportunity amongst my chosen potential victims.
Byrne, Merrick, Uncle, and my brother Craig were we’re still playing darts with another group of men. I had been watching before slipping away to freshen up.
Micke and one of her co-workers ( in green taffeta) were amongst a group dancing. I thought of cutting in as a possibility to make a score, for that glittering broach of hers was an enticing calling card.
I watched for a minute or so when suddenly an opening appeared that paved my way in. A man had cut in and was dancing with Micke’s girlfriend. His back to Micke. I curled my fingers while licking my lips ready to plunge in and make a lift of a glittery broach.
I got no more than two steps in when the music stopped and the dancers headed off the floor in the opposite direction, including my Cousin.
I walked away, my heart pounding.
Victims 2 Thief 0
Our Mum and Auntie were sitting at a side table of the long mahogany bar, chatting away. Mum has an almost empty glass, so I surmised she may need to be making a trip to the ladies' room. I stored away that tidbit.
But there, in an opposite corner, underneath Erik’s perch, a makeshift stage was set up. With guests coming up to tell jokes and stories.
It was at one of the tables, chairs backed against the stairway, Ginny and Heather sat listening to an Irishman telling one of his drinking stories.
Both, in my thief’s eye, were a royal treat to be observed. Two enticingly dressed and deliciously jeweled prospects, very distracted, sitting in a rather vulnerable location.
It was all far too tempting, and I felt an overwhelming urge to acquire a piece of jewellery and strted to excitedly tingle from deep within.
Ginny’s necklace was beckoning with a flashy invitation. Heather's elegantly gloved hands with the inviting jewelry she wore, also called out to my inner thief with a fiery blazing hot lure.
^^^^^
The Irishman telling the joke was holding a long cigar as he started, his accent and mannerisms adding much embellishment to the story.
(Look up on Utube Mike Dunafon. An Irish drinking joke)
“Irishman Paddy O'Brien has moved to a small city in Wales. And as men are won’t to do, looks for a new local. He walks into the first pub he finds, and tells the bartender, "Give me three pints of Guinness."
The bartender obediently brings him three pints…..
As the story started I had circled over to the empty staircase and snuck up it till I was level with Heather and Ginny’s chairs. Then I sat down.
I earlier decided that my game would be to lift a piece and make it outside to the victim’s car and write gotcha on it, for my thief to win, if I was caught or stopped by anyone, then I lost.
The Irishman took a long puff of his cigar and carried on.
Paddy proceeds to alternately sip one, then the other, then the third until they're gone. Then he rose, threw coins on the table, winked at the bar mistress, and left.
Meanwhile, I was leaning against the rails, my hands reaching out to the back of Ginny’s throat, aiming for the clasp of her emerald-laden necklace. Figuring once the punchline was given, the laughing (if it was as funny as I hoped) would provide the perfect opportunity.
The Irishman continues…
The next Saturday evening Paddy walks in, hanging his cap, taking a seat, he walks again and orders three more pints.
The bartender brings them over, and says, "Sir, you don't have to order three pints at a time. I can keep an eye on one and when you get low, I'll bring you a fresh pint."
Paddy responds, "You don't understand. I just moved to wales and I have two brothers, one in Australia and one Canada. We made a vow to each other that every Saturday night we'd still drink together. So right now, me brothers are having three Guinness Stouts and we're drinking together.
The bartender thought that it was a wonderful tradition and said as much.
Both Ginny and Heather were now leaning back in their chairs. My fingers had been slowly working on pulling Ginny’s necklace down lower on her back so it would dangle. Just then Heather put her arms behind her chair. Her bracelet danced with rippling sparks that just cried out to the thief in me to be taken.
So, as the Irishman took a sip of his drink, I moved my hands from Ginny, and moving down a stair reached for Heather’s ruby bracelet. As the next part of the joke was told, I delicately worked at removing it.
Now, every week for several years Paddy came in and ordered three pints at a time.
Then one Saturday week he came in and ordered only two pints.
He solemnly drank them, rose. Put on his cap and went over to pay his tab.
The bartender, who had worriedly been watching, said to Paddy, "I know your tradition, and I'd just like to say that I'm sorry that one of your brothers died."
Paddy responded, “oh no, both my brothers are just fine Dontchay knows now.”
The Bartender, puzzled asked, “then why only two beers now? laddie?”
But I never heard the answer, for as Paddy was still drinking his two beers, I had fiendishly slipped off Heather’s glittering ruby bracelet from around her sleekly gloved wrist and had snuck off the staircase and was heading towards the back door.
Victims 3 Thief 1
I managed to slip past the table where my Aunt sat( mum was gone).
Behind me, I hear vigorous laughter and applause at the ending of the Irishman’s joke.
I would have to ask later what it was.
Then, by the entrance to the dart room, I waited until everyone was watching a dart being thrown before walking past the room.
The dance floor was again packed. But I couldn’t spy Micke, so I took a chance and scurried past.
I made it to the door, excitedly letting out my breath as I pulled it open and slipped through into the chilly night.
A couple was walking in the parking lot, so I ducked into a shadowy side alley and skirted around a fence. Kneeling, I peeked through the pickets.
I did not know the couple, but they obviously had been having a great time, though I wondered why they were leaving so soon. The lady was dressed in a blue taffeta gown with prickling rhinestone adornments. Her jewelry also prickled fire in the moonlit evening.
In my thief’s eyes, I saw them being approached and held up. The lady is forced to hand over her jewels to a masked female thief. Not me though, the thief I was picturing had bigger boobs.
Of course, that would be something only I would find to be that amusing, and let out a giggle.
They both heard it and looked around as I slinked back into the shadows.
They shrugged it off and got inside the car.
I took my eyes off them and soon spotted Merrill and Heather’s black sports car.
I rose.
Suddenly a male voice snarled sinisterly from behind me...
“Who let you out all dressed up looking like a mugger's dream?”
I let out a shriek as I jumped up and turned around.
Byrne stood there grinning.
I playfully pounded his shoulder, my heart thumping as I scolded him between breaths that gave off wisps of vapor into the cold night.
“Byrne you rotter. Scared the Jesus out of me you did, and almost peed my undies. And how would that have looked I ask you?!”
Byrne held onto my shoulders and laughed.
“Sorry, you looked so mischievous as I saw in the corner of my eye you sneaking out. I followed, then lost you until I heard the giggle. So tell me what you are up to now?”
I explained to him my game, that upon the thief’s success, I had come out to write “gotcha” on the car door.
“Then what were you gonna after that Ms. Cadence?”
“Follow Heather out when she left and give it back …?”
Byrne looked thoughtfully at Merrick’s car.
“I have got a better idea. She won’t know who did it.”
He led me over to his auto. Goes to the back and pulls a long slender bar from what I call his cop box, in the trunk.
We go over to Merrick’s black sports car and Byrne, looking around first, uses the tool to lift the latch on the passenger side.
“Now lay her bracelet out on the seat.
I did so letting it curl up on the black leather, where it lay sparkling. Then I locked and shut the door.
With a smirk, Byrne reminded me not to forget what else I was going to do
I nodded and in the dirty side of the door, I traced the word “Gotcha” as Byrne went over to put back his tool.
Arm in arm, with a co-conspirator's air, we walked onto the sidewalk, making our way to the front of the pub and went back inside. Innocent as a sparrow…
Another gent was getting up on the stage telling a story so we went and joined Ginny and Heather with an air of innocence as we began laughing along with them.
An old Irishman, Paddy, is about to go to his eternal reward. He looks at his grieving friend, Mike, and says, "Michael, I have one last request."
Ginny’s necklace was still lifted and the backside hanging down. She hadn’t noticed that fact. Nor had giggling Heather noticed her flashy bracelet was now missing.
"Anything, Paddy," Mike says. "What is it?"
"In me kitchen pantry lad, you'll find a bottle of whiskey from the year I was born. When they put me in the ground will you pour it over me grave as a final salute?"
"I will, Paddy," Mike says.
“Thank you Michael, you have been a true and thoughtful lad.”
I nudged Byrne and pointed to my wrist. He looked over and saw that Heather had her hand on the table, with her other gloves hand over it. I was tingling with excitement over how my game had played out.
Byrne nudged me back and I shook my head in agreement. He was loving the fact that we had pulled it off. So like a man to take the whole credit now that he had contributed a wee bit to my game.
We both turned back to listen to the stories finish.
"But Paddy?”
Mike asks earnestly ….
“Would you be minding if I be passing it through me kidneys first?"
The whole room erupted into laughter as the gent merrily raised his glass.
It was then announced that we were only ten minutes away from midnight and everyone should take their places.
I gasped inwardly. Blimey had not been keeping track of the time.
Byrne helped us out of our chairs, and we followed Ginny and Heather to where my brother was standing next to Merrick.
Lights soon dim as the countdown begins
10,9,8,
Everyone behind us is prancing around
7,6,5
We go around hugging. I lift my brother's satin handkerchief from his pocket as I hug him.
4,3,2
I hug Ginny
Wrapping the handkerchief around Ginny’s throat as we hug. Feeling the clasp of her necklace. Oh so tempting.
Victims 4 Thief 1
Then 1 was called out at the stroke of midnight.
“Happy new years everybody!!!”
Lights flicker horns are honked, crackers exploded, and drinks were toasted.
As Ginny turns to hug my brother, I grab and hug Heather, seeing Merrick and Byrne hugging.
I then pull Bryne from his man crush on Merrick and hug him.
Then we spilt up to wish others a Happy New Years.
^^^^^^^^^
We party for another hour before Merrick and Heather say they must leave.
We say our goodbyes and as Byrne and I watch Heather being helped on with her wrap we smirk at each other knowing what she will be finding on her car seat. Love to be a fly on the wall for that.
The music was still playing. A series of slow dances now that the party was winding down.
As we dance, Byrne, looking over at Ginny, commented:
“Damn if Ginny’s necklace isn’t a corker. If I’d been playing your game, I would have had a go for it, though I may have needed a bit of good luck to pull it off.”
I smirked and explained I had originally been attempting to lift it but had gone for the bracelet instead…and that in his case luck may have been needed, but it would not have been good.”
Then, as we both were watching Ginny, with that lovely necklace just sparking away around her throat, I purred into his ear…
“Say the word, and I’ll get for you, my love.”
He shook his head no…
“The scary part is if I said yes you would do it.”
I giggled:
“And wear it until she noticed.”
