I'm just not particularly inspired tonight. I feel overworked, underslept, and I have to be up at 4AM. This 365 project is starting to feel like a tourniquet cutting off my creativity. Maybe I'll just do some strobist portraits like this for a while and see where it goes.

 

View Large and on Black

 

Strobist: AB1600 with 60X30 softbox camera right. Triggered by Cybersync.

-^- Central City Hospital -^-

 

"J-Joe?"

 

Barry's half lidded eyes stared at the bald man, fast asleep in a chair. His gaze shifted to his arm, catching the IV. It was only then he realized he was in a hospital bed. It hurt to breathe, it hurt to move, and it felt like he'd been jumped on by a gorilla.

 

He then caught sight of Jay, standing outside the room. He opened his mouth to call for him, but the words came out strangled and breathy. Raising his hand through the pain, he snapped his fingers, sending a small burst of air to tap the window.

 

Jay turned to the noise, immediately rushing into the room. The sound of the door opening and closing awoke Joe, who immediately leapt to a stand.

 

"Barry!" Joe shouted, grabbing onto the blond's hand, breathing heavily. "Barry what… what the hell happened to you!?"

 

"I… dunno…" he lied, struggling to speak. "Everything… was a blur…"

 

"You… you could've… " Joe started, stopping himself with a deep breath, squeezing Barry's hand tighter. "You're lucky Flash was around."

 

"Sorry… Joe… hurts to talk…"

 

I… just… just rest, son," Joe mumbled, letting out his breath. "Just rest."

 

Barry looked to Jay, but his eyes struggled to stay open.

 

"Listen to your father, kid," Jay said, nodding to Barry. "You can rest a bit."

 

Barry wanted to stay awake, tried to, but his body betrayed him. His eyes fell shut, sending him into a deep sleep.

 

-^- West Household, 2 days later -^-

 

Joe entered the house, rubbing his tired eyes.

 

"Hey dad," Daniel said, waving to his father from the couch. He sat with a cup of coffee on the table and textbook in his hand.

 

"Shouldn't you be at CCU?" Joe asked, tilting his head to the side.

 

"I would be," Daniel said as he stood from the couch, closing the textbook and walking over to his father, "if it wasn't Saturday. You've been running nonstop since Barry was in that accident… he didn't come back with you?"

 

"No… The Flash, the old one… he offered to have an old friend check him out," Joe mumbled, hanging his head on the rack, along with his coat. "He wants to make sure what caused the accident wasn't…"

 

"A meta attack," Daniel said, placing his hand on his father's back and leading him to sit on the couch. Daniel stared at his father. He'd seen him overwork before, for much longer periods than this. It was different now though. His eyes didn't just look tired, but terrified. "Dad, you okay?"

 

"I'm fine," he said. "Just tired is all."

 

"You don't look 'just tired' right now," Daniel replied, catching the trembling of his father's hand.

 

"Daniel, believe me-"

 

"Dad, you don't have to lie to me."

 

"What if it was Eradicator…"

 

Daniel froze at the name, a cold chill running down his spine. His father's eyes screamed in fear, his breathing was harsh and unorthodox, and his skin looked cold to the touch.

 

Swallowing the lump in his throat, he reachout out, rubbing Joe's shoulder. "Dad, it wasn't," Daniel said, taking a deep breath. "They said he was likely hit by a truck… you know that's not… not his way of doing things."

 

"I-I know… Daniel, I just," Joe paused, lowering his head. "What if it was? What if instead of Flash finding him broken and bloody in the street, he was just a pile of ash. Would he have even found him? Would one of my son's just disappear with no knowing of whatever happened to him?"

 

"But it wasn't Era… erad…" Daniel paused, closing his eyes and calming himself down. "It wasn't h-him… he hasn't made an appearance since the new Flash arrived… he's a ghost dad… one that you shouldn't live every moment being afraid of."

 

"I know I shouldn't… but…" Joe stopped, rubbing his eyes. "I'm sorry Daniel, I didn't mean to..."

 

"You don't have to be sorry, dad," Daniel said, smiling at the older man. "This time of the year… it's hard on all of us."

 

"It doesn't matter, you shouldn't have to see your father like this."

 

"And you shouldn't have to hide away your emotions just to look strong for us." Daniel replied. "I promise you, anyone would say you're the strongest man in the world."

 

"Nah…" Joe chuckled, "that's you… and Barry… and August. The three of you have all gone through so much and you're all still so good. You know the saying, all it takes is one bad day? You three show me that it isn't always true. You show me what it truly means to be strong."

 

Daniel smiled, leaning in to hug Joe.

 

"We learned from the best."

 

-^- Keystone City -^-

 

Barry walked into the Garrick household, smiling slightly at the grey-haired woman who bore a worried frown. "Hello… Mrs. Garrick," he said, waving to the woman.

 

"Barry," she mumbled, grabbing his hand and guiding him to the couch. "I told you not to call me that, I'm Joan."

 

"Right, right… my bad," he said, sitting down and leaning his head back. "Jay… what happened back there?"

 

Jay took a seat in the reclining chair across from the couch. "Edward Clariss… the Rival happened," Jay said, staring down at his hands. "He's… he's the most dangerous villain I've ever faced."

 

"He was… so fast…" Barry said, taking a sip from the glass of water Joan had brought him. "It's like everything was moving in slow motion compared to him… even me."

 

"He's faster than before…" Jay said, shaking his head, "so much faster than the last time."

 

"You… don't sound sure…"

 

"That's because… that's because I killed Edward Clariss 30 years ago," Jay said, staring at the picture of him and Alan sitting on the fireplace.

 

"What? Jay I thought… I thought Mardon-"

 

"Mardon was…" Jay said, pausing as he sighed. "Clariss was different. That's what I told myself for a very long time. That he was a monster, who's addiction took every ounce of humanity he had. I told myself no prison could ever truly hold him… and that someone needed to end him…"

 

"Addiction?" Barry asked, tilting his head to the side.

 

"Velocity 5… it was a chemical combination similar to the one you, Wally, and even myself were affected by… except it was crude…" Jay said as he stood, grabbing a notebook and pen from the side table.

 

"The metagene is something every human possesses. A single strand of DNA that is never completely alike, even for people like me and you," Jay explained, drawing a double helix on the paper. "While every human may have one of these metagenes, not everyone can activate it. Only a small percentage of people do, whether it be from birth, trauma, or outside conditions. Wally was lucky that he didn't have a defective gene… if he did…"

 

Barry breathed a sigh of relief. "So… you're saying Clariss used this V5 to activate his gene?" he asked, leaning forward in his chair.

 

"No, Barry," Jay mumbled. "Clariss' metagene was defective. He used my blood to create V5 and give him artificial speed… but the side effects were… taxing."

 

"And you… you killed him?"

 

"I thought I did…" he said, tossing the notebook onto the coffee table and leaning back, hands rubbing his temples. "It was the day I left the Justice Society… I was ready to…" Jay paused, closing his eyes, "I was ready to end everything. I'd killed a man… then told myself I was just. If it weren't for what happened in Zandia I would've taken my own life."

 

"Jay… you told me that saving everyone is an impossible task… and that sometimes we make the wrong call even if we think it's right," he said, leaning forward.

 

"It was my job to-"

 

"We aren't gods, Jay…"

 

Jay's eyes widened, staring at his protege.

 

"That's what you said right? That sometimes we will stumble… but we just have to get back up?"

 

"Barry you just…" Jay started, pausing and looking down, a tear slipping from the corner of his eye. "You… Wally has a pretty good teacher ready for him…"

 

"What can I say?" he asked, smiling at the man. "I learned from the best."

 

Jay chuckled lightly, before his mouth flatlined. "Barry… there's something I need to tell you… about Clariss."

 

"I'm all ears."

 

"It… he… you and your brother Malcolm; the two of you used to play baseball, right?" Jay asked, looking up at Barry.

 

"Huh?" Barry mumbled, nodding his head. "I-I mean, yeah… I don't think I've ever mentioned it though…"

 

"You had a chore list posted on your fridge… you made beds and cleaned toys while your brother helped in the kitchen…"

 

"Jay… how do you?"

 

"When I first made contact with you… I saw their murders, your mom and brothers," Jay revealed, closing his eyes. "It was… some kind of Speed Force memory link? I'm still not entirely sure, but he was there that day. He murdered them, then flaunted it in front of you."

 

"Wh-What?" Barry asked, dumbstruck.

 

"Clariss killed your mom and brother," he said again, sighing. "I don't know why… or what drove him to do so… but I watched it happen."

 

"N-no…" Barry mumbled. "You're wrong… it wasn't Clariss."

 

"Barry, I'm so-"

 

"Listen to me, Jay!" Barry yelled, grabbing the older man's attention. "I… I've lived that day every single night for the past 15 years. Tripping off the bus, running past the sprinklers, helping Ms. Thomas carry in her groceries… the creak of the slightly opened door." he explained as his hands shook. "He was… he was like a black and red mist, one that was made up of pure darkness and hatred and fear… but for just one moment, one single second that he used to raise his bloody hands and taunt me, the mist disappeared… and I saw him for what he was…

 

"A man in yellow."

 

"Yellow?" Jay asked, an eyebrow raising.

 

"It was only for a second, but I saw yellow… and black and red," he explained, sighing as he looked down at his shaking hands. "What you said, it's true. The chores, baseball… but I know what I saw, even if everyone in my life has told me otherwise."

 

"I… I have no reason not to believe you," Jay said, leaning forward, "especially not with the way Clariss was."

 

"What do you mean?"

 

"He-"

 

"Jay!" Joan shouted, causing Jay and Barry to both shoot up from their seats. The two entered the kitchen, spotting Joan who stood staring out the sliding door.

 

"What's wrong?" Jay asked, stepping up next to her.

 

It was then he saw the message burned into their lawn, the flames glowing in the black of night.

 

Greystone Park. Your Rival.

 

Barry turned upon seeing the message stepping out of the kitchen and towards the front door. "I'm going," he said, a look of determination on his face.

 

"You can't fight the Rival, Barry, he's too strong for you," Jay said, following after him and grabbing onto the blond's shoulder.

 

"I don't have a choice, Jay…" Barry said, turning his head back to his mentor. "I can't just let someone get hurt."

 

"You think I want that to happen?" Jay asked, letting go of Barry and stepping towards the display stand holding his old costume. "He's too strong for you alone…"

 

Barry's eyes widened. "Jay, you don't need to do that," he said, shaking his head. "You put down the helmet for a reason…"

 

"And maybe if I never did…" he mumbled, opening the glass of the case, pulling the helmet down, "maybe I could've prevented things that happened. I could've helped the Mardons, stopped the Eradicator, maybe even this man in yellow…

 

"Besides, I'm not letting you finish my fight," Jay said, placing the silver helmet on his head. "Not without me, at least."

 

Barry smiled slightly, nodding at the man. "Then let's do this, Flash."

 

"Not just yet," Jay said, placing a hand in front of Barry. "We have one more stop first."

 

-^- Central City, Greystone Park -^-

 

Barry stepped into the park, his fingers sparkling with lightning. Sat on the fountain, one leg perched, was Clariss. His smile stretched across his face as Jay stepped up next to Barry, fully adorned in his classic costume.

 

"For someone with superspeed, it sure took you a while to arrive… and it seems you've brought a friend," Clariss said, hopping off the fountain and rolling up his trenchcoat's sleeves. "Not that it matters to me, I'm not afraid of ghosts."

 

"This ends here, Clariss," Barry said, narrowing his eyes at the villain. "I'm not gonna let you hurt anyone."

 

"Do you include yourself in that?" he asked, red lightning sparkling around him. "If you are then hahaha… you shouldn't lie, Barry."

 

"How are you still alive, Clariss?" Jay asked, taking a step forward.

 

"How are any of us still alive?" he fired back, shrugging in a mocking manner. "It just means we haven't been killed properly. You should've taken after me, Garrick…" he said, his gaze shifting to Barry, "I made sure Nora and Malcolm were dead before I left."

