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Free channel for international music from the last 110 years, Picasso's first painting etc, early Spring

April 10, 2016, 12:11 pm
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After days of grimly gray skies and rain, it's lovely to see the sunshine again.
























Fantastic! This website lets you explore music from almost any country in any decade since 1900.

So many obscure treasures from far flung corners of the planet.

Radiooooo.com is so fun! You can add songs too. 








One of my favorite romantic films, love song sung by Julie Delpy


Picasso died today in 1973. Here's his first painting, at age 8:

my inner teenager wants this









             Painting of koi fish by Terry Gilecki

 Painting of koi fish by Terry Gilecki


Painting of koi fish by Terry Gilecki




                                     Folk Art Papercuts by Suzy Taylor

Illustration by Artuš Scheiner for Hoffmann's The Nutcracker and the Mouse King (1924) 

               Illustration by Artuš Scheiner for Under Command Of Magic by J. Š. Kubín (1920s)

                              Illustration by Artuš Scheiner for Hoffmann's The Nutcracker and the Mouse King (1924)


                 Illustration by Artuš Scheiner for Under Command Of Magic by J. Š. Kubín (1920s)


                            Illustration by Artuš Scheiner for Hoffmann's The Nutcracker and the Mouse King (1924)

                 Cover illustration by Artuš Scheiner for Božená Němcová's Disobedient Kids


Map of the stars by Andreas Cellarius 


Portrait Of Young K.M By Nikolaos Lytras

 May there be more peace in the world. 

Illustration by Gyo Fujikawa
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April 12th 2016

April 12, 2016, 4:31 pm
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If you are traveling, even backpacking at any age, it's handy to have backpacker's or traveler's insurance. InsureAndGo Travel Insurance, especially if you rent a moped, for example. 

New York Public Library Digital Collection

LADIES' DRESS SHOES OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY








































New York Public Library Digital Collection
THE TROUVELOT ASTRONOMICAL DRAWINGS: ATLAS


New York Public Library Digital Collection of vintage menus. 
WOLF DIETER ZANDER COLLECTION 


















Learned this today, that our brains are extremely skilled at "gaze detection" and usually know when someone is staring at us.

William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy having lunch on the set of Star Trek.



















































My dear nieces, author, Phoebe Nicholson and artist/musician, Faith Eliott, have collaborated on a book of Phoebe's poems.





















The headphones Faith made, on her website, FaithEliott.com



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Marvin Gaye in Ostend, Belgium and other things

April 19, 2016, 8:30 am
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There are certain songs one remembers the moment one heard. In 1973, lying in the bath in London, I heard Walk On the Wild Side by Lou Reed on my boyfriend's pea green transistor radio. Indelible moment. The same goes for Marvin Gaye's Sexual Healing, which I heard in 1983 on a fashion designer's mixtape in New Delhi, while working on a clothing collection. Boom, it got me me right in the hormones. What a song! Still thrills me, decades later. 

Sexual Healing


Marvin Gaye's singing has been a part of my life since my teens with his marvelous Heard It Through the Grapevine.

A couple of months ago I learned a little about Marvin Gaye's really hard life. Read a bit of his biography online. What suffering he went through! 

At the lowest point in his life until then, he took an unlikely refuge in a small seaside town on the Belgian Coast, called Ostend. 


"By the early 80s, like soul itself, Marvin Gaye had fractured into a million pieces. He was washed up, drugged out, underselling, overweight, mid-divorce and promoting an album Motown hadn’t even bothered to let him finish. Belgian concert promoter Freddy Cousaert met Gaye in London, a bloated wreck, and took it upon himself to improve the lot of the fallen star. Gaye would later say he “didn’t even know where Belgium was”, but that he “left it to the hand of God”. The hand of God, it seems, fancied a waffle. Gaye boarded the Southampton Ferry in the spring of 1981 with his son Frankie, heading to the sleepy fishing town of Ostend to be guests of Cousaert, staying in his house, and joining his family."



Richard Olivier's Marvin Gaye: Transit Ostend, a documentary made of Gaye's time there shows him soberly revelling in the incongruity of his surroundings, staring out over the grey waters as if they were an aquatic mirror of his melancholy, strolling along the King Albert I promenade where he took an apartment, singing the Lord's Prayer inside a church, even visiting a fisherman's bar (long since torn down) and attempting to play darts with the locals. Gaye talked of Ostend in terms of a retreat, a penance - two years earlier, he had attempted suicide by cocaine overdose in Hawaii. In Ostend, however, he professed to be living a cleaner, even monastic life, purging his past sins with plenty of jogging, sea air and even forsaking sex.