Byrne smiled:
“You will play nice here the rest of the party won’t you now?”
I nodded as a delighted thought crept into my head.
“So if Ginny had been skulking outside would you have snuck up on her luv, maybe had her hand it over?”
“And have my arse thrown over the fence. No, think I’ll stick to the easily distracted ones who meltdown in my arms.”
“Dream on mister.” I chide him happily.
^^^^^^^^^^^^
Early the next morning as the last of us were kicked out long after the party was officially over, Byrne bundled me into his car, knowing I was too wasted to drive my own self home. I sat there in a mute stupor, hornily replaying the evening's fun.
Suddenly Byrne spoke into the windshield.
“Let’s go to the playground.”
I perked up, for ideas like that usually came from me.
“Your drunk.” I teases
“Well, So are you Lass.”
“But it’s too cold. Let’s go to your flat and play at burglars…”
Byrne, sensing my hot flashy feelings, nudged me…
“I knew you would like to role-play since you were playing your games this evening.”
I poked him
“You were the one to mention muggers. Steal my jewelry and strip me naked, is that what’s in your head me lad?”
“Something like that.”
“Do you have your cuffs?”
That perked him up royally.
“Do you want me to use them?”
I giggled with a burgeoned horny appetite.
“Yes, laddie. On yourself. So you can do the thieving and stripping of my easily distracted person without using your hands.”
I do so enjoy it when one can score by making my Byrne speechless.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
So I would like to think that in real life, once upon a time, there may have been an actual pickpocket attending an actors' award show after a party, with real jewellery being worn, that may have seen what I saw, made observations as I did. and lurked, and waited to take advantage of the situation once it developed.
As I did.
Food for thought
Fini
Mike Dunafon. An Irish drinking joke
From the introduction:
Who knows whether the strange events of this story might not one day occur?
This is the story of an expedition – a strange and exciting expedition of one man and an army of women.
He had come into the land of the women suddenly – and without warning. Tall, bronzed, muscular, he stood out among their pale skins and meek spirits. And when they learned of the land from which he had come – the land they hadn’t even known existed – they had to follow him to it.
One man and an army of women crossing the remnants of a post-atomic United States in search of the Unknown; it was an amazing trek. Miraculous things happened to the women. New emotions rose up to plague them. Once there was a near mutiny. Another time, seven of their number were killed. But it was when they reached the city in the sea that the strangest thing of all happened. . .
Exciting, imaginative, prophetic, THE CITY IN THE SEA is also something rare in science fiction – a compellingly human story,
...
Untitled (Hunger 7), Tim Lowly © 1996, tempera on ceramic bowl, 7" x 7" x 4"
This painting is from a series of 21 paintings on the bottom surface of traditional Korean bowls - done for an exhibition I had in Seoul, Korea in 1997. Recently, as I was writing some thoughts on my work to a colleague, it occurred that I had not explained publicly my thinking about and reason for making this work. This seems pretty important given the problematic territory that this work wanders into. What follows is an excerpt from my correspondence:
Around 1995 the “special needs” school that our daughter Temma had been attending for 6 years – Lakeview Learning Center – was preparing to close. I was working at the school on a large painting (titled Big Picture) of the classroom for “severely and profoundly disabled” children that Temma was part of. While working on this large painting I was given a collection of miscellaneous photographs documenting the students in their daily life at the school. Also around this time I was offered an exhibition with a gallery in South Korea, the country where I grew up (my parents were medical missionaries). I decided to make work for this show based on the photographs that I had been given of students from Lakeview Learning Center as a way of making present a population that was largely invisible / marginalized in Korea at that time. My goal in making these paintings was to select photographs that (for me) most powerfully expressed the humanity of these children. In making the paintings my intent was to try to represent them as best as I could in accordance to how I perceived them via the photographs: that is, as completely and compellingly human. Despite my ambivalence about using other people’s photographs as sources for paintings, these photographs – apparently taken by the staff of the school - offered a kind of “objective” perspective on the children somewhat fitting for my relative distance from them personally. That said, to the extent that these children were part of a community of which my daughter was a part I felt it was appropriate to make paintings based representing them.
This latter point is important in relation to the fundamental intent of this project. While I was attempting to portray the children in all their individuality evident in the photographic sources, I was doing so with the primary goal of presenting them as a community: a community as evidently diverse and complex (in various respects) as any other.
There is a well-known (in Korea) poem by the Korean Catholic “Minjung” writer Kim Chi Ha that has an essentially Eucharistic refrain: “God is rice”. In allusion to that poem I decided to do a series of 21 paintings on Korean rice bowls (a very commonly used kind of bowl). More specifically, as an allusion to the marginalization of this population I made the paintings on the bottom / underside (typically unseen) surface of the bowls. In using the rice bowl I not only wanted to draw a connection to Kim Chi Ha’s poem, but further to the movement of Minjung Art that had grown in vitality at the ending period of Korea’s long dictatorship (the early ‘80s). The Minjung Art movement (which, especially in the person of the artist Im Ok Sang, had been very influential for me) made the empowerment of the poor and the marginalized their priority. My hope was to situate the subject of the work I was making – at that time still a largely marginalized community - in the context of the Minjung political imperative.
In this work I was attempting to represent these children as faithfully as I could. It might be helpful to unpack my thinking “representation” a bit: Painting, particularly realistic / representational painting is frequently thought of / received in relation to the convention of “mastery”. That is, when one makes a realistic painting it might be understood as an artists’ claim of mastery and, implicitly, as their claim to an authority over the subject represented. I do not have any interest in that way of approaching painting. I am interested in painting that is a kind of conversation with the material used to make it (as opposed to painting as about control or domination of the material). No less importantly, I’m interested in painting as a regarding of the subject in humility: an attempt to represent the subject as honestly, accurately and respectfully as possible. Put another way: painting for me is learning how to make this painting in relation to trying to understand and represent this subject.
Taking that word representation a bit further: it is of course a reasonable question to ask whether one has the right to represent (make or take a picture of) another person – particularly someone who is not able to give consent. And it is reasonable to question whether I – even as the parent of a member of that community and trusted by the staff of that community – have the right to represent the students. But no less important is the other side of this question: the right of each person to be represented (both literally, in the sense of being pictured, and - via metaphoric implication - politically). In the case of this particular population and the particular context in which these paintings were being shown my intention was to make and show these representational paintings of these children as a claim to their right (authority) to be represented: Particularly towards the goal of advocating the presence of members of this population as they existed in that country at that time.
Okay, well, not exactly. But it is being held aloft, and it is in the dinnerware category. This is a photo of a very cool piece of crystal, a dinner plate. I had my girlfriend illuminate it with an LED flashlight from the opposite end of a hallway where I was holding the plate very gingerly, securing it from the bottom with the tips of my fingers. I don't see, and certainly don't use a lot of crystal, but my girlfriend possesses a few pieces that just blew
me away when I first saw them. The design work within is amazing.
You never know what is compellingly photographable until you give it a try. No question, the crystal plates and dishes have their own brand of rather astonishing beauty. Amazing little constructions. And don't you dare drop one, I was thinking, or no girlfriend for you -- one year. NEXT!.
(Thank you Jerry Seinfeld.)
OK, one more miserable DTES homeless shot and then I will give it a rest.
The Downtown Eastside (DTES) is a neighbourhood in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. The area, one of the city's oldest, is notable for its high levels of drug use, poverty, crime, mental illness, prostitution, and homelessness.
If you would like to see first hand for yourself, check out the blocks between Hastings and Cordova streets, roughly between Carrall Street and Jackson Avenue.
The misery and mayhem on display is unbelievable. The homeless camp above is duplicated all over the area.
The camps slosh around the community like a boat lost in a storm never knowing where it will land next. This camp is on Gore at the alley between Hastings and Cordova today, tomorrow it will have moved someplace else - yup was by there today (04 Sept), all was gone and two cars were parked in the space next to the fence.
The DTES has a higher proportion of males and adults who live alone. It also has significantly more First Nation Canadians, who are disproportionately affected by the neighbourhood's social problems.
The neighbourhood has a history of attracting individuals with mental health and addiction issues, many being drawn to its drug market and low-barrier services.
The area is also popular with politicians who keep adding more social housing in the area to make them look like they are accomplishing something.
What they have accomplished is building a community of customers with no cash and no political clout to make their case known. The resulting mix is prime territory for the illicit drug trade to flourish and boy does it flourish.
Despite the millions of dollars all three levels of government say is being poured into the Downtown Eastside, homelessness continues to rise in the community.
Criminal acts recorded by Vancouver police for two neighbourhoods the DTES intersects (Strathcona and the Central Business District) have increased by four to six per cent this year, after increases of six to seven per cent in 2018 most of it by those in need of tradables for their next drug fix.
The community is a failed experiment on life support. So many of the area activists that used to garner some attention have died from drug overdose so the community is beginning to disintegrate due to lack of a coercive voice.
.
Permission to use photo.
.
Greetings Ted,
I am a priest and an outreach worker in the Downtown Eastside where I work have been working with street involved adults for 18 years now. Street Outreach Initiative is a small not-for-profit organization.
I contact you seeking permission to use three of your photographs.
They compellingly depict men and women, and their courage to keep going, amidst a community filled with challenges. They were taken on Gore St near the back of the Fire Hall Theatre. I found them using a google image search, with “commons use” selected. I then discovered they were posted on Flickr.
I write seeking permission to use these in a limited circulation print newsletter (not on the web) that provides updates on our work and the situation on the street.
Our organization seeks to serve our street involved brothers and sisters in a variety of ways, through trauma workshops, events focused on Indigenous Reconciliation, addiction counsel, memorial services (too many of them), work with refugees, pastoral care at end of life, and other things. We have an Indigenous Elder as well as a Clinical Counsellor on our Team.
Although I am a priest, and our work is based at St James Church in the DTES, and we provide among many things, pastoral care, our mission is to build relationships and to care for all. We are not religious proselytizers.
We would like to compensate you for use of each photo, and can offer seventy five dollars each. May we use your three photographs for this purpose?
Alas, we are approaching printing, it took a while for me to find an email address, so I’m sorry to make this ask with such a rush!
With every good wish
Matthew
The Reverend Father Matthew Johnson
Street Outreach Priest
Downtown Eastside
St James Anglican Church
Diocese of New Westminster
“Time and Space Meant Nothing to the Killer from Tomorrow.”