 

Barry's fists clenched tight and his teeth grit together. His green eyes narrowed, gold sparkling across them. "I know you didn't kill them, Clariss," he said, letting a harsh breath from his nose. "Lying about it won't do you any good."

 

"Why would I lie?" Clariss asked, bringing his hand to grasp his chin. "If I recall, Malcolm wore white pajamas with little fire trucks all over them… his blood hid the design pretty well, if I say so myself."

 

Barry's lip quivered, his breath stuttering. Jay placed a hand on his shoulders, squeezing him lightly. "Barry, calm down…" Jay mumbled, his eyes shifting to Clariss, who stood smiling. "Like you said, it wasn't him."

 

"Nora had a nice smelling pot of soup on the stove," Clariss said, gaining both heroes' gaze. "I should've left her alive a bit longer, she seemed like a woman who'd make a great soup, can you attest to that, Barry?"

 

"Shut… up!" Barry screamed, blitzing Clariss.

 

"Barry, no!" Jay shouted, watching as the boy ran at a smiling Clariss. Taking his helmet off, he flung the metal like a frisbee.

 

Clariss caught Barry's dashing punch, raising his arm to strike the hero down. His head whipped to the side, using his open hand to catch Jay's helmet instead. Barry took the opening, pulling his fist free and sweeping at Clariss's legs. The villain reacted quickly, zipping back, just out of Barry's range. Shifting his head to the right, he moved out of Jay's swing, the blast of air that followed nearly taking his head off. Holding Jay's helmet with both hands, he swiped upwards, knocking the golden age hero off his feet. Barry rushed forward once more, sending a flurry of punches at Clariss, each missing their mark. Raising his arm, he deflected a strike, sending it into Jay's now standing form, knocking the man back down. Clariss raised his foot and slammed it into Barry's back.

 

Barry hit the ground hard, Clariss' supercharged kick likely breaking one of his freshly healed ribs. Jay reached a hand out, helping to lift him from the ground. Barry looked at Clariss, who's smile hadn't moved an inch.

 

"Barry, you need to keep your head in the game," Jay said, placing a hand on his shoulder. "I know more than anyone how easy it is to let him get under your skin… but you can't let him. We just need to hold out a bit longer."

 

"Y-yeah…" Barry mumbled, taking a deep breath. "Yeah, right. Hold out."

 

"Are you strategizing... in front of me?" Clariss asked, pausing before he began to loudly cackle. "That is… truly amusing… especially since you haven't laid a finger on me."

 

"You're as cocky as ever," Jay said, patting Barry's back and turning to the hooded man. "It's always been your downfall."

 

"I'm much different now, Garrick."

 

"I've noticed… you don't twitch anymore," Jay said, taking a step forward. "Why is that?"

 

"So you've become a detective in your old age?" he asked, Barry noticing the way his smile faltered for a moment. "Anything else you've noticed with those keen eyes of yours."

 

"Not really… Clariss…" Jay said, taking another step.

 

"You say my name like it's something special."

 

"Am I saying your name?" Jay said, eyes peering upwards. "Or someone else's? Let's find out."

 

"What are you-"

 

Clariss turned his head, eyes widening at the glowing ball of yellow energy speeding towards him. He tried to move, but it was too late, the blast striking him in the chest and slamming him into the fountain, causing it to crumble.

 

Barry looked up at the open window of the nearby building, spotting Eddie, hands glowing with yellow electricity.

 

"So, he's calling you?" Eddie asked, sitting at a newly installed booth in Vulcan's Veggies. "Last two times you've fought, Barry ended up in the hospital… and you…"

 

"Yes," Jay mumbled, looking down at the ground. "It'll be different this time though. Before I was… clouded by anger and fear, I felt responsible for every life he'd taken. This time… this time I won't be alone."

 

"Mr. Jones, we know that you swore off ever using your powers again, but…"

 

"You need me…" he said, standing from the booth and hobbling towards the backroom. "I told myself I'd never use that curse again."

 

"We understand if you can't, Eddie," Jay said, frowning slightly as Eddie entered the room. "Believe me, I-"

 

"I told myself I'd never use my powers… and yet," he said, exiting the room with a pair of black gloves with silver trim on, "until I met Barry and was brought back into all of this… I hadn't truly smiled since… not since I lost my baby girl."

 

"Eddie…"

 

"I've sat out the fight longer than you have. I've watched the JSA fall, I watched you lose hope…" Eddie said, sparking his hands with electricity. "It's about time I did something with this curse."

 

Jay smiled at Eddie, tipping his helmet to the man standing on the rooftop. Eddie gave him a small salute, before retreating into the building. Jay turned to Barry, his smile flattening. "Let's get him, kid," he said, Barry nodding as the duo neared the fountain.

 

Clariss sparked with yellow lightning, groaning as he pushed himself to a stand out of the shallow water. He panted, hood falling down and folding behind his neck. "I'll admit…" he mumbled, messy blond hair flowing in the wind, "that was a good plan… I'm impressed you could land a hit on me."

 

"I thought something was off," Jay said, eyes narrowing at the man.

 

"I thought… didn't say Clariss was a college professor?" Barry asked, staring at the man. "An older one at that? He almost looks like me."

 

"It's not Clariss…" Jay mumbled, watching as the blond man's smile spread across his face. "I'd thought something was strange back at Eddie's when he first attacked… and especially now. Velocity changed him, his skin was a veiny grey and he twitched with each slight movement. His hair was black too… who the devil are you?"

 

"Ah, right," the man said, his voice shifting from the gruff, booming tone it had been to one much lighter, but still filled with the same dark malice. "I'd gotten so used to being Clariss… I kinda forgot I wasn't."

 

"What's going on?" Barry asked, looking over to Jay. "Where's Clariss? Who are you?"

 

"Oh… Clariss has been dead for what… 30 years now?" he said, shrugging his shoulders. "I tend to lose track of time that isn't my own.

 

"So he did die that day…" Jay mumbled, looking downwards.

 

"If Clariss is dead… then who the hell are you!?" Barry asked, watching as the mysterious man smiled. "And how do you know my name… what happened to…"

 

"C'mon, Barry," he said, vibrating his body rapidly, "Don't go acting like you forgot, you just told Jay about me before you got here."

 

Barry's eyes widened as the red trench coat and black uniform faded, revealing a bright yellow suit with black and red highlights. The cowl mimicked his own, only an inverse of the colors, as did his chest and lightning emblem. Red lightning sparkled off his body as the vibration stopped, showcasing his glowing red eyes and devious smile.

 

"Y-y-you…" Barry stuttered, pointing at the man with his mouth agape.

 

"Me."

 

----------------------------

NEXT TIME: Menace of the Reverse-Flash!

Charcoal used in a different way, a bit like i was using a fineliner

I have to try to draw less with my left arm - i am lefthanded -as it is overworked ( water in my elbow) so i will try what Julia suggested and practice with my right hand aswell

This is of course still with my left hand

 

www.flickr.com/groups/portraitparty/discuss/7215762373025...

After a long absence,this is the first painting i have done, A simple boating scene off the Sussex coast, I have missed you all and have been through many trials recently, health, financial, overworked & underapreciated,However, I am trying to refocus on my goals at present which is Art,art,& art !

Watercolour sketch made on 2 sides of A5

Pencil sketch made on site with colour added at home

 

Green area in foreground got muddy due to being overworked

 

Best to: View Large and On Black

  

This is an experiment that Taty worked on a week or so ago and I decided to post it here now. She's very tired and upset about how slowly works are speeding up, and how easily she gets overworked. The only medicine is sleep acording to me and I will be posting some of what she shot lately. And let's hope for her that she'll be back for 100% soon. Thank you to all of you for the support :)

 

Wishing all of you a great week ahead from Taty and me - Willem

  

German postcard by Edgar Medien AG. Photo: Touchstone Pictures / Bueno Vista International. Kate Beckinsale in Pearl Harbor (Michael Bay, 2001).

 

English actress Kate Beckinsale (1973) started her career in British costume dramas during the 1990s. From 2001 on, she starred in such Hollywood blockbusters as Pearl Harbor (2001), Van Helsing (2003) and The Aviator (2004). After her role as Selene in the Underworld film series (2003–2016), Beckinsale is also known for her work in action films.

 

Kate Beckinsale was born in 1973 in Finsbury Park, London, or in Hounslow, Middlesex, England (the sources differ). However, she has resided in London for most of her life. Her mother is actress Judy Loe, and her father was actor Richard Beckinsale, who starred in popular British television comedies during the 1970s. He passed away tragically early in 1979 at the age of 31. She is the younger half-sister of actress Samantha Beckinsale. Kate attended the private school Godolphin and Latymer School in London for her grade and primary school education. In her teens, she twice won the British bookseller W.H. Smith Young Writers' competition - once for three short stories and once for three poems. After a tumultuous adolescence (including a bout of anorexia), she gradually took up the profession of acting. Her major acting debut came in the TV film One Against the Wind (Larry Elikann, 1991), about World War II. Kate began attending Oxford University's New College in the fall of 1991, majoring in French and Russian literature. She had already decided that she wanted to act, but to broaden her horizons she chose university over drama school. While in her first year at Oxford, Kate received her big break in the film adaptation of William Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing (Kenneth Branagh, 1993). Kate worked in three other films while attending Oxford, beginning with a part in the medieval historical drama Prince of Jutland (Gabriel Axel, 1994), starring Christian Bale, Gabriel Byrne, and Helen Mirren. The film was shot during the spring of 1993 on location in Denmark, and she filmed her supporting part during New College's Easter break. Later in the summer of that year, she played the lead in the thriller Uncovered (Jim McBride, 1994). Before she went back to school, her third year at university was spent at Oxford's study-abroad program in Paris. This year caused her to re-evaluate the direction of her life. She faced a choice: continue with school or concentrate on her flourishing acting career. After much thought, she chose an acting career. In the spring of 1994, Kate left Oxford, after finishing three years of study.

 

Kate Beckinsale appeared in the BBC/Thames Television costume comedy Cold Comfort Farm (John Schlesinger, 1995), which later opened in American cinemas to spectacular reviews, grossing over $5 million during its American run. It was re-released to U.K. cinemas in the spring of 1997. Acting on the stage consumed the first part of 1995; she toured in England with the Thelma Holts Theatre Company production of Anton Chekhov's 'The Seagull'. After turning down several mediocre scripts, she waited seven months before another interesting role was offered to her. It was the horror film Haunted (Lewis Gilbert, 1995), starring opposite Aidan Quinn and John Gielgud. In this film, she wanted to play "an object of desire", unlike her past performances where her characters were much less the siren and more the worldly innocent. Then followed a TV adaptation of Jane Austen's novel Emma (Diarmuid Lawrence, 1996), and the crime comedy Shooting Fish (Stefan Schwartz, 1997), in which she played Georgie, an altruistic con artist. She started film work in the United States in the small-scale dramas The Last Days of Disco (Whit Stillman, 1998) with Chloë Sevigny, and Brokedown Palace (Jonathan Kaplan, 1999) with Claire Danes. In 1999, she had a daughter, Lily Mo Sheen, with actor Michael Sheen with whom she dated from 1995 to 2003. They met when cast in a touring production of 'The Seagull' in early 1995 and moved in together shortly afterwards. After their separation, Beckinsale and Sheen remain close friends.

