1941 blitzkrieg in the Americas

In 941, during WWII, Ecuador and Peru went to war with each other. It had nothing to do with the conflict between the Axis and the Allies, rather it was born of a long-standing border dispute between the two countries.

The dispute stemmed from the wars of independence period of South America, with Peru and Greater Columbia (which is what Ecuador was to branch off from) as well as Portuguese Brazil being in the mix to the east. Several wars were fought in the 19th century, and by the 1920s an uneasy truce prevailed between Ecuador and Peru.

In the early 20th century Peru's army greatly enlarged and improved, with modern equipment including artillery, tanks, and aircraft. Ecuador relied on diplomacy to fend them off, but with the U.S. being increasingly focused on the wars in Europe and Asia, South American affairs became lower priority and the crisis deepened.

Still the Ecuadorians thought they had a surplus of fighting spirit in their troops over the Peruvians. From Ecuador and Peru, 1941:

With all this [Peru’s significant numerical superiority], I should affirm that Ecuador is superior to Peru in terms of race; the Ecuadorians have a warring nature, while the Peruvians are pacifists. Peruvian officers are good because regular contingents of young men study in military schools abroad. Consequently, the Peruvian General Staff is efficient and well-trained, but the troops are inferior to those of Ecuador.  

That turned out not to be the case and based on that misjudgment Ecuador began reinforcing troops in the disputed territories. This led to heavy skirmishing during July 1941 which led to a full Peruvian invasion of Ecuador. In a South American version of a blitzkrieg, which even included parachuters, it was over quickly. By August the Ecuadorian resistance collapsed.

They signed a truce of sorts, although Peru massively violated it at least twice, and then they settled down with the border dispute still simmering. Two more small wars broke out in 1981 and 1995, but the final peace treaty was signed in 1998.      

   

Ohara Koson prints

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Ohara Koson (1877 – 1945) Was a Japanese artist, mainly doing prints. He subjects were primarily birds and flowers. He was influenced by Western art, but he didn't adopt its use of perspective. Rather, he used Western color palettes and also folded in some impressionistic use of lighting effects. Regardless, his compositions were in the traditional Japanese style.  

Ohara Koson

Timonia

Get ready for a carefree weekend with Otava Yo.

 

21 years

Bored and Drunk by Oliver Perry Rauch
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Today is my blogiversary. Flares into Darkness turns 21 years old. It occurs to me the blog is now old enough to drink, so I assume it will be off on a bender tonight. Hopefully it will have a designated driver, so it doesn't end up on the side of the road making a fool out of itself doing a field sobriety test. And, if that should happen, we can only hope the body cam footage doesn't end up on the internet.

As for Flares, it started out as a group blog, but gradually, one by one, the other posters drifted away. At one time it was largely dormant with me posting very erratically, only once every couple of months. Eventually, for reasons even I can't fathom, I started posting more regularly. It also used to be more focused on politics and current events, but I think other sites do a much better job than I of covering such matters, so I just focus on whatever amuses me: art on Sunday, music on Friday, and whatever catches my eye on Wednesday. 

That's the state of this blog today. I thank my small cadre of regulars that drop by, and I hope that the visitors who wander in are at least momentarily entertained by my nonsense. Have a good one all.

 

Paintings of tea drinking

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I'm a coffee drinker although occasionally I will drink tea. These are paintings of teacups, tea pots, and people drinking tea. Americans associate tea with daintily upraised pinky fingers, but tea culture varies widely in the places where it is pervasive: England, the Middle East, India, and East Asia. There is a mix of paintings from different times and places. Enjoy, especially the last one if you're American.

Battle Hymn of the Republic

Get ready for a steadfast weekend with The Petersens.

 

Never forget

First responders on 9-11

From Queen Elizabeth II's message after 9-11: 

"My thoughts and prayers are with you all now, and in the difficult days ahead. But nothing that can be said can begin to take away the anguish and the pain of these moments. Grief is the price we pay for love."