From the back cover:
They dragged an unidentifiable body of a man out of the Thames. Routine enquiries led nowhere and the case was shelved. Superintendent Harry Lee retired and reopened the case for his own satisfaction. An orthodox approach had led nowhere, so Lee tried a few unorthodox methods. That was when he heard the story of the Flying Saucer. Lee was experienced enough to tell a crank from a reliable witness. The Saucer-man was no crank. At last Lee saw the disc-ship for himself and met its pilot. He went aboard and took a trip into the unknown. Apparently the Saucer-pilot was working on the same case from a different angle and Lee realized why it had been impossible to identify the body . . . it didn’t belong. There were some more disappearances to account for . . .
This is a sophisticated novel of complex human problems set against a compellingly authentic science fiction background. The trouble is, it might really happen!
----------------------------------------------------------
Badger Books were published between 1959 and 1967 in a number of genres, predominantly war, westerns, romance, supernatural and science fiction. In common with other “pulp” or mass-market publishers of the time, Badger Books focused on quantity rather than quality. A new title in each of the major genres appeared each month, generally written to tight deadlines by low-paid authors. One of the most remarkable facts about Badger Books is that much of its output was produced by just two authors (using a range of house names and other pseudonyms). John Glasby (over 300 novels and short stories) and Robert Lionel Fanthorpe (over 200 novels and stories). [Wikipedia]
A massive rock stands guard over a small cove full of geologic wonders just up the coast from Santa Cruz, only 0.7 miles south of the town of Davenport. Known as Shark Fin Cove, hundreds, perhaps thousands, of years ago the shark fin was an extension of the mudstone cliff that encloses this beach. Over the years, the force of the crashing waves and whistling winds steadily eroded away the rock in a process called coastal geomorphology. The rock now stands as we see it today: A small island that catches the light at sunset so compellingly that photographers travel from all over the country to capture its timeless beauty.
On the facade of St John’s Episcopal Church in Edinburgh (a neo-Gothic gem completed in 1818), a compelling mural reads “Feed My Sheep” (John 21:17), quietly mounted among a rotating series of painted messages on issues of justice and peace .
For decades, these murals—planned by church leadership and created by Artists for Justice and Peace—have been intended to provoke discussion and offer thoughtful commentary on contemporary challenges .
It’s natural to wonder if this mural reflects the horrors in Gaza, invoking the biblical charge to nurture and care for the vulnerable. Though a specific connection hasn’t been confirmed, the placement and message continue St John’s tradition of faith-infused art provoking reflection on our shared moral responsibilities.
🇫🇷 Sur la façade de l’église épiscopale Saint‑Jean à Édimbourg (splendeur néo‑gothique achevée en 1818), un puissant mural affiche les mots « Feed My Sheep » (Jean 21:17), dans une série tournante de peintures traitant de justice et de paix .
Depuis des décennies, ces murales — planifiées par la direction spirituelle de l’église et créées par Artists for Justice and Peace — visent à susciter réflexion et débat sur les enjeux contemporains .
On peut naturellement se demander si ce message renvoie aux souffrances à Gaza, rappelant l’appel biblique à protéger les plus vulnérables. Bien qu’aucune référence explicite ne l’ait été, ce puissant visuel s’inscrit dans la tradition de Saint-Jean : un art de foi qui nous interpelle sur nos devoirs partagés envers l’humanité.
Type of vessel: trémailleur
Built in: 1986
Hull: polyester
Shipyard: Bénéteau St Hilaire de Riez 85 Registration: LS.678666
Rough measure: 19.99 x
Overall length: 12.10 m
Width: 4.80 m
Engine power: 223 kw
Maritime district: Les Sables d'Olonne
Call sign: FH9673
MMSI: 227648210
Last name: Selrahc L 5678666 maritime district Les Sables d'Olonne
...
This is a series of 21 paintings on the bottom surface of traditional Korean bowls - done for an exhibition I had in Seoul, Korea in 1997. Recently, as I was writing some thoughts on my work to a colleague, it occurred that I had not explained publicly my thinking about and reason for making this work. This seems pretty important given the problematic territory that this work wanders into. What follows is an excerpt from my correspondence:
Around 1995 the “special needs” school that our daughter Temma had been attending for 6 years – Lakeview Learning Center – was preparing to close. I was working at the school on a large painting (titled Big Picture) of the classroom for “severely and profoundly disabled” children that Temma was part of. While working on this large painting I was given a collection of miscellaneous photographs documenting the students in their daily life at the school. Also around this time I was offered an exhibition with a gallery in South Korea, the country where I grew up (my parents were medical missionaries). I decided to make work for this show based on the photographs that I had been given of students from Lakeview Learning Center as a way of making present a population that was largely invisible / marginalized in Korea at that time. My goal in making these paintings was to select photographs that (for me) most powerfully expressed the humanity of these children. In making the paintings my intent was to try to represent them as best as I could in accordance to how I perceived them via the photographs: that is, as completely and compellingly human. Despite my ambivalence about using other people’s photographs as sources for paintings, these photographs – apparently taken by the staff of the school - offered a kind of “objective” perspective on the children somewhat fitting for my relative distance from them personally. That said, to the extent that these children were part of a community of which my daughter was a part I felt it was appropriate to make paintings based representing them.
This latter point is important in relation to the fundamental intent of this project. While I was attempting to portray the children in all their individuality evident in the photographic sources, I was doing so with the primary goal of presenting them as a community: a community as evidently diverse and complex (in various respects) as any other.
There is a well-known (in Korea) poem by the Korean Catholic “Minjung” writer Kim Chi Ha that has an essentially Eucharistic refrain: “God is rice”. In allusion to that poem I decided to do a series of 21 paintings on Korean rice bowls (a very commonly used kind of bowl). More specifically, as an allusion to the marginalization of this population I made the paintings on the bottom / underside (typically unseen) surface of the bowls. In using the rice bowl I not only wanted to draw a connection to Kim Chi Ha’s poem, but further to the movement of Minjung Art that had grown in vitality at the ending period of Korea’s long dictatorship (the early ‘80s). The Minjung Art movement (which, especially in the person of the artist Im Ok Sang, had been very influential for me) made the empowerment of the poor and the marginalized their priority. My hope was to situate the subject of the work I was making – at that time still a largely marginalized community - in the context of the Minjung political imperative.
In this work I was attempting to represent these children as faithfully as I could. It might be helpful to unpack my thinking “representation” a bit: Painting, particularly realistic / representational painting is frequently thought of / received in relation to the convention of “mastery”. That is, when one makes a realistic painting it might be understood as an artists’ claim of mastery and, implicitly, as their claim to an authority over the subject represented. I do not have any interest in that way of approaching painting. I am interested in painting that is a kind of conversation with the material used to make it (as opposed to painting as about control or domination of the material). No less importantly, I’m interested in painting as a regarding of the subject in humility: an attempt to represent the subject as honestly, accurately and respectfully as possible. Put another way: painting for me is learning how to make this painting in relation to trying to understand and represent this subject.
Taking that word representation a bit further: it is of course a reasonable question to ask whether one has the right to represent (make or take a picture of) another person – particularly someone who is not able to give consent. And it is reasonable to question whether I – even as the parent of a member of that community and trusted by the staff of that community – have the right to represent the students. But no less important is the other side of this question: the right of each person to be represented (both literally, in the sense of being pictured, and - via metaphoric implication - politically). In the case of this particular population and the particular context in which these paintings were being shown my intention was to make and show these representational paintings of these children as a claim to their right (authority) to be represented: Particularly towards the goal of advocating the presence of members of this population as they existed in that country at that time.
*//A//* Seriouslyyyyy. Soom Serin/Rico's mouth is just to die for. I can't help but take pictures that focus on it asdfghjkl-
TwT Hehe, on a serious note though, gah, I just can't get over how expressive he is! And in such an ambiguous way too. Like, is he happy, pensive, or teasing? I think it depends on the perspective of the person seeing him, and that is definitely true of him canonically. ^//u//^ I just love how his doll form captures that bizarre yet compellingly enigmatic quality so well~
Also he's wearing darker and softer things that are much more suited to his character~ I have him wear a lot of different things but a dark mori/ winter style is what truly suits his character best. <3
Gah, he's just perfect. I can't.
;A;
---
Shu (boy) is a Soom OE Serin in "Cream" White skin on a modded Unoa 1.5 body in Fresh Skin. Resin color matching and faceup by me.
“...the number one reason knitters knit is because they are so smart that they need knitting to make boring things interesting. Knitters are so compellingly clever that they simply can't tolerate boredom. It takes more to engage and entertain this kind of human, and they need an outlet or they get into trouble.
"...knitters just can't watch TV without doing something else. Knitters just can't wait in line, knitters just can't sit waiting at the doctor's office. Knitters need knitting to add a layer of interest in other, less constructive ways.”
― Stephanie Pearl-McPhee
...
Untitled (Hunger 3), Tim Lowly © 1996, tempera on ceramic bowl, 7" x 7" x 4"
This painting is from a series of 21 paintings on the bottom surface of traditional Korean bowls - done for an exhibition I had in Seoul, Korea in 1997. Recently, as I was writing some thoughts on my work to a colleague, it occurred that I had not explained publicly my thinking about and reason for making this work. This seems pretty important given the problematic territory that this work wanders into. What follows is an excerpt from my correspondence:
Around 1995 the “special needs” school that our daughter Temma had been attending for 6 years – Lakeview Learning Center – was preparing to close. I was working at the school on a large painting (titled Big Picture) of the classroom for “severely and profoundly disabled” children that Temma was part of. While working on this large painting I was given a collection of miscellaneous photographs documenting the students in their daily life at the school. Also around this time I was offered an exhibition with a gallery in South Korea, the country where I grew up (my parents were medical missionaries). I decided to make work for this show based on the photographs that I had been given of students from Lakeview Learning Center as a way of making present a population that was largely invisible / marginalized in Korea at that time. My goal in making these paintings was to select photographs that (for me) most powerfully expressed the humanity of these children. In making the paintings my intent was to try to represent them as best as I could in accordance to how I perceived them via the photographs: that is, as completely and compellingly human. Despite my ambivalence about using other people’s photographs as sources for paintings, these photographs – apparently taken by the staff of the school - offered a kind of “objective” perspective on the children somewhat fitting for my relative distance from them personally. That said, to the extent that these children were part of a community of which my daughter was a part I felt it was appropriate to make paintings based representing them.