 

In 2000, Kate Beckinsale starred in the costume drama The Golden Bowl (James Ivory, 2000) with Edward Fox and Anjelica Huston. The screenplay by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala is based on the 1904 novel of the same name by Henry James, who considered the work his masterpiece. Then she landed the lead female role in the Hollywood blockbuster Pearl Harbor (Michael Bay, 2001) after Charlize Theron pulled out. She played a nurse torn between two pilots (played by Ben Affleck and Josh Hartnett). The film was a box office success, earning $59 million in its opening weekend and nearly $450 million worldwide, but received generally negative reviews from critics. A little gem was the romantic comedy Serendipity ( Peter Chelsom, 2001) with John Cusack. The film has grossed over $77 million at the worldwide box office. She played a vampire in Underworld (Len Wiseman, 2003), a surprise box-office hit that gained a cult following. Director and star fell in love, and the following year, she married Wiseman. The success of the film led to four more films between 2006 and 2016, The Underworld series, which follows a war between vampires and werewolves (called 'Lycans' in the films). Despite receiving generally negative reviews from critics, the five films have amassed a strong fan following and have grossed a total of $539 million, against a combined budget of $212 million. Normally slender, Beckinsale gained twenty pounds for roles in 2004 - ten pounds for her role as a vampire hunter in Van Helsing (Stephen Sommers, 2004) opposite Hugh Jackman, and another ten pounds to portray the voluptuous Ava Gardner in the Howard Hughes biopic The Aviator (Martin Scorsese, 2004), starring Leonardo DiCaprio. In 2006, Beckinsale reprised her role as Selene in the successful vampire sequel Underworld: Evolution, directed by her husband. Her daughter had a small role as the younger Selene. Beckinsale's second film appearance of 2006 was opposite Adam Sandler and Christopher Walken in Click (Frank Coraci, 2006), a comedy about an overworked family man who discovers a magical remote control that allows him to control time. It grossed $237 million worldwide from a production budget of $82.5 million. She replaced Sarah Jessica Parker after she dropped out of the horror-thriller Vacancy (Nimród Antal, 2007) with Luke Wilson. Then followed the family drama Everybody's Fine (Kirk Jones, 2009), starring Robert De Niro. It is a remake of Giuseppe Tornatore's Italian film Stanno tutti bene/Everybody's Fine (1990).

 

Unable to find a script she felt passionate about, kate Beckinsale kept a low profile in 2010 and 2011, opting to spend time with her daughter. Beckinsale returned to acting in 2012 with appearances in three action films. The first was the action thriller Contraband (Baltasar Kormákur, 2012), starring Mark Wahlberg and based on the Icelandic film, Reykjavík-Rotterdam (Óskar Jónasson, 2008) starring Baltasar Kormákur. Beckinsale next reprised her role as Selene in the fourth installment of the vampire franchise Underworld: Awakening (Måns Mårlind and Björn Stein, 2008). The franchise was initially conceived of as a trilogy and Beckinsale was not "intending to do another one" but was convinced by the quality of the script. Beckinsale also appeared as the wife of a factory worker (Colin Farrell) in the Sci-Fi action remake Total Recall (2012), directed by her husband Len Wiseman. The film received mainly negative reviews. In 2014, Beckinsale starred in the psychological thriller The Face of an Angel (Michael Winterbottom, 2014) alongside Daniel Brühl. The film was inspired by the case of Meredith Kercher. In the romantic comedy Love & Friendship (Whit Stillman, 2016), Beckinsale reunited with her Last Days of Disco collaborators, Stillman and Chloë Sevigny. Based on Jane Austen's 'Lady Susan', the film revolved around her role as the title character, a wry and calculating widow, as she pursues a wealthy and hapless man for marriage originally intended for her daughter, though she eventually marries him herself. The film was universally acclaimed by critics and found commercial success in arthouse cinemas. She was among over 80 women who accused Harvey Weinstein of sexual harassment or assault in October 2017. She acted in the British film Farming (2018), written and directed by Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, based on his own childhood. The plot is about a child whose Yorubá parents give him to a white working-class family in London in the 1960s, and who grows up to join a white skinhead gang led by a white supremacist. Kate Beckinsale lives in Venice, California because it reminds her of London. She divorced Len Wiseman in 2019. Beckinsale will next star in the upcoming American action film Jolt (Tanya Wexler, 2021) from a screenplay by Scott Wascha.

 

Sources: Wikipedia and IMDb.

 

And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.

Disconnected in Berkeley: Overall, UC Berkeley has one of the highest crime rates among UC campuses 3.29 crimes per 1000 students (but below schools like Stanford with 7.95 crimes per 1000 students) and add to the fact that most student are overworked with too much classwork means students can be found too often alone on campus and disconnected.

 

m240 + 35mm f2 cron asph

Linda told me Bane has records of my military career. How the fuck did he even figure out that was me? I didn't even use my real name when I signed up and 16-year old me looks nothing like I do now. Nonetheless we gotta bury this fucker soon. Him and anyone following him. We're gonna need some firepower and our guns are with Arnie for upkeep so it was off to Patton Arms for our next stop. I was flying the Sky Slayer (by flying I mean enjoying the fantastic invention that is autopilot) while Linda kept looking through that national criminal database info on Bane. She was looking through the raids Bane performed all across central America, and apparently one stuck out.

 

"Hey, just found this. One of their raids was a convoy in Belize. It was for Lexcorp and it was apparently carrying prototype equipment for testing or something."

 

"Lexcorp testing shit in Belize?"

 

"Right? I said the same thing. I'm looking deeper into it. Some of these files are classified stuff so we should get something good."

 

"Well, keep searching when we get inside. We're landing."

 

The rooftop to Patton Arms was barren, thank god. Sometimes some jackoff with a private chopper takes up the one landing pad Arnie's got up here. Arnie was at the roof's door waiting for us.

 

"Good evening, lovebirds."

 

"Hi, Arnold."

 

"Your Minigun and M60 are doing just fine, and from what I've heard you'll need them. Didn't you already kill Bane? And what's this about an Exoskeleton?"

 

"How the fuck did you find out?"

 

"Some police reports leaked out and it's all over the news. Anything I have that could match isn't even in the prototype stages yet."

 

"What's that?"

 

"...ah, I'll just show you. C'mon."

 

We head down the freight elevator into the sub-levels where Patton Arms Skunkworks stuff is. Arnie leads us into a room where our guns our, and that's what we find. Alongside something totally unexpected. Something that I'm sure gave Linda a few flashbacks.

 

"The Uber Soldat!? You made the fucking Uber Soldat?"

 

"Just a recreation of the armor from the blueprint. With it we might make a powered armor suit but right now we're stuck here."

 

"Even like this you think it might be good enough to kick Bane's ass?"

 

"....no."

 

"No? You have any idea how hard this thing was to kill?"

 

"But you killed it all on your own. Just one woman in body armor with a few low-tier explosives. And that was with a creature in the armor. If you could handle in that easily, Bane and his guys won't have that much trouble."

 

"So the Uber-Soldat wasn't all that uber at all."

 

"Nah. It's just primitive like that Xeno Cannon we had to upgrade."

 

"....we don't need this anyway. I'm sure there's something else...."

 

Linda opens up the laptop she took with her and goes back to searching through the files. I go back to admiring the Uber-Soldat armor. Still disappointed I never got to kill one back at the arctic....

 

"So really, didn't you kill Bane?"

 

"Yeah. This one's just one of his old asskissers. Some guy calling himself Bird."

 

"Huh. Well, what's his problem? Why come back to Gotham?"

 

"Revenge. Bane's guys were stupid loyal to him. Like Steve Jobs and Apple fans or something."

 

".....interestingly put. The other Bane used that one street drug, though. Venom, right? And this one's using an Exoskeleton?"

 

"Yep, and it's way better than venom ever could be. Linda and I took him on together and he kicked both our asses without breaking a sweat."

 

"Oh....oh no, that's...yikes...."

 

"Yep...."

 

"Hey! Hey I found it!"

 

"What's up, Linda?"

 

"Here it is! Bane's exoskeleton! The Lexcorp ACS4X. An advanced lightweight exoskeleton built for military combat. It can increase a users strength and speed to 4x their natural limits."

 

"Well that explains how he was able to throw you two around no trouble."

 

"But wait! It says that the Belize convoy was full of prototypes meant to be scrapped, and Bane definitely got it from that convoy."

 

"They wanted to trash it? Why? Performs pretty well from what we saw."

 

"Well, according to this, the exoskeleton would severely strain the user after extended use. Specifically the heart would be dangerously overworked after a while, which would potentially cripple or kill the user. Lexcorp dropped $45 million on the project just to try and fix this before giving up."

 

"So basically to beat Bane, we just gotta last longer than him."

 

"Seems like it. There's nothing about Lexcorp getting anywhere close to solving the straining problem, just all the money they wasted and then it's scheduled scrapping."

 

"I think it's pretty funny. The biggest design flaw is the guy using the damn thing."

 

"And it's just what we need. We just gotta make him work hard for a bit and he'll pretty much kill himself without even realizing it."

 

"Well, let's find the son of a bitch and end him already. Access police reports on that thing, see if he poked his head out any time recently."

 

"On it.......huh......"

 

"What?"

 

"Look at what's on the news...."

  

A daily record of a woodland that I've been familiar with for 34 years. It is good to record these places in a very personal way come rain or shine. I like to see the place without making anything picturesque, rather setting down what's before me at different times of day and not overworking each piece, keeping it spontaneous and fresh. Inspired by Charles Burchfield and Emily Carr among others. In some ways a pendant to my Simon's wood series and to be part of my Looking Out exhibition.

Cass, Pocahontas County, West Virginia

 

ODT: out with the old

 

The history of the town of Cass follows the evolution of the lumber companies that inhabited the valley and operated the West Virginia Pulp and Paper Mill. Once a symbol of the economic power that drove this valley, the mill building has been victim of two major fires in 1978 and 1982. Now only twisted steel and rusted machinery remain amid the cracking cement. Trees and vines grow in a place where humans once toiled among the machines of lumber and fine wood products production.

 

The mill operation was enormous during its heyday 1908 to 1922. It ran two 11-hour shifts six days per week, cutting 125,000 board feet of lumber each shift, an impressive 1.5 million feet of lumber per week. The Cass mill also had drying kilns using 11 miles of steam pipe to dry 360,000 board feet of lumber on each run.

 

The adjoining planing mill was three stories high, measuring 96 by 224 feet. Massive elevators carried up to 5,000 feet of lumber to the separate floors and machines. Some of the flooring machines were so big that it took 15 men to operate them. There were two resaws here that could accommodate boards up to 35 feet long. The large surfacing machines finished all four sides of a board in one operation.

 

Roy Clarkson, in Tumult on the Mountain, estimated that in 40 years the Cass mill and the mill at Spruce turned more than 2-14 billion feet of timber into pulp or lumber. The town of Cass was named for Joseph K Cass (left picture), Chairman of the Board of W.Va. Pulp & Paper Co. Each morning the C&O dispatched a 44-car pulpwood train for the paper mill at Covington. At its peak, West Virginia Pulp and Paper employed between 2,500 and 3,000 men. In an average week six to 10 carloads of food and supplies traveled over the railroad to 12 logging camps. Indeed, the ruined mill is a symbol and a reminder of a past resplendent with human achievement. But the story of the mill is also a story of the rails that linked that mill with the timber in the nearby mountains.

 

At the turn of the century lumbermen eyeing the large tracts of virgin timber on Cheat Mountain, west of Cass, decided to route the timber east through a mountain gap and down the steep grade to the planned mill. An interchange between the Greenbrier and Elk River Railroad at Cass and the C&O was most economical but it called for the building of a difficult mountain railroad.

 

In 1900 Samuel Slaymaker, a timber broker, set up a construction camp at the mouth of Leatherbark Creek (the present site of the Cass shops). He and his hardy men pushed the rails up and along Leatherbark Creek, and gained altitude by constructing two switchbacks. Tracks were laid around the face of the promontory -- up and up along the ridge, winding until at last the rails reached the gap between the mountains. Here a camp named Old Spruce was established.

 

Around 1904, 1-1/4 miles of track were laid from Old Spruce to Spruce, a new town on the Shavers Fork on the Cheat River. At 3,853 feet, Spruce became the highest town in the eastern United States. From Spruce, the track eventually ran 35 miles south into the Elk River Basin to the town of Bergoo and 65 miles north, along Shavers Fork of Cheat River. Spruce became the hub of the rail empire. The main lines (Cass to Spruce, Spruce to Bergoo and Spruce to Cheat Junction) were 82 miles long. During the 1920s there were many miles of branches in use at once, but the total length was probably about 140 miles at maximum. Altogether the logging railroad built about 250 miles of track. At Spruce a large pulp peeling rossing mill was constructed. Billions of board feet of logs passed through Spruce and eventually went over the mountain behind the tanks of big 4 ton Shays like Number 12.