Walking in Bratislava

This is a walk through the old town section of Bratislava, the capital of Slovakia. It starts in the late afternoon and progresses through twilight. The area has no motor traffic. It is a very pleasant looking area, with nice architecture, churches, sidewalk cafes, and a lot of fountains and statues. There are many people out and about enjoying themselves.

As an aside, Slovakia is one of my ancestral homelands. My maternal grandmother immigrated from there early in the 20th century. Who knows, maybe one of my distant relatives wandered past the camera. 

Amusingly, when asked if she would ever return to Slovakia my grandmother replied, "No, why would I ever go back to that dirty little country?" Seesh, a little cranky or what? From the video the city is very clean and well maintained. Then again, she left it over 100 years ago and besides, she came from a village in the mountains, not Bratislava.  

 

It's Labor Day

Tote that barge, lift that bale.
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Today is the federal holiday where workers, or at least most workers, get the day off. It started out as a day to recognize trade unions and the labor movement. In 1894 politicians pandering to the unions declared it a federal holiday. By now the labor union slant of it has been pretty much washed away and it recognizes all workers but, even more importantly, it is the unofficial end of summer and so there are sales, barbeques, and family gatherings.

Still, in spite of the popular beliefs of much of our non-laboring class, those pyramids don't build themselves and so tomorrow work resumes. To leave on a properly cynical note I'll quote Anna Louise Strong, "They say the Pharaohs built the pyramids Do you think one Pharaoh dropped one bead of sweat? We built the pyramids for the Pharaohs and we're building for them yet."

After that annoying thought, enjoy your day off.

  

Stevan Dohanos paintings

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Stevan Dohanos (1907 – 1994) is best known for his paintings for covers of the Saturday Evening Post. He also painted murals for post offices and designed stamps. He painted in the mid 20th century realistic Americana style. His paintings were often complex to set the scene he was depicting.  

Stevan Dohanos

Cumbia Arabe

Get ready for a voiceless weekend with La Lom.

 

Howard Hugh's Hell's Angels

Hell's Angels was the 1930 Howard Hugh's film that won the first Academy Award as best film. The version of the film I've linked has been remastered and colorized. Normally I dislike colorizing old black and white movies, but it works well in this instance. 

The Hell's Angels was originally filmed as a silent film, but Al Jolson's introduction of sound to films led Howard Hugh to reshoot the film as a talky. Still, there is a lot of silent movie DNA in the film. Their body language and facial expressions can be exaggerated. Most notably the blocking for conversations can be somewhat odd, rather than doing an establishing shot and then cutting back and forth between the characters, they tend to just face each other at an uncomfortably close distance as they talk in a static shot.

The story centers on two upper-class British brothers. Roy is upright and very proper and is infatuated with his girlfriend Helen, who he prizes because he thinks she is pure and demure. On the other hand, his brother Monte is a bit of a bounder, who drinks too much and chases any skirt he sees. Hilariously, when we finally meet Helen (played by Jean Harlow) she turns out to be a completely over-the-top strumpet. Hmmm... it appears Roy isn't the best judge of character. The film starts pre-WWI and follows them through their time in the RAF.

The above video is queued up to the start of one of its most famous sequences -- a Zepplin raid on London. The German Zepplin commander is adequately villainous, he's quite delighted when he thinks he's blown-up Trafalgar Square. When the English planes show-up he needs to lighten his dirigible to gain altitude and escape. Dropping his ballast and tossing spare equipment overboard isn't enough, so he orders some of his crew to jump off the ship and they, being good Hun automatons, oblige him by uttering 'for the Kaiser and the Fatherland' before jumping through the open bomb bay doors. Oh, the humanity.

There is another large set piece battle near the end of the film. Roy and Monte bomb a German ammo dump in a captured German bomber. As they try to escape the Red Baron and his Flying Circus spot them and give chase. A squadron of British planes arrives to try to cover their escape and a huge dogfight ensues. They used 137 pilots for film and the final dogfights scenes between the captured German bomber and the two squadrons is spectacular.