This latter point is important in relation to the fundamental intent of this project. While I was attempting to portray the children in all their individuality evident in the photographic sources, I was doing so with the primary goal of presenting them as a community: a community as evidently diverse and complex (in various respects) as any other.
There is a well-known (in Korea) poem by the Korean Catholic “Minjung” writer Kim Chi Ha that has an essentially Eucharistic refrain: “God is rice”. In allusion to that poem I decided to do a series of 21 paintings on Korean rice bowls (a very commonly used kind of bowl). More specifically, as an allusion to the marginalization of this population I made the paintings on the bottom / underside (typically unseen) surface of the bowls. In using the rice bowl I not only wanted to draw a connection to Kim Chi Ha’s poem, but further to the movement of Minjung Art that had grown in vitality at the ending period of Korea’s long dictatorship (the early ‘80s). The Minjung Art movement (which, especially in the person of the artist Im Ok Sang, had been very influential for me) made the empowerment of the poor and the marginalized their priority. My hope was to situate the subject of the work I was making – at that time still a largely marginalized community - in the context of the Minjung political imperative.
In this work I was attempting to represent these children as faithfully as I could. It might be helpful to unpack my thinking “representation” a bit: Painting, particularly realistic / representational painting is frequently thought of / received in relation to the convention of “mastery”. That is, when one makes a realistic painting it might be understood as an artists’ claim of mastery and, implicitly, as their claim to an authority over the subject represented. I do not have any interest in that way of approaching painting. I am interested in painting that is a kind of conversation with the material used to make it (as opposed to painting as about control or domination of the material). No less importantly, I’m interested in painting as a regarding of the subject in humility: an attempt to represent the subject as honestly, accurately and respectfully as possible. Put another way: painting for me is learning how to make this painting in relation to trying to understand and represent this subject.
Taking that word representation a bit further: it is of course a reasonable question to ask whether one has the right to represent (make or take a picture of) another person – particularly someone who is not able to give consent. And it is reasonable to question whether I – even as the parent of a member of that community and trusted by the staff of that community – have the right to represent the students. But no less important is the other side of this question: the right of each person to be represented (both literally, in the sense of being pictured, and - via metaphoric implication - politically). In the case of this particular population and the particular context in which these paintings were being shown my intention was to make and show these representational paintings of these children as a claim to their right (authority) to be represented: Particularly towards the goal of advocating the presence of members of this population as they existed in that country at that time.
History:
The castle is a typical example of a Gascon manor house from the end of the 15th century. This building is high according to the traditional plan: a rectangular building composed of a central staircase and four large rooms arranged on either side, is confined by four large towers placed at the corners, moats defending access. The exterior elevation is intact from all alterations. The facades between the towers are pierced with mullioned windows. To the south, a bridge crossing the moat provides access to the front door, in a style slightly later than the whole, probably redone in the 16th century. A motif of two superimposed pilasters and cornices frames the door and its impost surmounted by a foliage decoration. In the towers, musket loopholes have been opened. I' together is surrounded, above the first floor, by a walkway forming a battlement. The toe of the roof extends above this path to protect defenders from a diving shot. On the ground floor, a large room retains remnants of paint on the ceiling. 16th century carpentry. Paneling from t
Ineffable joie de vivre, by a balmy spring evening, in this most gemütlich of city gardens anywhere.
Where else than in Munich, the european city par excellence, the ultimate embodiment of european civilization, is it possible to experience in such a sensuous way the sweet congeniality of european lifestyle, to feel so compellingly the waft of shared happiness and insouciance exuded by this most prosperous, open, cosmopolitan and forward-looking of environments, which has proudly preserved the best of its own culture
In the 16th Century, farmland just outside the City of London, owned by Roland Goodman, was grazed by horses. The 21st Century developers of the Goodman’s Fields site wanted to reference this, "celebrating the horses which worked alongside people in London’s ascent to prosperity". Hamish Mackie won the design competition, from a longlist of forty sculptors and shortlist of six. I love the way he used the space.
Unveiled in June 2015, six life-and-a-quarter size bronze horses gallop around the corner of Canter Way and across the development's main square. Four of the statues have been incorporated into a water feature, fountains (compellingly) representing the splash of their hooves.
I'm not sure of the source of an apparent quote on a plinth:
"... having escaped from their livery stables, six horses gallop through the streets of London. Careering through crowds of pedestrians they are finally brought to a halt by the traffic flow on Leman Street...."
However, it's a wonderful concept: horses normally toiling in harness have found their stable doors accidentally left open, and seized the opportunity for literally unbridled freedom.
Six different breeds are represented, covering the variety of equine roles in London. These are a Thoroughbred and a Shire Cross.
Mackie sculpted the statues at their finished size – 6.5 tonnes of clay covered 1.5 km of steel armature – rather than scaling-up smaller pieces for casting into bronze (6 tonnes).
If you'd like a full-size copy, 'Two Horses Running Together' (2014) is available in a limited edition of six, at £420,000 per pair in 2019. Eek.
“If man can mutate, why not the Universe itself?”
From the back cover:
Mike Sterne was a man with problems. His environment included an unknown quantity in the form of an eccentric alien scientist and a determined corps of totalitarian militia with orders to liquidate him.
A rigidly imposed authoritarian social structure can only be undermined by a superior ideology. Sterne encountered that ideology on the other side of an electronic gateway through the X dimensions, a gateway to the infinite universe of the microcosm and the macrocosm.
His enemies also discovered a route through the continuum . . . but they didn’t reach the same world that Sterne had found.
This is a scientifically authentic novel dealing with the sophisticated problem of the conflict of men and the conflict of ideals against a compellingly real futuristic background.
------------------------------------------------------
Badger Books were published between 1959 and 1967 in a number of genres, predominantly war, westerns, romance, supernatural and science fiction. In common with other “pulp” or mass-market publishers of the time, Badger Books focused on quantity rather than quality. A new title in each of the major genres appeared each month, generally written to tight deadlines by low-paid authors. One of the most remarkable facts about Badger Books is that much of its output was produced by just two authors (using a range of house names and other pseudonyms). John Glasby (over 300 novels and short stories) and Robert Lionel Fanthorpe (over 200 novels and stories). [Wikipedia]
Untitled (Hunger 20), Tim Lowly © 1996, tempera on ceramic bowl, 7" x 7" x 4". Private collection.
This painting is from a series of 21 paintings on the bottom surface of traditional Korean bowls - done for an exhibition I had in Seoul, Korea in 1997. Recently, as I was writing some thoughts on my work to a colleague, it occurred that I had not explained publicly my thinking about and reason for making this work. This seems pretty important given the problematic territory that this work wanders into. What follows is an excerpt from my correspondence:
Around 1995 the “special needs” school that our daughter Temma had been attending for 6 years – Lakeview Learning Center – was preparing to close. I was working at the school on a large painting (titled Big Picture) of the classroom for “severely and profoundly disabled” children that Temma was part of. While working on this large painting I was given a collection of miscellaneous photographs documenting the students in their daily life at the school. Also around this time I was offered an exhibition with a gallery in South Korea, the country where I grew up (my parents were medical missionaries). I decided to make work for this show based on the photographs that I had been given of students from Lakeview Learning Center as a way of making present a population that was largely invisible / marginalized in Korea at that time. My goal in making these paintings was to select photographs that (for me) most powerfully expressed the humanity of these children. In making the paintings my intent was to try to represent them as best as I could in accordance to how I perceived them via the photographs: that is, as completely and compellingly human. Despite my ambivalence about using other people’s photographs as sources for paintings, these photographs – apparently taken by the staff of the school - offered a kind of “objective” perspective on the children somewhat fitting for my relative distance from them personally. That said, to the extent that these children were part of a community of which my daughter was a part I felt it was appropriate to make paintings based representing them.
This latter point is important in relation to the fundamental intent of this project. While I was attempting to portray the children in all their individuality evident in the photographic sources, I was doing so with the primary goal of presenting them as a community: a community as evidently diverse and complex (in various respects) as any other.
There is a well-known (in Korea) poem by the Korean Catholic “Minjung” writer Kim Chi Ha that has an essentially Eucharistic refrain: “God is rice”. In allusion to that poem I decided to do a series of 21 paintings on Korean rice bowls (a very commonly used kind of bowl). More specifically, as an allusion to the marginalization of this population I made the paintings on the bottom / underside (typically unseen) surface of the bowls. In using the rice bowl I not only wanted to draw a connection to Kim Chi Ha’s poem, but further to the movement of Minjung Art that had grown in vitality at the ending period of Korea’s long dictatorship (the early ‘80s). The Minjung Art movement (which, especially in the person of the artist Im Ok Sang, had been very influential for me) made the empowerment of the poor and the marginalized their priority. My hope was to situate the subject of the work I was making – at that time still a largely marginalized community - in the context of the Minjung political imperative.
In this work I was attempting to represent these children as faithfully as I could. It might be helpful to unpack my thinking “representation” a bit: Painting, particularly realistic / representational painting is frequently thought of / received in relation to the convention of “mastery”. That is, when one makes a realistic painting it might be understood as an artists’ claim of mastery and, implicitly, as their claim to an authority over the subject represented. I do not have any interest in that way of approaching painting. I am interested in painting that is a kind of conversation with the material used to make it (as opposed to painting as about control or domination of the material). No less importantly, I’m interested in painting as a regarding of the subject in humility: an attempt to represent the subject as honestly, accurately and respectfully as possible. Put another way: painting for me is learning how to make this painting in relation to trying to understand and represent this subject.
Taking that word representation a bit further: it is of course a reasonable question to ask whether one has the right to represent (make or take a picture of) another person – particularly someone who is not able to give consent. And it is reasonable to question whether I – even as the parent of a member of that community and trusted by the staff of that community – have the right to represent the students. But no less important is the other side of this question: the right of each person to be represented (both literally, in the sense of being pictured, and - via metaphoric implication - politically). In the case of this particular population and the particular context in which these paintings were being shown my intention was to make and show these representational paintings of these children as a claim to their right (authority) to be represented: Particularly towards the goal of advocating the presence of members of this population as they existed in that country at that time.
Voronezh, Voronezh Oblast, Russian Federation
Voronezh is a city located in the Voronezh Oblast of the Russian Federation. It is situated in the western part of Russia, about 450 kilometers (280 miles) south of Moscow. With a population of over one million people, Voronezh is one of the largest cities in the country and serves as an important cultural, industrial, and educational center.