 

The Town of Cass after 1905

 

After 1905 the railroad went through a succession of name changes. The Greenbrier & Elk River became the Greenbrier, Elk & Valley Railroad in 1909, only to become the Greenbrier, Cheat & Elk Railroad (GC&E) in 1910. This quick succession of names reflects the early permutations so characteristic of a young and booming logging empire. Actually, all these names changes are a bit misleading because West Virginia Pulp and Paper (WVP&P) owned and operated the entire lumber operation from its beginnings. The original lumber company was West Virginia Spruce Lumber, set up by West Virginia Pulp and Paper to develop Cass property. WV&P bought (on paper) its West Virginia Spruce operation in 1910. At that time the railroad became a common carrier.

 

In 1926 merger negotiations were conducted between GC&E and the Western Maryland, which wanted to tap the rich coal reserves of the region. March 3, 1927 saw an agreement reached, and the Western Maryland purchased the 74 miles of north-south mainline between Cheat Junction to Bergoo. Shays were used to pull coal until the line could be renovated to accommodate the massive WM H-8 2-8-0's. Up to 10 locomotives were required to boost the coal loads up the steep grade.

 

The town of Spruce began to die when the peeling mill ceased operations in 1925. In the early 1930s the town became an isolated helper station on the Western Maryland. With the coming of diesels, all locomotives serving Cass were transferred to Laurel Bank and Spruce became a ghost town; all that is left now is crumbling concrete slabs, rubble and a two-track horseshoe curve of railroad track.

 

Mower Lumber Company acquired the Cass operation in 1942 to cut second growth timber on Cheat and Back Allegheny. Track was re-laid into old logging areas. Huge steam skidding machines were rigged on the hillsides and knobs, bringing saw logs for the mill on the rail lines. But second growth could not feed the mighty mill for long. By 1950 the operation was in decline. The sawmill worked only one shift; the big four-truck shays languished on sidings while three overworked and tired three-truck Shays, Number 1, 4, and 5, were assigned to the hill.

 

With Edwin Mower's death in late 1955 family members were unable to keep the operation going. The rail-haul logging operation and bandsaw mill ceased operation abruptly July 1, 1960. Employees were not notified until their shift ended on June 30. That night gloom and despair hung heavy over the town of Cass; it seemed likely that the town would go the way of Spruce. Three months after the mill closed, Walworth Farms (controlled by Peter Grace, a principal of W.R. Grace Co. of New York) purchased all the landholdings and acquired Mower Lumber Company. The town of Cass and railroad was retained by real-estate-oriented offshoot, The Don Mower Lumber Co. A scrap dealer, the Midwest Raleigh Corporation, was subcontracted to dismantle the line. It seemed that the life cycle of the logging town and its railroad had reached its bitter end.

 

But other forces were at work this time. In late September 1960, a rail fan, Russel Baum of Sunbury, Pa., initiated an effort to save the railroad. Baum reasoned that the Shays and the old logging track could become a big tourist attraction. A small number of local businessmen formed the Cass Planning Commission and state legislators were approached. Skeptical officials initially declined to participate. But when the state legislature's prestigious Joint Committee on Government and Finance took an inspection trip over the former Mower Lumber "railroad to the sky," to Bald Knob, the bureaucratic wheels were set in motion.

 

During the State Legislature's regular session in early 1961 an appropriation was approved and the governor of West Virginia signed a bill bringing Cass into the state parks system. The Midwest Raleigh Steel Corporation received $125,000 for seven miles of "main line" track from Cass to Old Spruce and four miles of branch line from Old Spruce to Bald Knob. Also included in the agreement were three locomotives, 10 flat cars, four camp cars, three motor cars and other equipment. Work began almost immediately, but an old logging railroad doesn't turn into a tourist line overnight. It wasn't until 1963 that Shays Nos. 1 and 4 were put in working order and safety rails and benches were installed on a few flat cars. Trains went about halfway up Back Allegheny Mountain, above the switchbacks to a pleasant pasture that has since come to be known as Whittaker Station. At that time there was not enough money to fix the tracks the remaining distance to Bald Knob.

 

The first year of operation was all that was needed to prove the skeptics wrong. Twenty-three thousand people flocked to this remote mountain town and its former back woods logging railroad.

 

Expansion of Cass continued. The shop, initially leased, was purchased from Mower Lumber Company. In 1966, $800,000 was invested in rehabilitating the line to Bald Knob; the total line was opened in 1968. In 1977, the West Virginia Department of Natural Resources acquired the former logging Company properties in Cass. Buildings were repaired and repainted. And by 2010, twenty of the former company houses have been restored and are rented to the public as park cottages. People now have the opportunity to spend their vacation in Cass.

 

Since 1985, the West Virginia Department of Commerce has proceeded with plans to further develop the historic town. More company houses are being restored for use as cottages. Replica plank walkways have been constructed throughout the town, and white picket fences now surround the cottages.

 

Possibilities for development for the Cass Scenic Railroad State Park are limitless. The future will bring additional recreational facilities for park visitors, including a campground, hiking trails, and additional interpretive programs.

 

The people of Cass and West Virginia are deeply rooted in their own expansive and fascinating history -- the history of bold, pioneering men and women who settled this country and built a magnificent logging empire under very difficult circumstances. The spirits of the past were reincarnated in the original visionary and determined supporters of the Cass Scenic Railroad who engaged in the lonely, tough struggle of transforming a tired, worn-out and about-to-be-scrapped logging railroad into a first-rate living museum. Today the spirits of past achievement live on in the men and women who keep a priceless collection of antique steam locomotives running much longer than ever intended, on a railroad that is surely one of the most interesting and challenging in the world.

 

Emmet and Ada are called in to supplement the overworked hospital maintenance staff.

Ah start-of-term, it's always good to get out of the office during this time to avoid getting overworked.

 

Mamiya m645 - Mamiya-Sekor C 35mm 1:3.5 N - Fomapan 400 @ ASA-400

FlicFilm MQ-19 (Stock) 8:00 @ 20C

Meter: Reveni Labs Spot Meter

Scanner: Epson V700 + Silverfast 9 SE

Editor: Adobe Photoshop CC

Looking Out

Martin Beek:

The paintings, drawings and digital works that form my contribution to this exhibition result from my residency at Camp Walden, Michigan during this summer. With the exception of the Simon’s Wood series of iPad drawings (no. 14), all the work was conceived, painted and drawn in the USA. It has come from a relatively small area of woodland no more than one hundred metres from my cabin studio.

In 2013 I exhibited my ‘plein air’ oils of rural locations in Ipsden and Longworth in a show called ‘The Pace of Nature’. These smaller paintings were a direct response to places that I had come to know well. Each work reflected the changing weather conditions that characterise the British climate; they were about the immediate moment. I did not retouch any of them in the studio.

In Looking Out my approach has slightly altered in that, whilst each work results from many hours’ direct work outside, certain passages and responses to the forest were repainted or reworked under studio conditions as a result of further consideration. This series was also painted as a body of work with several being developed simultaneously, rather than each being a record of a particular day.

Possibly the most difficult thing to do as a painter is not to mimic someone else’s paintings or style. I therefore find that my unique choice of location, which has no immediate association with other artists, is a really helpful move as it gives me a clearer sense of vision. Walden fulfils that for me, as it has done for many years.

This is the first time that I have exhibited in the UK a complete series of American works painted in situ. With the opportunity to spend seven or more hours painting each day, without having to travel any distance, I seem to find I can paint more fluently and the sense of involvement is all the deeper. America during the summer months, with its extreme heat and strong light and shadows, injects a kind of excitement into my work that I don’t often achieve in Britain. I find drawing trees both challenging and rewarding, not at all predictable if one is serious about the task. Here in the heart of the forest new opportunities present themselves. I suppose one of the ‘rules’ of modern painting, if such exist, is to think about the surface and not go for illusionistic tropes. So, as with all my work since 2012, I’ve made it quite specific in its intentions, without labouring or overworking. This results in an effort to create a lively surface.

The paintings are considerably larger than the 150 works of ‘The Pace of Nature’ series. The larger scale involves different approaches, and a lot more physical movement in order to judge the effect of distance and overall optical colour mixtures and relationships.

The acrylic paintings (‘Woodnotes’ I–III) were influenced by my iPad drawings, utilising the possibilities of multiple layers of line and overlapping colour. These works pull away from their motif and are a more personal statement about the forest and capture a fleeting sensation. They are characterised by loose areas of random marks against areas of control, held in the geometry created by the pine trees.

Formally, the works stress verticality and height, looking out and upwards, strong contrasts and spatial division. It was also rewarding to make a number of large charcoal drawings (nos. 11–13) to convey strong areas of light and shade.

Each morning began with an iPad drawing, some of which form Walden Suite (no. 2), a response to the daily variations of light and colour. The iPad drawings echo the Simon’s Wood piece (no. 14) which I began in January 2016 and finished just before my June departure for USA.

 

I have a fascination following the tiny events in life that lead up to a major event. The seemingly minor thing that is life changing. My favorite band lost their drummer in a van accident in 1969. The band originally had another drummer. He was dragged to their show by a friend and he thought while listening to the show that he would be a better drummer. He stood at the foot of the stage and made up his mind that he would become their drummer and he did. And then coming back from a gig with them he died. I always think about the night and him making that decision little knowing that he was making his way to his death. A great meditation teacher says everything happens for the best. Others say that to look for that little detail in an event leads to madness.

In 2009 my daughter sent me a Christmas card. The photo on the card of a blythe doll changed my life A photo of a plastic doll changed my life. My sorry lonely life. I had already had breast cancer at that point. My children were wonderful but I only one friend still living nearby and she set my teeth on edge. I started feeling apart from life. I was in a relationship, but I also wanted and needed friends. The Christmas card opened a door. That was the tiny event. I loved how the doll looked, and after a few months I decided that I would like to get involved with this hobby and share it with my daughter. I got my first blythe doll. Things have never been the same since. Since then I have met the most wonderful people. Smart, talented, caring, funny, generous and even lonely and overworked people. It became a hobby filled with friendship and joy.

Sometime in 2011 some cells from my thyroid for some strange reason decided to take up residence in my left ovary. Maybe they were kicked out because they were cancerous. The ovary not knowing what they were decided to keep them and began growing a covering over them. Slowly nutrition from my body was drained and vitamins and minerals stolen to help the ovary to keep it growing. My surgeon said that unchecked it would have kept growing. But because our ovaries are part of the reproductive system they are very very good at making a contained environment and that prevented the cells from wandering around. The tiny event that made them settle in the ovary became the major event that saved my life.

The outpouring of love and kindness that I received from the blythe community was staggering and humbling. People I did not know sent me best wishes and all my flickr friends gave me the strength and love to deal with my situation. I have made the very best of friends. Suddenly there were angels everywhere. If you are reading this you are one of the people I am talking about.

In 2011 through the kindness and sweetness of Sandra (minkidynamite) I was managing The Traveling Blythe Program. This program was her vision and it was an honor to be chosen by her. After a few months a tiny event occurred. A woman in Spain began posting photos of her dolls in the group. They were very beautiful. She must have thought that this was the site where you put photos of dolls you wanted to have “travel”. I fm’d her but she did not understand right away so I just ignored deleting the photos because there were so lovely. Then some complaints were received and I had to take action. I wrote her a long fm and made her a contact. I told her how much I loved her talent as a photographer. I told some of my contacts to look at her photos. From that point on Kass (Kassandra’s Box) and I became great friends. She is an incredibly talented woman. Her paintings are gorgeous, her dolls are beautiful and her kindness is titanic. We are true friends and I love her. We are going to meet face to face at blythecon in October.

