Friday, November 29, 2024

Thanks For The Memory

Since it is in the middle of a long weekend Good Friday's TGIF music video is a bit different. A few years ago, before the inevitable onslaught of December's Christmas music, I decided to play some Thanksgiving music. Much to my horror I discovered there was no such genre, so I decided to create a catalog of Thanksgiving music to correct that grievous oversight.

The first song added to the catalog was Thanks for the Memory. Well, another year has passed and once again I've been far too indifferent busy to add to the catalog. Maybe next year I'll finally get around to adding a second tune to the Thanksgiving music corpus, but in the meantime we get to enjoy Thanks for the Memory again, this time by Dave Pell.

 

Thursday, November 28, 2024

Happy Thanksgiving

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I'm not sure why this turkey is so happy to be carrying that carving knife. I guess turkeys are just stupid. Also, is the pumpkin lingering from Halloween? Whatever the reasons, have a good Thanksgiving full of food, family and football (real football, not that boring stuff the rest of the World watches and mistakenly calls football). 

 

Wednesday, November 27, 2024

A gobbler in dire need of a pardon

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All's fair in love, war, and Thanksgiving dinners. A young lady striding along with a turkey, an axe, and a demented smile tells you all you need to know about the fate of this feathered friend. She'll be thankful, him not so much.  

 

Sunday, November 24, 2024

Ludovic Bassarab

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Ludovic Bassarab (1868–1933) was a Romanian artist who studied in Germany and France. He returned to Romania and primarily painted scenes of rural life in that country. His brush work is often heavy, and he frequently employs a simple pallet of colors in his works. I like his focus on everyday scenes and common people. You really get a feeling for a specific time and place from his paintings. 

Ludovic Bassarab

Friday, November 22, 2024

Wednesday, November 20, 2024

Tomorrow is dragsville

Above is a snippet from the movie High School Confidential showing a beatnik babe reciting some beatnik poetry accompanied by a jazz band.

Every generation, when they're first entering adulthood have little money and face entry-level jobs. From their youth ghettos the more artistic of them cook-up their own style. Beatniks were from the 1950s, followed by hippies in the 1960/70s. Gen X, busy as they always are whining about every other generational cohort were their usual nondescript selves. The Millennials gave us the ever-entertaining hipsters, and I guess the latest group is giving us TikTok nonsense. It's just part of youth and is all good.  

 

Sunday, November 17, 2024

David de Coninck's paintings of animals

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David de Coninck was a 17th century Flemish artist. He specialized in painting animals. He started his career in Antwerp and moved first to Paris, then later to Rome before returning to Antwerp via Vienna. Unlike the later Romanticists, and for that matter our day, his animals were not cute and idyllic, instead his view of nature was red in fang and claw.  

Friday, November 15, 2024

Kaanha

Get ready for a mythological weekend with the Anand Bhaskar Collective.

 

Wednesday, November 13, 2024

Food on a merchant ship

The video gives information on how food is prepared, stored and served on a U.S. flagged merchant cargo ship.

 

Monday, November 11, 2024

Freedom is not free

Armistice by Sophie Jewett

The water sings along our keel,
The wind falls to a whispering breath;
I look into your eyes and feel
No fear of life or death;
So near is love, so far away
The losing strife of yesterday.

We watch the swallow skim and dip;
Some magic bids the world be still;
Life stands with finger upon lip;
Love hath his gentle will;
Though hearts have bled, and tears have burned,
The river floweth unconcerned.

We pray the fickle flag of truce
Still float deceitfully and fair;
Our eyes must love its sweet abuse;
This hour we will not care,
Though just beyond to-morrow's gate,
Arrayed and strong, the battle wait.

  

Sunday, November 10, 2024

Buying food

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Unless you bag some moose to lay in protein for the winter, as well as having a productive back 40, you need to buy your food. Assuming you have refrigerator grocery stores allow you to do a weekly shopping trip, while markets are more day by day. Either way, they are very much woven into the fabric of our life. 

Tuesday, November 05, 2024

A contentious election

The Election Riot 1874 by Peter Hurd

In 1874 William Charles Lunalilo, the elected King of Hawaii, died without naming an heir. This touched off Hawaii's second election of a monarch. David Laʻamea Kalākaua and the Dowager Queen Emma were the two main contenders. The election was decided by the legislative assembly in favor of Kalākaua and, at the news, Emma's supporters rioted in Honolulu and attacked the assembly. The police could not control the situation and so American and British troops from ships in the harbor were brought in to restore order.

Source: The 1874 Election Riot in Honolulu.   

Our election is upon us, and it seems that regardless of the winner we'll have our own scaled up version of the 1874 Honolulu riots. The more things change... 

 

Sunday, November 03, 2024

Paintings of bicycles

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This is a collection of paintings featuring bicycles. In selecting them I avoided mobs of latex clad bicycle enthusiasts and racers. Instead, I focused on the more generic types of bikes that are so common. Also, for some reason a lot of paintings featured baskets of flowers to give them a more romantic look; I avoided those as well.

Friday, November 01, 2024