History:
The history of Voronezh dates back to the 12th century when it was founded as a fortress on the Voronezh River. Over the centuries, the city played a significant role in the defense of the Russian lands against foreign invaders. It served as a key point in the defense system against the Crimean Tatars and later against the Polish invaders during the Time of Troubles.
During the 19th century, Voronezh experienced rapid growth and development. It became a major trade and transport hub, connecting central Russia with the southern regions. The city's economy flourished, fueled by the expansion of agriculture, manufacturing, and trade. Voronezh also became a cultural center, with the establishment of theaters, libraries, and educational institutions.
In the 20th century, Voronezh played a crucial role in World War II. The city was occupied by German forces during the Battle of Voronezh in 1942 but was later liberated by the Soviet Army. The war left a lasting impact on the city, with many buildings and infrastructure destroyed. However, Voronezh was quickly rebuilt, and its industrial capacity was expanded to contribute to the post-war reconstruction efforts.
Economy:
Voronezh is an important industrial center in Russia. The city's economy is diverse and includes sectors such as machinery manufacturing, chemical production, food processing, and agriculture. Voronezh is known for its production of heavy machinery, including tractors, agricultural equipment, and military vehicles. The region is also rich in natural resources, such as coal, limestone, and peat, which contribute to its mining industry.
The agricultural sector is another significant part of Voronezh's economy. The region is known as the "breadbasket of Russia" due to its fertile soil and favorable climate for farming. Voronezh Oblast produces a significant portion of Russia's grain, including wheat, barley, and corn. Livestock farming, particularly cattle and poultry, is also well-developed in the region.
Education and Culture:
Voronezh is home to several prestigious educational institutions. Voronezh State University, founded in 1918, is one of the leading universities in Russia. It offers a wide range of academic programs in various fields and attracts students from all over the country. The city also has numerous research institutes, technical colleges, and vocational schools that contribute to its reputation as an educational hub.
Culturally, Voronezh has a rich heritage and a vibrant arts scene. The city has several theaters, including the Voronezh State Opera and Ballet Theater, which stages performances of both classical and modern works. The Voronezh State Philharmonic Orchestra and the Voronezh State Chamber Choir are renowned for their musical performances. The city also hosts various cultural events, such as festivals, exhibitions, and concerts throughout the year.
Tourism:
Voronezh offers numerous attractions for visitors. The city has a picturesque riverside with beautiful parks and promenades, such as the Koltsovsky Public Garden and the Admiralteyskaya Embankment. Voronezh also has several historical landmarks, including the Annunciation Cathedral, built in the 18th century, and the Voronezh Resurrection Church, known for its unique architectural style.
For history enthusiasts, the Voronezh State Art Museum is a must-visit. It houses a vast collection of Russian art, including paintings, sculptures, and decorative arts. The Regional Museum of Local Lore provides insights into the history, culture, and traditions of the region.
Nature lovers can explore the natural attractions near Voronezh, such as the Divnogorye Nature Reserve, famous for its limestone cliffs and caves. The Voronezh Biosphere Reserve is another area of interest, home to diverse flora and fauna.
Transportation:
Voronezh has a well-developed transportation infrastructure. The city is connected to Moscow and other major Russian cities by rail and road networks. Voronezh International Airport offers domestic and international flights, making it convenient for travelers.
Within the city, public transportation options include buses, trams, and trolleybuses. The public transport system is well-organized, allowing residents and visitors to move around the city easily.
Conclusion:
Voronezh, located in the Voronezh Oblast of the Russian Federation, is a historic city with a rich cultural heritage and a strong industrial base. From its early days as a fortress to its present-day status as a major economic and educational center, Voronezh has played a significant role in the development of Russia. With its diverse economy, renowned educational institutions, and vibrant cultural scene, Voronezh offers a unique blend of tradition and modernity, making it a compelling destination for visitors and a thriving city for its residents.
Воронеж, Воронежская область, Российская Федерация
Воронеж – город, расположенный в Воронежской области Российской Федерации. Он находится на западе России, примерно в 450 километрах (280 милях) к югу от Москвы. С населением более одного миллиона человек, Воронеж является одним из крупнейших городов страны и является важным культурным, промышленным и образовательным центром.
История:
История Воронежа уходит своими корнями в XII век, когда он был основан как крепость на реке Воронеж. На протяжении веков город играл важную роль в защите русских земель от иностранных захватчиков. Он служил ключевым пунктом в системе обороны от крымских татар и польских захватчиков во время Смутного времени.
В XIX веке Воронеж пережил быстрый рост и развитие. Он стал крупным торгово-транспортным узлом, соединяющим центральную Россию с южными регионами. Экономика города процветала, подкрепленная развитием сельского хозяйства, производства и торговли. В Воронеже также стали появляться театры, библиотеки и учебные заведения, что сделало его культурным центром.
В XX веке Воронеж сыграл важную роль во Второй мировой войне. Город был оккупирован немецкими войсками во время Битвы за Воронеж в 1942 году, но позже был освобожден Советской армией. Война оставила глубокий след на городе, многие здания и инфраструктура были разрушены. Однако Воронеж был быстро восстановлен, а его промышленные мощности были расширены для участия в поствоенном восстановлении.
Экономика:
Воронеж является важным промышленным центром России. Экономика города разнообразна и включает в себя секторы машиностроения, химического производства, переработки продуктов питания и сельского хозяйства. Воронеж известен своим производством тяжелой техники, включая тракторы, сельскохозяйственное оборудование и военные автомобили. Регион также богат природными ресурсами, такими как уголь, известняк и торф, которые способствуют его горнодобывающей промышленности.
Сельскохозяйственный сектор является еще одной значимой частью экономики Воронежа. Регион известен как "хлебная корзина России" благодаря своим плодородным почвам и благоприятному климату для сельского хозяйства. Воронежская область производит значительную часть зерна в России, включая пшеницу, ячмень и кукурузу. В регионе также хорошо развито животноводство, особенно скотоводство и птицеводство.
Образование и культура:
Воронеж является домом для нескольких престижных образовательных учреждений. Воронежский государственный университет, основанный в 1918 году, является одним из ведущих университетов России. Он предлагает широкий спектр учебных программ в различных областях и привлекает студентов со всей страны. В городе также расположено множество исследовательских институтов, технических колледжей и профессиональных школ, которые способствуют его репутации как образовательного центра.
С культурной точки зрения Воронеж имеет богатое наследие и оживленную художественную сцену. Город имеет несколько театров, включая Воронежский государственный оперный и балетный театр, на котором ставятся спектакли как классической, так и современной литературы. Воронежская филармония и Воронежский государственный камерный хор известны своими музыкальными выступлениями. Город также организует различные культурные мероприятия, такие как фестивали, выставки и концерты на протяжении всего года.
Туризм:
Воронеж предлагает множество достопримечательностей для посетителей. В городе есть живописная набережная с прекрасными парками и променадами, такими как Кольцовский сквер и Адмиралтейская набережная. Воронеж также имеет несколько исторических памятников, включая Благовещенский собор, построенный в XVIII веке, и Воскресенскую церковь, известную своим уникальным архитектурным стилем.
Для любителей истории посещение Воронежского государственного художественного музея является обязательным. В музее представлена обширная коллекция русского искусства, включая картины, скульптуры и предметы декоративно-прикладного искусства. Региональный краеведческий музей предоставляет информацию о истории, культуре и традициях региона.
Любители природы могут исследовать природные достопримечательности поблизости от Воронежа, такие как заповедник "Дивногорье", известный своими известняковыми скалами и пещерами. Воронежский биосферный заповедник является еще одной интересной областью, где обитает разнообразная флора и фауна.
Транспорт:
Воронеж имеет хорошо развитую транспортную инфраструктуру. Город связан с Москвой и другими крупными городами России железнодорожными и автомобильными дорогами. Международный аэропорт Воронежа предлагает внутренние и международные рейсы, что удобно для путешественников.
Внутри города доступны общественные транспортные средства, такие как автобусы, трамваи и троллейбусы. Система общественного транспорта хорошо организована, позволяя жителям и посетителям свободно перемещаться по городу.
Заключение:
Воронеж, расположенный в Воронежской области Российской Федерации, является историческим городом с богатым культурным наследием и сильной промышленной базой. От своих первых дней как крепости до нынешнего статуса в качестве крупного экономического и образовательного центра, Воронеж сыграл значительную роль в развитии России. С его разнообразной экономикой, известными образовательными учреждениями и оживленной культурной сценой, Воронеж предлагает уникальное сочетание традиций и современности, делая его привлекательным местом для посетителей и процветающим городом для его жителей.
Here follows the obit from the NYT.
Please read my tags!
Madeleine L’Engle, Writer of Children’s Classics, Is Dead at 88
By DOUGLAS MARTIN
Published: September 8, 2007
Madeleine L’Engle, who in writing more than 60 books, including childhood fables, religious meditations and science fiction, weaved emotional tapestries transcending genre and generation, died Thursday in Connecticut. She was 88.
Her death, of natural causes, was announced today by her publisher, Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
Ms. L’Engle (pronounced LENG-el) was best known for her children’s classic, “A Wrinkle in Time,” which won the John Newbery Award as the best children’s book of 1963. By 2004, it had sold more than 6 million copies, was in its 67th printing and was still selling 15,000 copies a year.
Her works — poetry, plays, autobiography and books on prayer — were deeply, quixotically personal. But it was in her vivid children’s characters that readers most clearly glimpsed her passionate search for the questions that mattered most. She sometimes spoke of her writing as if she were taking dictation from her subconscious.
“Of course I’m Meg,” Ms. L’Engle said about the beloved protagonist of “A Wrinkle in Time.”
The “St. James Guide to Children’s Writers” called Ms. L’Engle “one of the truly important writers of juvenile fiction in recent decades.” Such accolades did not come from pulling punches: “Wrinkle” is one of the most banned books because of its treatment of the deity.
“It was a dark and stormy night,” it begins, repeating the line of a 19th- century novelist Edward George Bulwer-Lytton, and presaging the immortal sentence that Snoopy, the inspiration-challenged beagle of the Peanuts cartoon, would type again and again. After the opening, “Wrinkle,” quite literally, takes off. Meg Murray, with help from her psychic baby brother, uses time travel and extrasensory perception to rescue her father, a gifted scientist, from a planet controlled by the Dark Thing. She does so through the power of love.