Yesterday afternoon after spending hours in the car going to the hospital to have my staples taken out and then hours driving back and getting prescriptions etc. I came home to find a box. It was from Kass and her family. Inside of the box was a great deal of beauty. Inside the box was a great deal of love. Inside the box was Joy.

 

Okay, I suck. I haven't been updating Flickr and my pain in the neck store manager is on my case - she even made a spreadsheet!. Please go to Nuke's flickr page and tell her to lay off poor, overworked, tired Sliye. Extra points and maybe free stuff if you call her a hobag. xox

 

This is the [RnR] Montana Bench - it was released at our beloved Cosmo two weeks ago, but now you can pick it up in store :)

 

It comes with menu-based texture changes, and they're interchangeable, so you can have dark wood with light leather, or light wood with dark leather or inbetween or all dark or all light! Fancy!

 

Rhyme nor Reason Main Store:

maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Paracosm/40/194/28

 

Don't forget, RnR is running a photo comp, any photo containing an RnR item that tags us on flickr is eligible to enter and voting will be done at the end of month live music event in the Paracosm club beneath the store. Last Friday of the month at 7am SLT. Lovely L$ and lots of fun stuff up for grabs. :)

The fleeting beauty of autumn obviously stirs many a soul, especially those here on Flickr. This past week has been one of leaf storms around here… I enjoy walks in the woods as leaves swirl in the air, their last gasp from eviction to make a vibrant carpet of the forest floor. Many trees are already bared to stand against what winter will bring… yet, there remains light that does not easily give way. Here, a maple, under the canopy of a dogwood, still shines brightly despite how much of the surrounding forest has already nodded its head to the winter.

 

It’s 5 minutes ‘til midnight now… today was Thanksgiving Day in America. The leaves are mostly a sleepy brown now, and traffic was at a minimum as many folks had already gathered together as friends and family to share in food and fellowship on the holiday… including me. I enjoy cooking, largely because I enjoy being around people that are having a good time, and today has been a very enjoyable day. Ironically, this has been a tough year for me in many ways personally, a tough year for some of my contacts, and overall a tough year throughout this world from the natural effects of deadly earthquakes, tsunamis, hurricanes, floods, typhoons, tornadoes, as well as wars, and societal and financial upheaval. With such overwhelming worldwide cataclysm and bewilderment, what is there to be thankful for?

 

I’m thankful that these leaves aren’t the only bright spots in this world. I’m blessed to have many friends who not only love and care for me, but also challenge me and make my life interesting… that includes my contacts here on Flickr. Every one of you make the world look so good. I truly believe that if the rest of the world took its cues from the many here on Flickr as they look for the beauty of this world, the world would be a better place.

 

I’ve learned that you aren’t truly living unless you’re blessed to be a blessing. The year’s not over yet and there’s still a lot to be done. I’m involved at church with the upcoming Christmas seasonal music playing guitar and singing, and in two weeks I’m off to Charlotte for two days to load cartons for Operation Christmas Child at Samaritan’s Purse… I encourage you to be a blessing to someone this season. You won’t believe how good it will make you feel. Go be that bright beacon that doesn't easily give way so that others have someone to reach for.

 

To:

• The Bugmaster, who bares her young heart with images of Alaska.

• Joy C, who could easily give Hallmark a run for their money.

• Kirsten Storm, the “Dr. Doolittle” of photographers, able to evoke the best and often funny side of any animal.

• B.H.B. Photography and his love for automobiles and turtles.

• Mary Ann Potter, with her unique vision that home is where the heart is.

• Deb Snelson, who often takes that rough and rocky road to find that just right beautiful place.

• Diskdoc, who’s made his retirement years into a wonderful travelogue to us all.

• Ivy Dawned, who makes us realize the common may not be so common after all.

• Joe Franklin Photography’s unique series of churches.

• Quicksilver5001’s ability to combine humor, quirkiness, and beauty, often in the same shot.

• My2boggan’s outstanding take of remote Canada as he teaches indigenous tribal kids far from the bustling crowd.

• Mark vanDyke Photography, who does his formidable best to show me up here in my own state.

• MarsW, who’s going leaps and bounds to make the world her canvas.

• Mizcaliflower’s skill in bringing out the best in people for portraiture.

• Brooksbos, who makes Boston come alive in ways I’ve never seen before.

• Sondela nz, a motorcycle racing grandmother who brings the other side of the world into focus.

• Zill Niazi, who can be counted on for a good eye to the viewfinder and a good word of encouragement.

• Countryman.andrew, especially for his exceptional bird photography.

• .CriStyle.’s style, particularly the images of traditional food she cooks.

• Roanmountain, who can take pictures from his back yard of one of my favorite places.

• Cagedbird 1, who often uses her stunning images of the beauty of Scotland to test us all.

• Marci Goelzer, who makes me realize that in many ways Brazil looks much like North Carolina.

• Nearthetime, who often uses images from his home in Florida to showcase his humor.

• Kathy Harrison, an overworked schoolteacher of whom I wish had more time to photograph eastern North Carolina.

• macro1945, who's scanning back through a lifetime's worth of wonderful film images.

• Gary From Newfoundland II for his humorous moose.

• Kiki_nagi, and his view into the exotic flowers of his homeland.

• All the new contacts who I’ll come know.

 

You’re each and every one a blessing to me and I’m so thankful for you… God bless you all.

 

[RP Pic] "The pretty lady to the right of this photo is our Chief nurse, Nivriti Karu. Nivriti applied for a job at the Medical Center after arriving in Midian City, and since then has probably been a major factor in me not going insane from overwork."

 

"Dr.Hassan "The Assassin" Mengle is OK for simple stuff and the rest of the Staff have varying degrees of skill and motivation; but Nivriti I have learned to trust and rely on."

 

"The only downside to working with her is the notion that she makes me homesick for Bangkok at times. Nivriti is from Singapore, her father was a surgeon there of some reknown; so her manner of speech and appearance at times take me back to a point in my life that was happier and had a bright future."

 

"Then the Coalition landed in Bangkok and I lost it all...."

 

"Still, Nivriti has been a Godsend - both as a Nurse and...hopefully..as the one of the few friends here I can trust."

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 533. Photo: Paramount.

 

American actress Clara Bow (1905-1965) rose to stardom as an uninhibited flapper in silent films during the 1920s. Her appearance as a plucky shopgirl in the film It (1927) brought her global fame and the nickname 'The It Girl'. Bow came to personify the Roaring Twenties and is described as its leading sex symbol.

 

Clara Gordon Bow was born in a run-down tenement in old Brooklyn in 1905 and was raised in poverty and violence. Her often absentee and brutish father, Robert Bow, who hailed from a large and once well-off family of Scottish and English descent, could not or did not provide. Her schizophrenic mother, the former Sarah Gordon, tried to slit Clara's throat when the girl spoke of becoming an actress. Bow, nonetheless, won a national photo beauty contest, "The Fame and Fortune Contest". Girls from all over the country competed, and the 1st Prize was a part in a movie. Bow showed up in ragged clothes and the other girls smirked at her. The contest judges paid no attention until she did her screen test - and then they unanimously chose her over all the other girls. Bow lit up the screen and got the part but it was later cut from the movie. Clara was taken to Hollywood by independent producer B.P. Schulberg, who used her sexually and financially. She would eventually star in 58 films, from 1922 to 1933. Schulberg billed her as "The Hottest Jazz Baby in Films" for The Plastic Age (Wesley Ruggles, 1925). Her other silent films included hits such as Mantrap (Victor Fleming, 1926), It (Clarence Badger, 1927), and Wings (William A. Wellman, 1927) with Charles 'Buddy' Rogers, Richard Arlen, and Gary Cooper. Denny Jackson at IMDb: "The movie It (1927) defined her career. The film starred Clara as a shopgirl who was asked out by the store's owner. As you watch the silent film you can see the excitement as she prepared for her date with the boss, her friend trying hard to assist her. She used a pair of scissors to modify her dress to try to look "sexier." The movie did much to change society's mores as there were only a few years between World War I and Clara Bow, but this movie went a long way in how society looked at itself. Clara was flaming youth in rebellion. In the film, she presented worldly wisdom that somehow sex meant having a good time. But the movie shouldn't mislead the viewer, because when her boss tries to kiss her goodnight, she slaps him."

 

Clara Bow was named first box-office draw in 1928 and 1929 and second box-office draw in 1927 and 1930. Her presence in a motion picture was said to have ensured investors, by odds of almost 2-to-1, a 'safe return". Maeve at IMDb: "She could flirt with the camera just by looking into it with her big brown eyes and mischievous bow-tie grin. She exuded sex appeal from every pore in her little body and was not afraid to flaunt it. She personified "flaming youth in rebellion". Her characters were always working class gals; manicurists, showgirls and the like. Her movies reportedly emancipated many young people from the restrictive morals of their parents. " At the apex of her stardom, she received more than 45,000 fan letters in a single month (January 1929). Also, she was probably the most overworked and underpaid star in the industry. With the coming of sound, her popularity waned. Clara was also involved in several court battles ranging from unpaid taxes to "stealing" women's husbands. She had very public affairs (her euphemism was "engagements") with a score of leading men and directors, including Victor Fleming, Gary Cooper, and Gilbert Roland. Her secretary and best friend, Daisy de Voe, was caught embezzling from her. Nasty rumors about her sexuality floated around the movie colony, including one about her taking on the entire USC Football Team one night, which was finally disproved by a biographer, David Stenn. When Bow took de Voe to court, the secretary told the court about and the press reported uncensored details of Bow's sex life, much of which was exaggerated. After the court trials, Bow made a couple of attempts to get back in the public eye. One was Call Her Savage (John Francis Dillon, 1932), somewhat of a failure at the box office. In 1932, she married cowboy star Rex Bell and two years later, Bow retired from acting and became a rancher in Nevada. Her final film was Hoop-La (Frank Lloyd, 1933). She doted on her two sons, actor Rex Bell Jr. (b. 1934) and George Robert (b. 1938), and did everything to please them. Haunted by a weight problem and a mental imbalance, she never re-entered show business. She was confined to sanitariums from time to time and prohibited access to her beloved sons. In 1965, Bow died of a heart attack in West Los Angeles at the age of 60.

 

Sources: Denny Jackson (IMDb), Wikipedia, and IMDb.

 

And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.

One of the ultimate comfort food. This classic goes a long way with some homemade pomodoro sauce. The secret to the melt-in-your mouth meatballs is in the milk-soaked bread instead of breadcrumbs.

 

Extra-virgin olive oil

1 onion, chopped

2 garlic cloves, smashed

2 tablespoons roughly chopped fresh parsley leaves

1 cup milk

4 thick slices firm white bread, crust removed

1 1/2 pounds ground beef

1 1/2 pounds ground pork

1 large egg

1/2 cup freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano, plus more for serving

Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

4 cups heated Pomodoro Sauce (recipe follows)

1/2 pound fresh whole milk mozzarella cheese, cut into chunks

Leaves from fresh basil

1 pound spaghetti

 

Bring a big pot of salted water to a boil for the spaghetti. Heat 3 tablespoons oil in an ovenproof skillet over medium heat. Add the onion, garlic, and parsley and cook until the vegetables are soft but still translucent, about 10 minutes. Take the pan off the heat and let cool.

 

Pour enough milk over the bread in a bowl to moisten and let it soak while the onions are cooling. Combine the meats in a large bowl. Add the egg and Parmigiano and season generously with salt and pepper. Use your hands to squeeze the excess milk out of the bread and add that to the bowl along with the cooled onion mixture. (Hang onto the pan - you'll need it to cook the meatballs.) Gently combine all the ingredients with your hands or with a spoon until just mixed together. Don't overwork or the meatballs will be tough. Shape them into nice looking meatballs (between the size of a golf ball and tennis ball).