Should you watch it? The film is nearly 100 years old and so there are many differences in the presentation and mores of the day. One big example is that there is no score to the soundtrack, it is all dialog and ambient sounds. The film is also pre-code, so it is not as prudish as later films; Jean Harlow's dress that she wears to the party should have been enough to convince Roy that Helen may not be the delicate flower he imagines her to be. Yet, the filming and storytelling methods work nicely so I would say it is well worth a viewing. 

The YouTube version I linked to above has a blizzard of ads, if you prefer to skip that you can buy ad-free versions it.     

Eric Ravilious

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Eric Ravilious (1903 – 1942) was an English artist and designer. Although he worked in a variety of medium, he is best known for his watercolors. He painted landscapes and scenes of everyday life. He was also a British war artist, and he was lost in 1942 on a search and rescue flight out of Iceland. 

Eric Ravilious by Phyllis Dodd

Qaisimalaurittuq (Wish You Were Here)

Get ready for a wistful weekend with Elisapie and The Westerlies.

 

The Great Molasses Flood of 1919

On January 15, 1919, a 20-foot-tall wave of molasses, traveling at 25 mph, ripped through North Boston causing massive destruction and killing 21 people. It was caused when a 50ft tall tank, storing 2.3 million gallons of molasses collapsed. The molasses had industrial purposes, used in creating alcoholic drinks and compounds for explosives.

Along with the death and injuries, there was widespread damage -- an elevated rail line was bent, and several other buildings were demolished, with many more suffering different degrees of damage. The rescue and cleanup were difficult because, well... molasses is sticky. Eventually it was discovered sea water could break down the molasses, so water was pump from the bay and sprayed over the area.

The owners of the tank, trying to dodge liability for its failure, tried to blame an anarchist bombing plot, but that claim was dismissed and they were found liable due to poor construction. It was to lead to tightening building regulations to improve safety.

Below are some pictures of the aftermath of the molasses flood. As an aside, I've posted about molasses once before. 

Bui Xuan Phai's paintings

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Bui Xuan Phai (1920 - 1988) is perhaps the most influential 20th century Vietnamese painter. Born in Hanoi he is best known for his paintings of old Hanoi.

He was born in a Confucian household but gravitated to the arts as a young man. He attended an art school that taught traditional Vietnamese art methods, but he was to become heavily influenced by western artists such as Matisse, Picasso and Chagall. It was to mark his lifelong belief in artistic freedom and expression.     

In 1945 he supported the August Revolution which was the beginning of the fight for Vietnam's independence and freedom from foreign interference. He supported that through what he viewed as the Japanese, French and American occupations. 

However, in the mid 1950s he became embroiled in the Nhân Văn–Giai Phẩm movement, which is a push for greater freedom of speech and respect for human rights. As a result, he was declared a reactionary, fired from his teaching job, and barred from publicly participating in art. 

I find his palette interesting. It is not quite what you would expect to see in a Western painting, I assume it is more of a SE Asian color scheme, although red isn't lathered all over the scenes. In his urban scenes of Hanoi, he'll outline the building with a thick line and color in the surfaces. Again, a technique you rarely see in Western art. 

Bui Xuan Phai

Help Me, Rhonda

Get ready for a catch him on the rebound weekend with na Relo.

 

Reading the room

Say Cheese
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The Room - Kevin John Hart

It is my house, and yet one room is locked.
The dark has taken root on all four walls.
It is a room where knots stare out from wood,
A room that turns its back on the whole house.

At night I hear the crickets list their griefs
And let an ancient peace come into me.
Sleep intercepts my prayer, and in the dark
The house turns slowly round its one closed room.

 

Joaquín Sorolla's paintings

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Joaquín Sorolla y Bastida (1863 – 1923) was an extremely influential Spanish painter, although he is not as well known outside of Spain. He started painting at a young age and quickly became a well-known Spanish artist. He was an expressionist who focused on light and wind. He painted a lot of beach scenes. He suffered a stroke 3 years before his death, which marked the end of his career as an active painter. 

Joaquín Sorolla self-portrait