The book used concepts that Ms. L’Engle said she had plucked from Einstein’s theory of relativity and Planck’s quantum theory, almost flaunting her frequent assertion that children’s literature is literature too difficult for adults to understand. She also characterized the book as her refutation of ideas of German theologians.
In the “Dictionary of Literary Biography,” Marygail G. Parker notes “a peculiar splendor” in Ms. L’Engle’s oeuvre, and some of that splendor is sheer literary range. “Wrinkle” is part of her series of children’s books, which includes “A Wind in the Door,” “A Swiftly Tilting Planet,” “Many Waters” and “An Acceptable Time.” The series combines elements of science fiction with insights into love and moral purpose that pervade Ms. L’Engle’s writing.
Ms. L’Engle’s other famous series of books concerned another family. The first installment, “Meet the Austins,” which appeared in 1960, portrayed an affectionate family whose members displayed enough warts to make them interesting. (Perhaps not enough for The Times Literary Supplement in London, though; it called the Austins “too good to be real.”)
By the fourth of the five Austin books, “A Ring of Endless Light,” any hint of Pollyanna was gone. Named a Newbery Honor Book in 1981, it told of a 16-year-old girl’s first experience with death. Telepathic communication with dolphins eventually helps the girl, Vicky, achieve a new understanding of things.
“The cosmic battle between light and darkness, good and evil, love and indifference, personified in the mythic fantasies of the ‘Wrinkle in Time’ series, here is waged compellingly in its rightful place: within ourselves,” Carol Van Strum wrote in The Washington Post in 1980.
Madeleine L’Engle Camp was born in Manhattan on the snowy night of Nov. 29, 1918. The only child of Madeleine Hall Barnett and Charles Wadsworth Camp, she was named for her great-grandmother, who was also named Madeleine L’Engle.
Young Madeleine’s mother came from Jacksonville, Fla., society and was a fine pianist; her father was a World War I veteran who worked as a foreign correspondent and later as drama and music critic for The New York Sun. He also knocked out potboiler novels.
The family lived on the Upper East Side of Manhattan; her parents had artistic friends, Madeleine an English nanny. She felt unpopular at school. She recalled that an elementary school teacher – Miss Pepper or Miss Salt, she couldn’t remember which — treated her as if she were stupid.
She had written her first story at 5 and retreated into writing. When she won a poetry contest in the fifth grade, her teacher accused her of plagiarizing. Her mother intervened to prove her innocence, lugging a stack of her stories from home.
When she was 12, she was sent to a boarding school in Switzerland, Chatelard, and at 15 to Ashley Hall, a boarding school in Charleston, S.C. She graduated from Smith College with honors in English. (She took no science, often a surprise to readers impressed with her science fiction.)
Returning to New York, Ms. L’Engle began to get small acting parts. She wrote her first novel, “The Small Rain,” in 1945 and had several plays she wrote produced.
She met the actor Hugh Franklin when both were appearing in a production of Chekhov’s “The Cherry Orchard.” They married in 1946, and their daughter Josephine was born the next year. In 1951, when Ms. L’Engle became pregnant again, they moved to the small town of Goshen, Conn., where they bought and ran a general store. Their son, Bion, was born in 1952, and in 1956 they adopted another daughter, Maria.
Mr. Franklin died in 1986 and Bion in 1999. Ms. L’Engle is survived by her daughters, Josephine F. Jones and Maria Rooney; five grandchildren; and five great-grandchildren.
Ms. L’Engle’s writing career was going so badly in her 30s that she claimed she almost quit writing at 40. But then “Meet the Austins” was published in 1960, and she was already deeply into “Wrinkle.” The inspiration came to her during a 10-week family camping trip.
That was just the start. She once described herself as a French peasant cook who drops a carrot in one pot, a piece of potato in another and an onion and a piece of meat in another.
“At dinnertime, you look and see which pot smells best and pull it forward,” she was quoted as saying in a 2001 book, “Madeleine L’Engle (Herself): Reflections on a Writing Life,” compiled by Carole F. Chase.
“The same is true with writing,” she continued. “There are several pots on my backburners.”
Her deeper thoughts on writing were deliciously mysterious. She believed that experience and knowledge are subservient to the subconscious and perhaps larger, spiritual influences.
“I think that fantasy must possess the author and simply use him,” she said in an interview with Horn Book magazine in 1983. “I know that is true of ‘A Wrinkle in Time.’ I cannot possibly tell you how I came to write it. It was simply a book I had to write. I had no choice.
“It was only after it was written that I realized what some of it meant.”
What turned out to be her masterpiece was rejected by 26 publishers. Editors at Farrar, Straus and Giroux loved it enough to publish it, but told her that she should not be disappointed if it failed.
The family moved back to New York, where Hugh Franklin won fame as Dr. Charles Tyler on the popular soap opera “All My Children.” For more than three decades, starting in 1966, Ms. L’Engle served as librarian and writer-in-residence at the Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine. One or two of her dogs often accompanied her to the cathedral library.
Much of her later work was autobiographical, although sometimes a bit idealized; she often said that her real truths were in her fiction. Indeed, she discussed her made-up stories the way a newspaper reporter might discuss his latest article about a crime.
When her son, then 10, protested the death of Joshua in “The Arm of the Starfish” (1965), she insisted that she could not change the tale, which was still unpublished at the time.
“I didn’t want Joshua to die, either,” Ms. L’Engle said in 1987 in a speech accepting the Margaret Edwards Award from the American Library Association for lifetime achievement in writing young adult literature, one of scores of awards she received.
“But that’s what happened. If I tried to change it, I’d be deviating from the truth of the story.”
Her characters continued living their lives even if she hadn’t mentioned them for decades. She had gotten word that Polly O’Keefe, who appeared in three books of the “Time Fantasy” series, was in medical school, she said a few months before the library speech.
A woman wrote her to say that she herself was a first-year medical student at Yale and that she would love to have Polly in her class. Ms. L’Engle said fine, and the student went to the registrar’s office to sign up Polly as an “official” Yale medical student.
“Why does anybody tell a story?” Ms. L’Engle once asked, even though she knew the answer.
“It does indeed have something to do with faith,” she said, “faith that the universe has meaning, that our little human lives are not irrelevant, that what we choose or say or do matters, matters cosmically.”
It was only in the year 1214
that the Church received the Rosary in its present form
and according to the method we use today.
It was given to the Church by St. Dominic,
who had received it from the Blessed Virgin
as a means of converting the Albigensians and other sinners.
Saint Dominic, seeing that the gravity of people's sins
was hindering the conversion of the Albigensians,
withdrew into a forest near Toulouse,
where he prayed continuously for three days and three nights.
During this time he did nothing but weep and do harsh penances
in order to appease the anger of God.
He used his discipline so much that his body was lacerated,
and finally he fell into a coma.
At this point our Lady appeared to him,
accompanied by three Queens, with fifty maidens and she said,
"Dear Dominic, do you know which weapon the Blessed Trinity wants to use to reform the world?"
"Oh, my Lady," answered Saint Dominic, "you know far better than I do, because next to your Son Jesus Christ you have always been the chief instrument of our salvation."
Then our Lady replied,
"I want you to know that, in this kind of warfare, the principal weapon has always been the Angelic Psalter, which is the foundation-stone of the New Testament. Therefore, if you want to reach these hardened souls and win them over to God, preach my Psalter."
So he arose, comforted, and burning with zeal
for the conversion of the people in that district,
he made straight for the cathedral.
At once unseen angels rang the bells to gather the people together,
and Saint Dominic began to preach.
At the very beginning of his sermon, an appalling storm broke out,
the earth shook, the sun was darkened, and there was so much thunder and lightning that all were very much afraid.
Even greater was their fear when, looking at a picture of our Lady
exposed in a prominent place, they saw her raise her arms to heaven three times to call down God's vengeance upon them if they failed to be converted, to amend their lives, and seek the protection of the Holy Mother of God.
God wished, by means of these supernatural phenomena,
to spread the new devotion of the holy Rosary
and to make it more widely known.
At last, at the prayer of Saint Dominic,
the storm came to an end, and he went on preaching.
So fervently and compellingly did he explain
the importance and value of the Rosary
that almost all the people of Toulouse embraced it
and renounced their false beliefs.
In a very short time a great improvement was seen in the town;
people began leading Christian lives and gave up
their former bad habits.
Inspired by the Holy Spirit, instructed by the Blessed Virgin
as well as by his own experience,
Saint Dominic preached the Rosary for the rest of his life.
He preached it by his example as well as by his sermons,
in cities and in country places, to people of high station and low,
before scholars and the uneducated, to Catholics and to heretics.
The Rosary, which he said every day, was his preparation
for every sermon and his little union with our Lady
immediately after preaching.
Rebecca (1940) is the classic Hitchcock gothic thriller and a compelling mystery (and haunting ghost story) about a tortured romance. An expensively-produced film by David O. Selznick (following his recent success with Gone With The Wind (1939)), it was Hitchcock's first American/Hollywood film, although it retained distinctly British characteristics from his earlier murder mysteries. The somber film's screenplay (by Robert E. Sherwood and Joan Harrison) was based on a literal translation of Daphne du Maurier's 1938 gothic novel of the same name, in the tradition of Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre. One of the film's posters asks the intriguing question: "What was the secret of Manderley?"
The film creates a brooding atmosphere surrounding the tragic courtship, marriage and relationship of a naive, plain and innocent young woman (Joan Fontaine) to a brooding and overburdened widower - an aristocratic, moody patriarch (Laurence Olivier) who lives in an estate named Manderley. The pathetic, bewildered and shy bride experiences fear, pain and guilt when psychologically dominated by the 'presence' (and memories) of the deceased first wife (named Rebecca but never seen on screen), and when she is tormented by Rebecca's blindly adoring, sinister and loyal housekeeper's (Anderson) recollections of the dead woman. Only by film's end, with the flaming destruction of the estate, do the real character and secrets of Rebecca's death become clear. Many well-known actresses tested for the part of the young woman - Loretta Young, Margaret Sullavan, Anne Baxter and Vivien Leigh (her role in Gone With the Wind (1939) made her participation impossible), and Ronald Colman was also considered for the male lead role.
Después de Billy Wilder, puedo decir sin dudar que mi director favorito es Alfred Hitchcock.
Hace una semana vi la que considero su peor película, lo que me hizo pasar el día de hoy revisitando dos de sus mejores películas, Rear Window, y de la que voy a hablar a continuación: Rebecca.