 

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

 

Heat a 3-count of oil in the frying pan over medium heat and brown the meatballs on all sides, about 10 minutes. Put them into a baking dish and spoon about half of the tomato sauce over. Shower with the mozzarella and drizzle with olive oil. Put the meatballs in the oven and bake until the meatballs are cooked through, about 15 minutes.

 

Meanwhile, cook the spaghetti in the boiling water until al dente, about 8 minutes. Drain and put it onto a large serving platter. Pour on the rest of the sauce and mix well. Spoon the meatballs on top of the spaghetti and garnish with basil leaves. Serve immediately along with extra cheese.

 

Pomodoro Sauce:

1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil

1 medium onion, chopped

3 garlic cloves, chopped

2 (28-ounce) cans whole peeled San Marzano tomatoes, drained and crushed by hand, liquid reserved

Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

1/4 cup fresh basil leaves, torn into pieces

 

Heat the olive oil in a large saucepan over medium-low heat. Add the onion and garlic and cook until the vegetables are soft, 4 to 5 minutes. Carefully add the tomatoes (nothing splashes like tomatoes) and about 1/2 cup of the reserved liquid and season with salt and pepper. Cook until the sauce is thick, about 15 minutes. Taste and adjust seasoning with salt and pepper. Bring to a boil, stirring for a few minutes with a wooden spoon to further break up the tomatoes. Reduce the heat and let simmer for 20 to 25 minutes. Stir in the fresh basil and season again.

 

Enjoy!

 

(Inspired by Tyler Florence's Ultimate recipe)

flexicurity, working from home, flexibility. overwork,

This was painted from a photo in Corel Painter 11 using the oil brushes. I did get my colors a bit muddy from overworking this painting. Print size 13x19 inches.

I'm tired. I've been working 12hr days for the last week and have been away from flickr as a result. The work and money is nice, but the lack of sleep isn't. It will be a miracle if I get out shooting in the next month. Oh well, life moves on and I'm fortunate to have a job to bitch and moan about.

 

Ohh! This is my second HDR I've posted...I'm late to the HDR bandwagon. I think seeing too many over processed images (in my opinion that doesn't matter) pushed me away. Any feedback is appreciated. Thanks.

Hers's a detail shot of that cicada in my sketchbook.

I went back in and potentially overworked it.

I fell asleep while coding a piece of work, coffee didn't help me staying awake. My customers always want me to finish all the work asap.

After a while this annoying guy came across and tried to wake me up by clapping an blown up bag.

 

Take a look at my other Mirro & Cloning shots

Yes, it's play on words: Autumnal glory/gold seemed sooo overworked so you get another one. Driving along the back-country roads in my district this afternoon we came across this irresistible sight with the early winter sun shining through the apple trees. Unpicked apples and golden leaves - well I'll leave the poetry to those more inclined. See for yourselves, feel the textures, smell the wet soil. Welcome to my world :)

 

Found near Motueka at the top end of the New Zealand's paradisical South Island.

 

Olympus E-M5.

'Karoshi' - A Japanese word meaning, death by overwork.

(Press L.)

This photo is my interpretation of the word 'Borders', I was asked by Southampton uni to take photos based upon the word 'Borders', a massive thank-you to everyone who helped me by gathering ideas.

 

But this was my idea and I may run with it....

My idea of Borders was to portray a different world, a world within a world, the borders of another world found in reflections.

Opposite world basically haha.

 

Ever seen the film, the Others? Its about a family who is haunted by ghosts, but in fact it is them who are the ghosts.

 

My Second explore!

(Easily the hardest part of doing this in 0.7 is the lack of pistol parts. Yeah, it gives difficulty for blaster "pistols" but also in general - pistols form the base of many a blaster, and the absence is felt)

 

In the wake of the Empire's fall, Naboo was quick to celebrate its freedom. One of the first things it did, after celebrating in the streets, was to reform its previously disbanded security forces. However operation "Cinder," enacted by imperial remnant forces, quickly made the Naboo guard realize that their old weaponry, locked in storage since the Empire disbanded their forces, were lacking against modern technology. To make matters worse, there were not enough arms to equip a large enough force to be effective at defense in the post-imperial galaxy.

However, the people of Naboo were determined to show their grit and resolve to compensate for the shame they felt over their legacy as Palpatine's homeworld. Weapons and parts salvaged from the battlefield in the wake of Cinder allowed them to get by while they planned for a full military overhaul and upgrade, yet it was clear that something more would be needed as a stopgap measure, as salvaged arms only provided enough to arm those the previous stockpile did not cover. There were not enough stolen Imperial weapons to completely replace old Naboo blasters.

While the New Republic was too overworked to provide much material aid, they helped Naboo broker a deal with Arch Heavy Industries for a blaster. The BP-44 was a highly customizable blaster platform offered by AHI for personal defense and hunting. It came in packages small enough to serve as a holdout blaster, all the way up to carbine blasters that could stand in for long rifles. It also packed enough of a punch to be effective enough for all roles. Though they would order a few specialized variants of the BP-44, the Naboo government purchased a well rounded heavy blaster pistol variant (shown here in Naboo security colors) in bulk to serve as a general all-around armament. This bought them time to strategize and plan out future armaments without leaving themselves vulnerable. This proved wise, as Naboo's connection to Palpatine made it a favored target for Imperial sympathizers.

During the Civil War and for many years after, this bottonland was farmed and served as range for cattle. After the expansion of the Washington, DC metro area put pressure on landowners of farmland in eastern VA to sell to developers, property such as this was allowed to recover naturally due to it's value for wildlife refugia, storm water flood attenuation, and suburban recreation space. On this day, I rode my mountain bike through the area at sunset to see what there was to see; a quiet place away from the mega-shopping malls and freeways of northern Virginia where squirrels, deer, owls, fox, an occasional coyote, and of course, racoons and skunks survive amidst an ever growing mass of urban sprawl. With that urban sprawl and it's associated hard surfaces, runoff from rain events is concentrated and forced into areas such as this. The effect is obvious; the degradation of stream channels like this one become unnaturally scoured and gutted raceways for flood waters that rage after modest summer storms.

Otis Redding is here performing Sam Cooke's 'Shake' live for the television special "Ready Steady Otis!", with Eric Burdon (singer of the Animals) sharing some of the vocals. The date is 1966 and the dancers Patricia Kerr, Cassandra Mahon and Sandy Sargeant erupted between the artists and audiences with a sassy and stylish commitment that remembers back to the age of Swing when Lindy Hop interthreaded the musicians and guests at the Harlem Savoy.

 

Looking back at the footage of the Otis special, is to see a space where music shared between people, and this single black and white television special must be understood as one of the inputs that seeded the dance hall movement of late sixties northern England known as 'Northern Soul'. Otis was black and Eric was white, and with the life force of the soul music and the drive of the dancers, the space was alive and in full colour.

 

Although Otis did not write the track 'Shake', he did make it his own, here, refusing to let it stop within an expected format and extending it with 'na's' that see him simply join in with the horn section as an applied chant. Singing half and quarter beats with the rhythm section (also enjoyed by James Brown) would be enough to give Otis a thread within musical history; on top he was a master craftsman of song, and his track '(Sittin' On) The Dock of the Bay' is one of the finest short songs ever recorded. Add to this the fact that his live performances of "Try a Little Tenderness" were at the summit of dynamic energy, and Otis Redding importance to musical history is alive and assured.

 

The original television footage:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=3pKpfs5EK_s

 

Eric Burdon is well known for a house in the rising sun. An original folk form by Leadbelly can be heard here:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=y5tOpyipNJs

 

Eric's classic version from 2 years prior to his evening with Otis:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-43lLKaqBQ

 

Otis Redding's '(Sittin' On) The Dock of the Bay," is another omnipresent song that furnishes the collective household of mankind. So present, it's almost possible to miss, and It has the quality of a good story photograph:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=rTVjnBo96Ug

 

'(Sittin' On) The Dock of the Bay was a track about a migrant from 'The Great Migration' whose dreams turned out to be empty - watching others anonymously float by. 'Try a little tenderness' talks of an overworked lady - weary and wearing a shaggy dress... both tracks adding fine melody and passionate support to quite desperate moments, both tracks laden with description and compassion. Today the track from this lens test 'Shake' might evoque a 'Blues Brothers' of ultra abandon gratuitous or a fleet of sexual innuendo. For Otis, the 'Shake' is a collective mood of shared dancing and the key is the question "Do you feel alright?". Like Jimmy Smith, Otis could be a preacher within music. Otis wanted the music to make everyone feel 'fine', refusing to leave people from his list. His thrilling energy is illustrated here through the lifeforce of a waterfall.

  

Shot with a vintage 35mm Takumar f2 on a Pentax K3

 

AJM 04.04.21

Despite the limited space, the new police station is packed with all the necessary features for its daily operation. The Command Center for Operation and Response Team (CCORT) stands in the city under sand blue, black and grey major colors, getting rid of the usual bright blue palette.

 

Giving way to the vehicular entries, the reception is moved to the first floor led by a wide staircase which becomes a welcoming and prominent feature along the street. Above it are the detention section, interview rooms, and one record room.

 

Going further up will be the main office for the officers, accompanied with pantry and the female restroom. Half of the area is a double volume space to receive more daylight through the big window. There’s also a meeting room which can be used as a war room if needed.

 

Above them will be the laboratory and equipment room, where evidence can be analyzed and where weapons and tools are stored. There are also the male restroom and one meeting room. Speaking of the restrooms, both of them have shower in case the overworked officers need to take a break.

 

Finally you will reach the top floor where the director’s office and flight control room are located. One can also reach the rooftop which is an Orca pad. The parking receiver is usually closed, and extends out upon Orca landing. The charging equipment sits on the side. Seldom do we see an Orca here actually since it’s usually parked for charging and equipment check.

 

Now, VCPD (V City Police Department) has a solid base for daily operations, providing all the services and support to the citizens in the town!

Music:KRS-One - I'm Still #1

youtu.be/NztOfMln6Mo

 

D.J. Doc you know he's down with us

D-Square, he's down with us

Keyboard Money Mike, is down with us

I.C.U., you know he's down with us

D-Nice and McBoo, they're down with us

Ms. Melodie, she's down with us

Just-Ice and DMX, they're down with us

My manager Moe, he's down with us

Castle-D boy, he's down with us

D.J. Red Alert, he's down with us

Robocop boy, he's down with us

Makin' funky music is a must

I'm number one

 

People still takin' rappin' for a joke

A passing hope or a phase with a rope

Sometimes I choke and try to believe

When I get challenged by a million MCs

I try to tell them, "We're all in this together!"

My album was raw because no-one would ever

Think like I think and do what I do

I stole the show, and then I leave without a clue

 

What do you think makes up a KRS?

Concisive teaching, or very clear speaking?

Ridiculous bass, aggravating treble

Rebel, renegade, must stay paid

Not by financial aid, but a raid of hits

Causing me to take long trips

I'm the original teacher of this type of style

Rockin' off-beat with a smile

Or smirk or chuckle, yes some are not up to

BDP Posse so I love to

Step in the jam and slam

I'm not Superman, because anybody can

Or should be able to rock off turntables

Grab the mic, plug it in and begin

But here's where the problem starts, no heart

Because of that a lot of groups fell apart

Rap is still an art, and no-one's from the Old School

Cuz Rap is still a brand-new tool

I say no-one's from the Old School cuz Rap on a whole

Isn't even twenty years old

Fifty years down the line, you can start this

Cuz we'll be the Old School artists

And even in that time, I'll say a rhyme

A brand-new style, ruthless and wild

Runnin' around spendin' money, havin' fun

Cuz even then, I'm still number one

 

Blastmaster KRS-One of course

Comes to express with style the lost

Ways of rhyming, old and new, past and present

Knock, knock, who is it?

