Then I awake and look around me

Jerry had a teenage girlfriend too. However, the times being what they were, he ended up marrying her instead of sending text messages. There were consequences for Jerry over that.

There have been consequences for Anthony as well. A hard drive full of more than penis pictures. Emails that most certainly talk about other topics than yoga and wedding plans.  Those other emails must be coming and so a CYA letter is dispatched.

Hopefully, the excuses and evasions will be too little and too late.. Instead of Mary, it will be Billy running down that path. Hey, a fella can dream, can't he?

Railroad trains as progress

click any image to enlarge

These days trains are mundane things. My encounter with them is when I sit at a crossing watchiing the Juice Train go by.I think little of the technology of them,, instead noticing how the graffiti artists are careful not to paint over logos or the identifying numbers of the cars. It must be an unwritten rule.

At one time trains were new and on the fore front of transportation. They were iconic. As these old railroad posters show,  in their day the trains' modern lines, power and the exotic locations they could carry one to were emphasized.

There are more posters after the fold.

More Housekeeping

The center sidebar with the links in it blew up today, so I am having to rebuild it. I know some people use this site primarily as a link aggregator, so I want to get them back. It is a bit tedious of a process -- I'm going back to the Internet Wayback Machine to look at archived Flare's pages to find what all the links I had were.

They should all be back in a day or two.

An odd competition

Nope, not the debate, although it would qualify. Rather, this post is a video featuring Christina Aguilera vs The Andrews Sisters.

A matter of perspective

Click image to enlarge

A common genre of internet click-bait is Perfectly Timed Photos. The above example of that genre entertained me because, depending on which photographer you are, it is either perfectly timed or looking completely in the wrong direction altogether.

Well, sometimes you eat the bar, sometimes the bar eats you.

Never Forget

Can I see another's woe, and not be in sorrow too?

Can I see another's grief, and not seek for kind relief?

William Blake

 

Eating birds and drinking snow

Finally, the truth is told. Sheds a whole new light on the election, don't it?

 

Housekeeping

I cleaned up the links. Some of them -- Biased BBC, The Gormogons and Gates of Vienna -- just needed to be redirected. Others had gone dormant for a long time. I deleted most of the dormant links, but left a couple for the sake of nostalgia. 
 

Merry Christmas

From a Roof Top in India

Fixate on the news too much and the World is going to hell in a hand basket. Step back and things are something else altogether. Above, Dub FX featuring CAde & Mahesh Vinayakram in No Rest for the Wicked.  

Found Eyeglasses

Click on any image to enlarge

“When I was young, I used to admire real glasses but my dad was a bit harsh and he never wanted me to have real glasses. That’s the reason I started making the glasses.”

Kenyan artist Cyrus Kabiru on his striking and very odd eyeglasses made from found objects. View more after the jump.

HT: Colossal.

 

Faux Good 'Ol Days Meet Brittany Spears

Max Raabe & Palast Orchester performing Oops ... I Did It Again. Yes, I am beating this Good 'Ol Days theme to death, but I doubt I can get more absurd with it to carry on. Then again, never say never.

More Good 'Ol Days

Click any image to enlarge

Far better, or at least more Good 'Ol Daysish than Toto Coelo singing I Eat Cannibals, are the pictures of these old blackboards. In 1917, while renovating classroom walls, these blackboards were covered over and largely forgotten. They have only recently been rediscovered when new walls were being installed.

To see more pictures of them and read about them at Hyperallergic.

Maybe the Good 'Ol Days weren't so good after all

I Eat Cannibals by Toto Coelo. Hopefully this tune doesn't get stuck in your head.
 

Never Forget

Heaven never defaults. The wicked are sure of their wages, sooner or later.

- Edwin Hubbell Chapin

 

Underground in Berlin

" I also addressed the fish directly in my mind. I am in mortal danger, abandoned by everyone, I told them. You are innocent creatures, just like me. Please intercede for me, you silent fish, when human beings abandon me."

From Marie Jalowicz Simon's Underground in Berlin

Mama, take these guns away from here

Wyclef Jean's "Knockin' On Heaven's Door"

I remember playing my guitar in the projects
Playing in the PJ's
A product of the environment
Pour some liquor for those who passed away
I told my mom I'm gonna get up out of the hood
Mama
My dad taught me the American dream, baby
You can be anything that you wanna be
If I did it y'all could do it
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah

Mama, take these guns away from here
Mama, I can't shoot them anymore
Cease fire
I feel a dark cloud coming over
So poor, so dark
It feels like I'm knocking on the heaven's door

To Biggie Smalls and Tupac
Knock, knock, knocking on the heaven's door
Hip-Hop
To Freaky Tah and Big Heavy
Lost boy
Knock, knock, knocking on the heaven's door
Yeah
And to the Princess Aaliyah
We're knock, knock, knocking on the heaven's door
To my brother Big Pun
Terror Squad
We're knock, knock, knocking on the heaven's door
Oh Lord, Oh Lord

Would someone take these guns away from here
Take these guns from the street, Lord
I can't shoot my brothers anymore
I seen a thug cry
I feel a dark cloud coming over me
Over me
It feels like
It feels like I'm knocking on the heaven's door
So sing along street children

We're knock, knock, knocking on the heaven's door
And to my daddy that passed away
Rest in peace
Knock, knock, knocking on the heaven's door
To the God, Fred Jordan, we're
And put the Fugees on
Knock, knock, knocking on the heaven's door
To my people doing time
We're
Locked up
Knock, knock, knocking on the heaven's door

Crips and Bloods, Latin Kings
Please just chill wit the violence
Though even though I know that the bad boy move in silence
I'm asking y'all please chill wit the violence
Said even though I know that the gangsters move in silence
Whoa
We're knock, knock, knocking on the heaven's door
To my people in the Twin Tower
We're knock, knock, knocking on the heaven's door
And to my soldiers in the Pentagon
We're knock, knock, knocking on the heaven's door
New York
New York
New York
New York
New York
Mama
To my people in the streets
I'm talking to you now
Please put down your heat
Oh Lord
To my brothers that's on the corner
Oh God
Ay get out quick or you too will be knocking on heaven's door

For Mothers on Mothers Day

Girls Just Want to Have Fun as covered by Busby Marou

Recruiting for War

Click any image to enlarge

For the 20th Century's large wars young men and women were recruited to go to war with stark and aggressive messages. During the winding down of the Cold War, and the peace that followed it, martial recruiting posters became a relic. "Join the Navy and See the World" replaced warnings about the savagery of the Japs and Huns.

On this page, and after the jump, are samples of that old style of recruitment. Sadly, I suspect we'll see its return.

Well, this is different ...

Crazy Train as covered by Camille and Kennerly.