El siguiente es un ensayo que escribí hace unos meses luego de haberla visto después de muchos años:
"No la considero una película de Hitchcock. Es una historia sin humor.”… “No es más que una simple novelette”...“Ha envejecido bastante bien, no entiendo por qué.”
Alfred Hitchcock comenta sobre Rebecca en una de sus entrevistas con François Truffaut.
David O. Selznick, uno de los personajes clave del Studio System de Hollywood, vio en Alfred Hitchcock la posibilidad de dar a sus producciones, las más populares del género Costume Drama, el estilo novedoso que notó en sus exitosos filmes hechos en el Reino Unido como The 39 Steps [1935] o The Lady Vanishes [1938]. Este estilo, del que Hitchcock se convirtió en alumno adelantado, lo aprendió durante su estadía en Alemania durante los años 20.
Aprendió de los técnicos expresionistas alemanes del cine que [como lo denominarían los franceses años más tarde] el mise-en-scène era esencial a la hora de contar una historia. Los movimientos de la cámara y la manera en que los actores eran colocados delante de ella, los sets y decorados eran tan o más importantes que la historia misma. La creación de una atmósfera era vital. Mientras los primeros técnicos norteamericanos preferían dar forma a la película en la sala de edición, los alemanes pensaban que esta construcción debía comenzar desde antes del mismo rodaje. Esta práctica de “pre-visualizar” antes de rodar, Hitchcock la utilizaría a lo largo de toda su carrera.
La relación entre Selznick y Hitchcock fue tormentosa pero muy productiva. El primer filme surgido de esta unión es una de las obras maestras indiscutidas del Maestro del Suspense: Rebecca.
Durante su estadía en Monte Carlo sirviendo como dama de compañía a una señora adinerada, Joan Fontaine se enamora y se casa con Laurence Olivier. Al regresar a Manderley, la vieja mansión de éste, descubre que la presencia de Rebecca, su ex-esposa muerta en un accidente, está todavía latente de una manera extraña en la vida de todos los que habitan allí.
La grandeza de esta obra está dada por dos factores: Primero porque, aún al ser vista sin tomar en cuenta la historia de quien la dirige, es simplemente un excelente ejercicio en suspense. Segundo, y quizás la razón por la cual es tan venerada entre los estudiosos de su autor, es que en la misma logró plasmar todos sus temas favoritos, a pesar de tratarse de una obra de encargo. Como el mismo Hitchcock contó a François Truffaut durante una de sus entrevistas, la consideraba una obra de Selznick y no suya.
La película está estructurada alrededor de tres personajes arquetípicos del universo Hitchcockiano: la figura materna tiránica, un hombre atormentado por su pasado, y una mujer atrapada en el medio de una situación que no comprende y sobre la que no tiene control. Unidos a estos tres, están otros dos personajes con una presencia tan fuerte o mayor: Rebecca y Manderley. Por un lado, la importancia de Rebecca en la historia se observa en el simple hecho de que es el único personaje a quien siempre se menciona por su nombre. El nombre del personaje de Joan Fontaine nunca es mencionado ni en la novela original de Daphne Du Maurier ni en la película, Laurence Olivier es simplement e Mr. De Winter, mientras que Judith Anderson es sólo Mrs. Danvers. Tan importante es Manderley, que la película inicia y termina con memorables imágenes suyas.
Como es común en el canon de Hitchcock, sus personajes están controlados por sus obsesiones: De Winter y Mrs. Danvers por el fantasma de Rebecca y la nueva Mrs. De Winter por querer emularla. También utilizó su recurso de dividir los personajes en dos bandos: los que persiguen [Rebecca, Mrs. Danvers] y las presas perseguidas [Mr. y Mrs. De Winter].
Las frustraciones y la represión sexual [tema recurrente y presente en casi toda su filmografía] tienen una presencia tan fuerte en el filme, que resulta verdaderamente insólito que Hitchcock pudiera salirse con la suya frente a los censores de la época. Esta represión tan fuerte hace que los caracteres concentren toda esa frustración en un personaje que ya no existe y al que están tratando de materializar con sus actos. El ama de llaves Mrs. Danvers nunca pudo satisfacer su [para la época escandaloso] deseo sexual lésbico por Rebecca, Maxim De Winter es incapaz de hacer a ninguna mujer feliz, porque su pasado con Rebecca nunca le permitirá volver a confiar en nadie, y la nueva Mrs. De Winter siente un gran complejo por ser menos atractiva y refinada que Rebecca. La confusión de identidades, otro de los temas emblema de Hitchcock, está también presente en la nueva Mrs. De Winter, quien llega al punto de creer que el fantasma de Rebecca la está poseyendo.
Es increíble que un personaje al que nunca vemos en pantalla tenga una presencia tan fuerte a lo largo de toda la trama. Responsable en parte de esto es la impresionante labor fotográfica ganadora del Oscar, obra de George Barnes [con quien Hitchcock trabajaría nuevamente en Spellbound [1945], otra producción de Selznick], sugiriendo en cada plano que en realidad existe una presencia en Manderley.
Pero, ¿cuál es el rol de Manderley -una casa- en esta historia?
Manderley no es más que una extensión de Rebecca. Aunque su predilección era rodar en interiores para tener un control absoluto de todos los elementos, las locaciones siempre tuvieron un lugar importante en las historias de Hitchcock, convirtiéndolas en personajes centrales: el motel Bates de Psycho [1960], el campanario del convento de Vertigo [1958], Mount Rushmore en North by Northwest [1959] o el Albert Music Hall en The Man Who Knew Too Much [1956]. Manderley representa todo lo que ella era: la opulencia, la clase, el refinamiento, los sueños de Maxim de Winter hechos realidad, pero al mismo tiempo la frialdad, la omnipresencia desde su habitación con vista al mar.
En la escena final, una de las más memorables en toda la historia del cine, luego que descubrimos quién era en realidad Rebecca, la imagen idealizada de ésta queda hecha cenizas al igual que Manderley. La desaparición tanto de Rebecca como de Manderley suponen una especie de exorcismo o redención para los personajes, pero ¿experimentarán una verdadera redención, cambiarán para ser mejores?, ¿Darán un verdadero cierre a ese capítulo de sus vidas? Esta es una pregunta que Hitchcock muy pocas veces respondía y prefería dejarla a opción del espectador. Otro ejemplo de esto es coincidencialmente otra de las colaboraciones de Hitchcock con Joan Fontaine, Suspicion [1941].
Mr. Hitchcock es uno de los grandes del cine porque como pocos supo hallar el balance entre el entretenimiento y el arte. Sus películas son espectáculos que satisfacen los sentidos y, al mismo tiempo, su carga temática nos deja pensando y descubriendo nuevos detalles cada vez que visitamos nuevamente cualquiera de ellas. No era muy dado a trabajar con actores. Como dijo la misma Joan Fontaine, Hitchcock mantenía una actitud de control y mando en sus sets. Exigía lealtad incondicional, pero sólo hacia él.
Rebecca fue su única obra en ganar el Oscar a Mejor Película. Nunca ganó un Oscar competitivo. Tampoco le hizo falta. No fue sino hasta 1968 que recibió el premio Irving G. Thalberg por toda su trayectoria. Su discurso fue el más corto de la historia de los premios de la Academia: “Gracias.”
A HIGHLY IMPORTANT CELTIC LA TÈNE GOLD WARRIOR FIBULA
3RD CENTURY B.C.
Finely detailed, with a youthful naked warrior confronting an attacking wolf-like hound, the warrior wearing a Montefortino type helmet and armed with a La Tène shield and scabbard with belt, the pommel and hilt of a sword in his right hand, resting on an intricately ornamented bow terminating in twin hound heads with curling mane composed of eight spirals, traces of blue enamel in the filigree decoration, the catch-plate with tapering twisted wire foot emerging from a snarling hound head protome with a moveable boar's head slider to secure the pin, the underside of the catch-plate with chased mane with six curls on either side, traces of blue enamel in the central guilloche decorated cordon, eyes of the warrior and animals deeply recessed to take inlays, mounted
5 9/16 in. (14.1 cm.) long
Provenance
Thomas F. Flannery, Jr. collection: acquired in Chicago circa 1949 from Warren Piper; it is believed that he acquired it from the heirs of a descendant of an 18th/19th Century noble European family, who emigrated to the USA on the death of her husband in 1919.
Exhibited
On loan to the British Museum, London, 1993-2000; exhibited in the Iron Age Gallery, 1997-2000.
Early Celtic Art, Royal Scottish Museum, Edinburgh, and the Hayward Gallery, London, 1970, no. 35.
CONDITION:
A British Museum laboratory analysis of the gold gives the following results: 79.6 gold, 11 silver, 9.4 copper, which is characteristic of unrefined ancient gold.
Traces of blue enamel in the bow's filigree decoration, on the central cordon and in one eye of the animal head protome. Pin and spring missing. Solder repair joining catch-plate to animal head terminal on bow. Warrior's two foot rests repaired underneath attacking hound. Side attachments to helmet now missing. Sword blade missing with solder mark on warrior's right shoulder where blade may have been supported.
PUBLISHED:
B. Cunliffe, The Ancient Celts, London, 1999, p. 93; S. James, Exploring the World of the Celts, London, 1998, p. 42; J. Wood, The Celts, London, 1998, p. 13; P. Berresford Ellis, Celt and Roman: the Celts in Italy, London, 1998, pl. after p. 114; I. M. Stead and N. D. Meeks, The Celtic Warrior Fibula, The Antiquaries Journal, 76, 1996, pp. 1-16; I. Zaczek, Chronicles of the Celts, London, 1996, p. 25; R. M. Rowlett, The Golden Celtic Warrior Fibula, Studies in Mediterranean Archaeology, Jonsered, 101, 1993, pp. 198-228; R. and V. Megaw, Celtic Art, London, 1989, p. 122 and 124; Early Celtic Art, exhibition catalogue, Edinburgh, 1970, p. 8, no. 35; K. Raddatz, Die Shatzfunde der iberischen Halbinsel, Madrider Forschungern, 5, Madrid, 1969, p. 144; O. Klindt-Jensen, A Golden Statuette of a Celtic Warrior, Antiquity, 35, 1961, p. 53, pl. 5; Celticum: Actes du premier colloque international d'etudes gauloises, celtiques et protoceltiques, I, Rennes, 1961 (front cover); and O. Klindt-Jensen, Una statuetta d'oro d'un guerriero celtico, Documenti e Studi, 6, Bologna, 1960, pp. 361-366.