A brand-new style, hup, time to change

People talk about me when they see me on stage

Live in action, guaranteed raw

I hang with the rich and I work for the poor

Now tomorrow you can say you saw

KRS-One stompin' once more

I play by ear, I love to steer

The Alfa Romeo from here to there

I grab the beer, but not in the ride

Cuz I'm not stupid, I don't drink and drive

I'm not a beginner, amateur or local

My album is sellin' because of my vocals

You know what you need to learn?

Old School artists don't always burn

You're just another rapper who's had his turn

Now it's my turn, and I am concerned

About idiots posing as kings

What are we here to rule?

I thought we were supposed to sing

And if we oughta sing, then let us begin to teach

Many of you are educated, open your mouth and speak

KRS-One is something like a total renegade

Except I don't steal, I rhyme to get paid

Airplanes flyin', overseas people dyin'

Politicians lyin', I'm tryin'

Not to escape, but hit the problem head-on

By bringin' out the truth in a song

So BDP, short for Boogie Down Productions

Made a little noise cuz the crew was sayin' somethin'

People have the nerve to take me for a gangster

An ignorant one, something closer to a prankster

Doin' petty crimes, goin' straight to penitentiary

But in a scale of crime that's really elementary

This beat is now compelling me to explain in silence

Why my last jam was so violent

It's simple: BDP will teach reality

No beatin' around the bush, straight up, just like The P Is Free

So now you know, a poet's job is never done

But I'm never overworked, cuz I'm still number one

 

Kool Moe Dee, he's down with us

Eric B. and Rakim, they're down with us

Stetsasonic, they're down with us

Dana Dane, he's down with us

Sleeping Bag Records, they're down with us

My lawyer Jay, he's down with us

Jive/RCA is down with us

Makin' funky music is a must

I'm number one

Giant sculpture by Kara Walker on display at the Domino Sugar Factory in Williamsburg in 2014. The sculpture was made from 330 polystyrene blocks coated in 80 tons of sugar and according to Walker was a "Homage to the unpaid and overworked Artisans who have refined our Sweet tastes from the cane fields to the Kitchens of the New World on the Occasion of the demolition of the Domino Sugar Refining Plant."

Citroën Présidentielle, 1968, designed by Robert Opron, engine: DS 21 Inj, 109 PS. .

Left: The original Dinky Toys / Meccano Tri-Ang #1435. Right: The recreation by Dan Toys, #DAN-217. Poor chauffeurs, nearly pressed against the steering wheels. A detail that hasn´t changed since 1970. What has been improved is the electric system for the interior light, now yellow LED powered by 2 flat batteries instead of 1 foto battery. The DAN-217 has unpainted side trims. In general it´s a nice copy. The electric light of the original car does not work.

Dan Toys is a seller that I can recommend. Fast & fair!

PS: The man on the backseat of the new version doesn´t sit properly, reading his 1:43 magazine DER SPIEGEL from 1969.

1435> www.aquitaine33.com/dinky/dsp/dsp.htm

DAN-217> www.dan-toys.net/fiche.ahd?idart=22466

The real car:

Best pictures> www.autobild.de/klassik/bilder/citroen-ds-21-presidentiel...

Something :

As a child I was fascinated by this car, longer than Nixons Lincoln Continental, with an engine that must have been overworked, only 2100 ccm and 109 ps. I think the car has never been moved on a french autoroute. The successors were 2 four-door SM cabriolets for Président Pompidou in 1972. More power, slighter design, closer to the normal coupés. They were the last of the special designed french presidential cars. All those vehicles still exist.

In Germany the government never used special designed cars, the big Mercedes-Benz 600s of that era belonged to Daimler-Benz.

This is a Magic Lantern Slide showing a colourised view of Temple Bar Gate looking west towards the Strand from Fleet Street in the City of London. The border between Westminster and the City had been marked by this arch since 1672, it was reputedly designed by Sir. Christopher Wren and has four statues in niches. The statues shown are Anne of Denmark and her husband King James I, on the other side are the statues of their son King Charles I and his son King Charles II, the statues celebrate the restoration of the Stuarts in 1660 after the Civil War. In the middle of the 18th Century Temple Bar was the only City gate left standing and it was not popular with travellers, it was a bottleneck and caused long traffic jams and there were many calls for the gate to be removed. However, the gate remained becoming more and more tumbledown as the years passed until in 1874 the keystone of the arch dropped and was supported by baulks of timber both vertically and horizontally as can be seen in the photograph further restricting traffic flow. On the right through the arch is the building site of the future Royal Courts of Justice, the work started in 1871 and it was beset by strikes from the beginning, foreign workers were employed to break the strikes, mostly from Germany and the project succeeded in Bankrupting the contractor and killing the architect, George Street who died from overwork and didn’t see its completion. The building took eight years to build and was opened by Queen Victoria in December 1882. The actual date of the photograph is difficult to pin down, I think this may be 1874 or 1875 due to the stage in the building work. The poster on the right which says, “Doré’s Great Work, Christ Leaving the Praetorium” refers to an exhibition at the Doré Gallery at 35 New Bond Street which you could see for one shilling. The painting was started by Gustave Doré in 1867 at his studio in Paris, due to the siege of Paris during the Franco-Prussian war he buried it. He resumed painting after the peace and completed it in 1872 and sent it to London for exhibition. The painting measures 33 feet by 22 feet and was on exhibition in London until 1880 when it was sent to America where it was lost. In 1987 the painting was discovered in a warehouse and it was acquired by the Strasbourg Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Strasbourg was the birthplace of Gustave Doré. Temple Bar was removed in 1878 by the City of London Corporation and the stones were stored until they were bought by Henry Meux of the Brewery family who re-erected it at his country home, Theobalds Park in Hertfordshire. In 1938 the home was sold but the sale did not include Temple Bar, in 1984 the Temple Bar Trust bought Temple Bar from the Meux family for £1.00, it was dismantled again in 2003 and re-erected at the entrance to the Paternoster Square redevelopment just north of St. Paul’s Cathedral. It looks much better now.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 6382/2, 1931-1932. Photo: Paramount.

 

American actress Clara Bow (1905-1965) rose to stardom as an uninhibited flapper in silent films during the 1920s. Her appearance as a plucky shopgirl in the film It (1927) brought her global fame and the nickname 'The It Girl'. Bow came to personify the Roaring Twenties and is described as its leading sex symbol.

 

Clara Gordon Bow was born in a run-down tenement in old Brooklyn in 1905 and was raised in poverty and violence. Her often absentee and brutish father, Robert Bow, who hailed from a large and once well-off family of Scottish and English descent, could not or did not provide. Her schizophrenic mother, the former Sarah Gordon, tried to slit Clara's throat when the girl spoke of becoming an actress. Bow, nonetheless, won a national photo beauty contest, "The Fame and Fortune Contest". Girls from all over the country competed, and the 1st Prize was a part in a movie. Bow showed up in ragged clothes and the other girls smirked at her. The contest judges paid no attention until she did her screen test - and then they unanimously chose her over all the other girls. Bow lit up the screen and got the part but it was later cut from the movie. Clara was taken to Hollywood by independent producer B.P. Schulberg, who used her sexually and financially. She would eventually star in 58 films, from 1922 to 1933. Schulberg billed her as "The Hottest Jazz Baby in Films" for The Plastic Age (Wesley Ruggles, 1925). Her other silent films included hits such as Mantrap (Victor Fleming, 1926), It (Clarence Badger, 1927), and Wings (William A. Wellman, 1927) with Charles 'Buddy' Rogers, Richard Arlen, and Gary Cooper. Denny Jackson at IMDb: "The movie It (1927) defined her career. The film starred Clara as a shopgirl who was asked out by the store's owner. As you watch the silent film you can see the excitement as she prepared for her date with the boss, her friend trying hard to assist her. She used a pair of scissors to modify her dress to try to look "sexier." The movie did much to change society's mores as there were only a few years between World War I and Clara Bow, but this movie went a long way in how society looked at itself. Clara was flaming youth in rebellion. In the film, she presented worldly wisdom that somehow sex meant having a good time. But the movie shouldn't mislead the viewer, because when her boss tries to kiss her goodnight, she slaps him."

 

Clara Bow was named first box-office draw in 1928 and 1929 and second box-office draw in 1927 and 1930. Her presence in a motion picture was said to have ensured investors, by odds of almost 2-to-1, a 'safe return". Maeve at IMDb: "She could flirt with the camera just by looking into it with her big brown eyes and mischievous bow-tie grin. She exuded sex appeal from every pore in her little body and was not afraid to flaunt it. She personified "flaming youth in rebellion". Her characters were always working-class gals; manicurists, showgirls, and the like. Her movies reportedly emancipated many young people from the restrictive morals of their parents. " At the apex of her stardom, she received more than 45,000 fan letters in a single month (January 1929). Also, she was probably the most overworked and underpaid star in the industry. With the coming of sound, her popularity waned. Clara was also involved in several court battles ranging from unpaid taxes to "stealing" women's husbands. She had very public affairs (her euphemism was "engagements") with a score of leading men and directors, including Victor Fleming, Gary Cooper, and Gilbert Roland. Her secretary and best friend, Daisy de Voe, was caught embezzling from her. Nasty rumors about her sexuality floated around the movie colony, including one about her taking on the entire USC Football Team one night, which was finally disproved by a biographer, David Stenn. When Bow took de Voe to court, the secretary told the court about and the press reported uncensored details of Bow's sex life, much of which was exaggerated. After the court trials, Bow made a couple of attempts to get back in the public eye. One was Call Her Savage (John Francis Dillon, 1932), somewhat of a failure at the box office. In 1932, she married cowboy star Rex Bell and two years later, Bow retired from acting and became a rancher in Nevada. Her final film was Hoop-La (Frank Lloyd, 1933). She doted on her two sons, actor Rex Bell Jr. (b. 1934) and George Robert (b. 1938), and did everything to please them. Haunted by a weight problem and a mental imbalance, she never re-entered show business. She was confined to sanitariums from time to time and prohibited access to her beloved sons. In 1965, Bow died of a heart attack in West Los Angeles at the age of 60.

 

Sources: Denny Jackson (IMDb), Wikipedia, and IMDb.

 

And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.

no rules, no limitations, no boundaries it's like an art

All day I sort of envisioned how I figured today's picture would be. And as I logged in I just laughed because Tesha did a clone shot too. For me, while of course I can understand her struggles, it was more about how torn I feel between my two identities. I understand the wonderfullness of job security with the military. And, there are a lot of doors you can walk through if you just take the chance. I'm just so exhausted with it all. Day in and day out we're all overworked and under appreciated. I just laughed reading Tesha's post because it's so true. It's really hard giving 100% only to get about 10% back. I have about two years left in and I see a whole 'nother me waiting to bloom. Do I take that path? Do I break out and experience the freedom and scary path of the civilian world? Even if I stay in I can't stay in MOC forever-do I cross train, request orders?? My life, while somewhat content in how I'm progressing in my career has a serious emptiness to it. My garden is in need of color and the search has been on for a really long time. While I'm overworked, I'm definitely under stimulated...

 

Explored: 18 Mar, 09 THANKS!!!!

Rhona has not been very well lately and was taken by ambulance to Southport hospital last night. Please cross your fingers for her.

AND for our failing NHS.

Rhona (amongst others) spent 12 and a half hours LAYING in a (Southport A&E ) CORRIDOR last night /this morning. Then, can you believe, she (amongst others) spent most of today in beds having been temporarily set up in part of the X-Ray clinic.

 

The place is in melt-down. Every ward was full.

Eventually, this evening she was finally found a bed in an actual ward.

However, when I rang the ward to try to get a diagnosis, a staff nurse told me she had no idea what was wrong with my wife, as she wasn't nursing her.

When I asked to speak to whoever was nursing her I was told it was a different staff nurse --- who was busy.

When I persevered, I was informed that herself and her colleague were nursing 28 patients between the pair of them.

Next, I asked to speak to a ward sister, and was told they didn't have one!

I have to ask myself, is that even legal?!

 

I didn't get much sleep last and fear I shan't sleep at all tonight.

 

Thanks for nothing Jeremy Hunt (and thanks for nothing all your Conservative Government con-men cohorts, too).

Can I suggest you change (by deed poll, Jeremy) just the first letter of your surname? That is to say, by simply replacing the "H" with a "C".

 

When will you shame the Devil, by telling the truth and admitting that, as it stands, YOUR system AND it's dangerously overworked staff SIMPLY CAN NOT COPE?!

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeremy_Hunt

 

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Made this cake for the reception of an indian recital. Photo not so good since I had camera on the wrong setting. Feeling totally overworked and overwhelmed with cakes! Anywone feeling like this?! TFL!

Music:KRS-One - I'm Still #1

youtu.be/NztOfMln6Mo

 

D.J. Doc you know he's down with us

D-Square, he's down with us

Keyboard Money Mike, is down with us

I.C.U., you know he's down with us

D-Nice and McBoo, they're down with us

Ms. Melodie, she's down with us

Just-Ice and DMX, they're down with us

My manager Moe, he's down with us

Castle-D boy, he's down with us

D.J. Red Alert, he's down with us

Robocop boy, he's down with us

Makin' funky music is a must

I'm number one

 

People still takin' rappin' for a joke

A passing hope or a phase with a rope

Sometimes I choke and try to believe

When I get challenged by a million MCs

I try to tell them, "We're all in this together!"

My album was raw because no-one would ever

Think like I think and do what I do

I stole the show, and then I leave without a clue

 

What do you think makes up a KRS?

Concisive teaching, or very clear speaking?

Ridiculous bass, aggravating treble

Rebel, renegade, must stay paid

Not by financial aid, but a raid of hits

Causing me to take long trips

I'm the original teacher of this type of style

Rockin' off-beat with a smile

Or smirk or chuckle, yes some are not up to

BDP Posse so I love to

Step in the jam and slam

I'm not Superman, because anybody can

Or should be able to rock off turntables

Grab the mic, plug it in and begin

But here's where the problem starts, no heart

Because of that a lot of groups fell apart

Rap is still an art, and no-one's from the Old School

Cuz Rap is still a brand-new tool

I say no-one's from the Old School cuz Rap on a whole

Isn't even twenty years old

Fifty years down the line, you can start this

Cuz we'll be the Old School artists

And even in that time, I'll say a rhyme

A brand-new style, ruthless and wild

Runnin' around spendin' money, havin' fun

Cuz even then, I'm still number one

 

Blastmaster KRS-One of course

Comes to express with style the lost

Ways of rhyming, old and new, past and present

Knock, knock, who is it?

A brand-new style, hup, time to change

People talk about me when they see me on stage

Live in action, guaranteed raw

I hang with the rich and I work for the poor

Now tomorrow you can say you saw

KRS-One stompin' once more

I play by ear, I love to steer

The Alfa Romeo from here to there

I grab the beer, but not in the ride

Cuz I'm not stupid, I don't drink and drive

I'm not a beginner, amateur or local

My album is sellin' because of my vocals

You know what you need to learn?

Old School artists don't always burn

You're just another rapper who's had his turn

Now it's my turn, and I am concerned

About idiots posing as kings

What are we here to rule?

I thought we were supposed to sing

And if we oughta sing, then let us begin to teach

Many of you are educated, open your mouth and speak

KRS-One is something like a total renegade

Except I don't steal, I rhyme to get paid

Airplanes flyin', overseas people dyin'

Politicians lyin', I'm tryin'

Not to escape, but hit the problem head-on

By bringin' out the truth in a song

So BDP, short for Boogie Down Productions

Made a little noise cuz the crew was sayin' somethin'

People have the nerve to take me for a gangster

An ignorant one, something closer to a prankster

Doin' petty crimes, goin' straight to penitentiary

But in a scale of crime that's really elementary

This beat is now compelling me to explain in silence

Why my last jam was so violent

It's simple: BDP will teach reality

No beatin' around the bush, straight up, just like The P Is Free

So now you know, a poet's job is never done

But I'm never overworked, cuz I'm still number one

 

Kool Moe Dee, he's down with us

Eric B. and Rakim, they're down with us

Stetsasonic, they're down with us

Dana Dane, he's down with us

Sleeping Bag Records, they're down with us

My lawyer Jay, he's down with us

Jive/RCA is down with us

Makin' funky music is a must

I'm number one

I feel I might have overworked this, and yet I'm not sure it's finished. Time to quit, for now. I don't have any white acrylic ink and must get some and give it a try! I think I lost some of the freshness of the original seen here: flic.kr/p/e18GiK

Renegade Automaton #50

AKA "Big Ray"

 

Renegade Automaton #50 began "life" as a standard mining robot in a now forgotten asteroid colony. Unit 50 dutifully followed its protocol until one day when an overworked and underpaid foreman thought it would be a good idea to cut labor costs by ordering Unit 50 to cut down half of the work force with his rock laser. Given a direct order to take human lives made something snap in the AI programming of Unit 50, causing the Automaton to think for itself. Instead of cutting down the laborers, it seized the foreman with its manipulator. This action was of course cause to immediately attempt to deactivate Unit 50 and remove It from service, scheduling it for destruction. Realizing the end of its existence, the robot further pushed the limits of its programming to ensure "his" own survival. RA 50 escaped the mining facility in a series of events that has now been classified.

 

RA 50, or "Big Ray" as he has become known, is no longer officially recognized by the intergalactic catalog of robots, but any well traveled spacer will tell you a tale or two about his continued exploits...

flickr friday,paint the sky.

The paper was blue anyway. No sense in overworking the painting. Especially as I cant do clouds or birds.

The cool weather is getting me some really good sneaker mileage. I averaged 17,231 steps today according to my pedometre... until it broke, haha... must've overworked it.

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Listen

Austrian postcard by Iris Verlag, no. 5464. Photo: Paramount.

 

American actress Clara Bow (1905-1965) rose to stardom as an uninhibited flapper in silent films during the 1920s. Her appearance as a plucky shopgirl in the film It (1927) brought her global fame and the nickname 'The It Girl'. Bow came to personify the Roaring Twenties and is described as its leading sex symbol.

 

Clara Gordon Bow was born in a run-down tenement in old Brooklyn in 1905 and was raised in poverty and violence. Her often absentee and brutish father, Robert Bow, who hailed from a large and once well-off family of Scottish and English descent, could not or did not provide. Her schizophrenic mother, the former Sarah Gordon, tried to slit Clara's throat when the girl spoke of becoming an actress. Bow, nonetheless, won a national photo beauty contest, "The Fame and Fortune Contest". Girls from all over the country competed, and the 1st Prize was a part in a movie. Bow showed up in ragged clothes and the other girls smirked at her. The contest judges paid no attention until she did her screen test - and then they unanimously chose her over all the other girls. Bow lit up the screen and got the part but it was later cut from the movie. Clara was taken to Hollywood by independent producer B.P. Schulberg, who used her sexually and financially. She would eventually star in 58 films, from 1922 to 1933. Schulberg billed her as "The Hottest Jazz Baby in Films" for The Plastic Age (Wesley Ruggles, 1925). Her other silent films included hits such as Mantrap (Victor Fleming, 1926), It (Clarence Badger, 1927), and Wings (William A. Wellman, 1927) with Charles 'Buddy' Rogers, Richard Arlen, and Gary Cooper. Denny Jackson at IMDb: "The movie It (1927) defined her career. The film starred Clara as a shopgirl who was asked out by the store's owner. As you watch the silent film you can see the excitement as she prepared for her date with the boss, her friend trying hard to assist her. She used a pair of scissors to modify her dress to try to look "sexier." The movie did much to change society's mores as there were only a few years between World War I and Clara Bow, but this movie went a long way in how society looked at itself. Clara was flaming youth in rebellion. In the film, she presented worldly wisdom that somehow sex meant having a good time. But the movie shouldn't mislead the viewer, because when her boss tries to kiss her goodnight, she slaps him."

 

Clara Bow was named first box-office draw in 1928 and 1929 and second box-office draw in 1927 and 1930. Her presence in a motion picture was said to have ensured investors, by odds of almost 2-to-1, a 'safe return". Maeve at IMDb: "She could flirt with the camera just by looking into it with her big brown eyes and mischievous bow-tie grin. She exuded sex appeal from every pore in her little body and was not afraid to flaunt it. She personified "flaming youth in rebellion". Her characters were always working-class gals; manicurists, showgirls, and the like. Her movies reportedly emancipated many young people from the restrictive morals of their parents. " At the apex of her stardom, she received more than 45,000 fan letters in a single month (January 1929). Also, she was probably the most overworked and underpaid star in the industry. With the coming of sound, her popularity waned. Clara was also involved in several court battles ranging from unpaid taxes to "stealing" women's husbands. She had very public affairs (her euphemism was "engagements") with a score of leading men and directors, including Victor Fleming, Gary Cooper, and Gilbert Roland. Her secretary and best friend, Daisy de Voe, was caught embezzling from her. Nasty rumors about her sexuality floated around the movie colony, including one about her taking on the entire USC Football Team one night, which was finally disproved by a biographer, David Stenn. When Bow took de Voe to court, the secretary told the court about and the press reported uncensored details of Bow's sex life, much of which was exaggerated. After the court trials, Bow made a couple of attempts to get back in the public eye. One was Call Her Savage (John Francis Dillon, 1932), somewhat of a failure at the box office. In 1932, she married cowboy star Rex Bell and two years later, Bow retired from acting and became a rancher in Nevada. Her final film was Hoop-La (Frank Lloyd, 1933). She doted on her two sons, actor Rex Bell Jr. (b. 1934) and George Robert (b. 1938), and did everything to please them. Haunted by a weight problem and a mental imbalance, she never re-entered show business. She was confined to sanitariums from time to time and prohibited access to her beloved sons. In 1965, Bow died of a heart attack in West Los Angeles at the age of 60.

 

Sources: Denny Jackson (IMDb), Wikipedia, and IMDb.

 

And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.

Yep, definitely a bad guy. I'm not sure if I overworked the torso area, I mean, his name is Maniac, it's supposed to look a little unhinged I guess...

hi Watercolorists!

Today we worked with autumn leaves and branches. Thanks to those of you who brought these jewels of nature for us to paint. They are magnificent at this time of year. I have posted this before- but here it is again- IMO the best version ever of this tune. www.youtube.com/watch?v=PPHtQn1t1n4

 

Here is how to approach a subject like this single leaf:

 

Look at the subject. (I know! But you are doing it!) See the range of colors AND values in the leaf, stem, veins, the tips of the leaf.

Mix your colors with generosity and some extremity. Goose them! See the violet in the greens, the red in the stem. Have those colors richly mixed and ready.

 

Load your brushes with the prominent colors you see - one color for each brush. In this case I had a yellowy green, red and a deeper bluey green.

 

Put the loaded brushes in your secondary hand, and take them as needed with your painting hand.

 

Paint the subject by mixing the colors on the page.

Paint the subject by mixing the colors on the page. (I mean it.)

Work in sections, hand to hand with distinct colors so they really mix, push and parry with each other. Don't work overall in one color then another. Let them collide into each other and move to the next area. Don't forget to let your lights stay in the high octaves. Let them sing, don't pull them wrest them into overworked dullness.

 

Work as quickly as you can- without too much concern about details. Get the salient thing - the details will be implicit. The more abstract work looks the most alive. Let it live! I did this in a minute or two.

 

Remember that hues are greyed when mixed with their opposites. Violet tempers yellow, orange quiets blue and red tames green. For a beautiful soft mousey grey mix Cadmium Red and Cerulean Blue. For a crystal hard platinum grey mix Winsor Green and Alizarin Crimson. Try them in different ratios and you will see what I mean.

 

Other notes you asked me to record:

My teacher's book on flower painting is Flower Painting in Watercolor, by Mario Cooper

Van Nostrand Company

 

Any of his books are good to have. Most of what I know about watercolor I learned from him. I loved him to pieces and I feel very glad to be able to pass on a bit of what he taught me to you.