The Celts were renowned for their fine metalwork, creating their own unique style although with possible influences from Hellenistic, Etruscan and Thracian metalworking. Access to gold came through local European sources, as well as through trade and bullion. From circa 400 B.C. onwards Celtic migrations led to trade and conflicts which generated huge amounts of booty. Migrations from the original Celtic heartland centred in the Marne, Moselle and Bohemia regions (known as La Tène culture), brought the Celts into conflict with the Romans. The sack of Rome in 390 BC only ended after the Celts had been paid off in substantial amounts of gold which, according to Livy, amounted to 1000lbs in weight. The valley of the River Danube funnelled migration eastwards towards the Balkans. The Celts defeated the Macedonians in 280 B.C. and laid siege to the Greek sanctuary of Delphi a year later. From the same date, a band of Celts (the Galatians) even reached as far as Asia Minor, the furthest eastern point of their influence.
The confident workmanship of the Celtic Gold Warrior Fibula therefore comes at a time of the widest extent of the Celtic world in the 3rd Century B.C. The Fibula is exquisitely created from a pure and rich coloured gold with its vibrant and dynamic subject of a Celtic warrior hero surrounded by snarling and ferocious animals, giving the effect of a larger three-dimensional sculptural group. The attention to detail is remarkable from the accurately observed weapons and armour to the carefully delineated toes and fingers of the warrior clasping the grip on the back of the shield; so, too, the finely chased animal heads and the delicate filigree tracery on the bow of the fibula in which are traces of blue enamel. The deeply inset eyes of both the warrior and the animals would, also, have been enlivened with blue enamel.
Rare amongst ancient fibulae of this period is the ingenious locking mechanism to ensure that the pin did not spring free. On the curving bow, the animal head furthest from the warrior would have been fitted with a coiled spring and pin which would have attached the folds of drapery to the wearer's right shoulder. The pin, now missing, would have slotted into the catch-plate over which the boar's head slides to lock it into place. The top of the boar's head has a runnel into which the snout of the pursuing second animal on the bow rests. This boar's head locking mechanism still slides easily up and down and is a clever decorative device that solves the problem of securely fixing the pin. Evidence of wear along the spirally twisted foot of the Fibula would suggest that it was indeed worn more regularly than solely for ceremonial use.
The style of the Fibula suggests influences not only from the Mediterranean world but also from Western Europe. The filigree decoration on the bow closely copies a Greek motif while the warrior bears a large oval shield which is typical of the La Tène period in Celtic chronology. Close parallels include The Chertsey Shield, a fine bronze 3rd-2nd Century B.C. shield found in the River Thames at Chertsey in Surrey, as well as depictions of captured Celtic armour on the late 2nd Century B.C. reliefs at the sanctuary at Pergamon in Asia Minor. From the warrior's waist-belt hangs a La Tène type scabbard, typically depicted on the right handside; in his right hand he wields the now bladeless hilt of his sword. The helmet, of Montefortino type, has solder traces on the sides from either horn or wing attachments.
The heroic nudity of our figure fits with descriptions of Celtic warriors in ancient literature and from archaeology. The famous group of Roman marble copies of statues from Pergamon of dead or dying Celts are all depicted naked. There are descriptions in literature of Celts fighting naked. In Polybius' description of the Battle of Telamon in Italy in 225 B.C. between the Romans and Celts, he writes that they threw off their garments "owing to their proud confidence in themselves, and stood naked, with nothing but their weapons, in front of the whole army".
What the imagery on the Fibula symbolizes is open to speculation. It should be remembered that the Celts had a love of visual riddles, so well seen in their convoluted designs often hiding secondary images. This extended into their religion and mythology, too, with tales of deities frequently changing shape and taking on the guise of animals. Apart from the obvious boar head, the animals all come from the canine family and are dogs or wolf-like hounds. Certainly boars and dogs figure prominently in Celtic iconography. As a hunting scene, the snarling dogs could well be in pursuit of their quarry, the boar. However, the boar was not only hunted, but also revered as a sacred animal possessing magical qualities. It was a symbol of fertility, strength and power, as well as that of protection and, as such, frequently occurs as the device on shields and as helmet crests.
However, the Fibula is most likely to represent a noble youthful hero successfully overcoming initiation tests. The hero on the Fibula is clean-shaven suggesting a youth on the verge of manhood. He is shown in conflict with a ferocious wolf or hound, having to overcome his first initiation to pass into full manhood and take up his status in the warrior class. This theme is frequently met in European and Mediterranean myth and legend. In later Celtic Irish literature, Cú Chulainn, "the Hound of Cúlann", the young hero of the Ulster Cycle, undergoes his first initiation by having to kill the watchdog of Cúlann before going on to become the superhuman champion of his people. Later in the tales, he is harried in combat by Morrigan who changes herself into various animals including a she-wolf. Although the Ulster Cycle is based on 9th Century A.D. manuscripts, it has been argued that the heart of these stories lies in a much earlier Celtic European tradition. In the Greek myth of the Labours of Herakles, Herakles captured the cattle of Geryon by killing the guard-dog, Orthrus, as well as capturing Cerberus, the three-headed dog guarding the entrance to the Underworld. In Thrace, an area overun by the Celts in circa 270 B.C., the local war deity is Kandaon meaning "dog-strangler" who was said to have a wolf-like appearance. Mythical Thracian heroes often had names derived from the Greek word for wolf "lykos" and the wolf and dog came to symbolize the hero-warrior or war. There are obvious iconographic parallels, too, with St. George and the Dragon.
The Celtic world was certainly based on a noble aristocratic warrior society with tribal groups being headed by a chief or king. Prestige, power and status were won by courageous exploits and the accumulation of wealth in the form of livestock and, above all, gold. Polybius writing about the Celts of northern Italy states that "Their possessions consisted of cattle and gold, because these were the only things they could carry about with them everywhere", Diodorus Siculus writes "they amass a great amount of gold which is used for ornament not only by the women but also by the men".
The Celtic Gold Warrior Fibula is an exceptional example of the skillful creation of an exquisite portable luxury treasure conveying the power and wealth of its noble and prestigious owner. The technical virtuosity of its construction is breathtaking and the dynamic composition with the strangely gentle face of its human participant makes this object compellingly charismatic.
CL42501293
I never saw 1999's Wild Wild West, but of course its reputation precedes it. Still, it's streaming on Netflix, and I thought, "You know what? I bet people have exaggerated its faults."
The stylish opening credits sequence seemed to confirm my suspicion that Wild Wild West would prove to be an underrated film. Maybe even a classic!
...oh lord above.
I couldn't get through five minutes. Wild Wild West is fascinating in its badness. The only movie I can think of that's similarly almost compellingly terrible is 1997's Batman and Robin. Apparently the late '90s weren't a good time for genre films.
Still and all, Time Zone Toys in Boise had this steampunk flying bicycle still sealed in its box for a fair price, and it includes a James West (Will Smith) figure, so I reckoned I'd photograph it with the (rather cheesy) James West piloting it.
Instead, much to my delight, it's large enough to be roughly in scale with NECA's Lone Ranger figure! He can even ride it, as you'll see in additional photos throughout the week. ('Cause that's what you're all clamoring for: more Lone Ranger photos).
Lincoln Continental Mk III - 1969
Encountered this huge beast/boat of a car at Vineland Estates Winery, Niagara, Ontario. There is something compellingly excessive and 'over the top' about it - yet strangely streamlined and 'retro' - that demanded a photograph. Note the vestigial tail fins.....
This is the first of a series about this South African self-help project ( with some assistannce from a local Soroptimist Society )... which meets in a local Catholic school....
You will need to look at photos in the comment section to get the picture ( this new !!!!!! Flickr layout...more difficult )
The work here is individual, colourful, energetic.... entirely each woman's own interpretation.
The woman in the first photo is showing off her beautiful beadwork...a version of a married woman's belt.
Many of these people have never seen the real animals...they know them from picture books...not even zoos...and they obviously like using lots of colour in their versions.
Some of the work they do has political or historical references...I will show them in the next series of photos from South Africa.
We were happy that we were able to bring such items as embroidery needles, , fabrics, reading glasses etc to these people...their resources are meagre. They are not paid for their work until it is sold.
PLEASE see the pics in the attached comments !!
and the next section is a description of a book, written in 2006 about the project:
"Book Description
Publication Date: January 1, 2006
The Mapula Embroidery Project in the Winterveld is one of the most important community art projects in South Africa. In addition to generating an income for economically disadvantaged women, Mapula embroideries couple high levels of technical and visual artistry with topics that speak eloquently of public histories as well as women's personal experiences.
Dazzling in colour and inventive in design, the embroideries also engage compellingly with social and political issues that have shaped the lives of their makers. In Mapula: Embroidery and Empowerment in the Winterveld, Brenda Schmahmann discusses the complex circumstances that resulted in the founding of Mapula in 1991, when the Winterveld was part of the former homeland of Bophuthatswana.
She examines the backgrounds of project members, revealing how women's experiences of disempowerment have been bound up with the politics of race and gender. She explores the ways in which the Mapula Embroidery Project is managed and organised, identifying the challenges that confront those engaged in development work. She also offers a detailed analysis of a range of embroideries, placing particular emphasis on the women's choice and treatment of subject matter and suggesting that topics chosen by the embroiderers frequently address political and economic disempowerment.
As her study indicates, Mapula embroideries are remarkable works of art that not only attest to the creativity of South African women but also provide us with invaluable insights about the anxieties and aspirations of females in a transforming society. Mapula: Embroidery and Empowerment in the Winterveld is the most comprehensive study of Mapula to be published to date and the first book with an exclusive focus on a community embroidery project in South Africa. "
You can google the book, and the project.
...
Thanks to Amelia Burns for letting me do some processing work on this photograph. You can find her original photograph here. This photograph has a compellingly surreal presence about it. I just tried to push it a bit more in that direction.
photography - Amelia Burns © 2008
processing - Tim Lowly
Fontaine et lavoirA " Lavoir" (Laundrette) was a public basin for washing clothes. The " Lavoir" was fed with water either from a water source or a running stream, and in general the washing area was under cover. Some of the lavoirs had a fireplace for producing the cinders required for blanching. Either in stone, in brick or more modestly in wood or cob (timber frame with a clay mix infill), they well deserve to be preserved de la Chapelle de Ste Marine - Combrit