Remember Marvin from Daniel Elbel on Vimeo.

Barely 18 months after quitting Ostend, Gaye, stricken by cocaine-induced paranoia, tormented by the push and pull between his good faith and bad habits, was shot dead by his bible-bashing father, in a probable act of subconscious suicide. Although it's assumed he always intended to return to the fatal dazzle of LA, the truth is, he was in two minds - just weeks before leaving, he bought a 21-room manor outside the city. Ostend could have been his salvation.
















Magical Rings With Secret Compartments Inspired By Famous Novels by the lord of the rings, Theo Fennell



Every couple of months I need to see this video of the Georgian National Ballet rehearsal. The troupe is called Sukhishvilli. 
It's one of the most exciting dance performances I've seen, ever. 

A FaceBook video of some marvelous mechanical kites, made by a Chinese artisan, Zhang. A KickStarter video about the same man, whose kites are not just charming but marvelous works of art and ingenuity.


Ooh, such an intriguing title, The Flight of the Shadow. 

A few lovely book covers.


An animated chart of 42 North American butterflies


Selene by Albert Aublet

 (French, 1851–1938)
An addictively fun game, Line Square Dot. Try to get the dot into the box by making the dot bounce off lines

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Jenny Holzer and other images

May 3, 2016, 7:52 pm
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Jenny Holzer. Her art was and is so innovative. It has become part of the brocade of now. I remember when 42nd Street was bought up by Disney for gazillions. Mixed feelings here in Hell's Kitchen. 42nd Street was so sordid, tired and ugly sex business mixed with seedy drug biz. But then Disney bought it? LOL It was bizarre icing on a shit cake that one.

Jenny Holzer miraculously made the change better. On what were the old marquis awnings, instead of movie titles or sex peep show titles, she put her art. I remember walking down 42nd then, quite surreal with everything closed and her poetic statements all over the place, on all the marquis awnings. It was so darkly beautiful. Uplifting. It brought some wonderful healing to the process. And now, of course, 42nd Street is still tawdry but with Mickey Mouse ears on it. Funny that.




Illustration by Boris Artzybasheff

Athanasius Kircher

Newton by William Blake

Illustration from Musurgia Universalis, (1650) sets out Kircher's views on music by Athanasius Kircher
Cvijeta Job, illustration for Mira Boglic's Suma Od Koralja, 1962 

Art Nouveau Ornament. Ornement Art nouveau. Jugendstil Ornamente. Ornamentación Arte Nuevo


Spaceman Japan, around 1960


Microscope Vienna, around 1920

illustration by  Dan Elijah Fajardo


Painting  by Léon Bakst

Painting by Zayasaikhan Sambuu

Painting by Laurel Long

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Late May 2016 distractions

May 20, 2016, 1:40 pm
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Love watching what's for dinner in Japan. So healthy! All the interesting names and different ways of making things. 


Wonderful spontaneous singing in Split, Croatia on New Year's Eve (starts at 0:25)


Always loved the fairy stories with little elf helpers, shoemakers. 


Miyagawa (Makuzu) Kōzan, Kōro (incense burner). Porcelain, 11 x 12 x 14 cm. Japan, 19th-20th century, Meiji-Taishō period.

Amusingly mischievous, slightly mean illustrations. "Flower Children" by Elizabeth Gordon.
The whole book is online here.











A 1970's ring by the jeweler, Paul Flato
I want to come with you!!




Little Thumbelina 
The artist, 

Jan van Kessel the Younger, illustrated his name in creepy crawlies.


The exquisitely beautiful art of gasoline rainbows. 
Image via 
Image by Anselan Photography


Abstract ~ study of oil & water, photographer Karen Keogh


Great interactive, detailed map of NYC buildings not conforming to the present zoning laws, too tall, too commercial, taking up too much space.

40 Percent of the Buildings in Manhattan Could Not Be Built Today

Occupations of persons from Panama Papers

Shin-en (Calm),1992; plate; porcelain with vivid colored glaze (yôsai) Tokuda Yasokichi III (1933–2009). More of his art here.


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Webs of light on and in water

May 23, 2016, 3:11 pm
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Much of my life, I've loved the net shaped light patterns that dance off water onto walls, onto the surface below the water, the sand or river bed or onto creatures swimming in the water. 

Water spangled, dappled, sparkling, rippling with light.
Photo credit: ImageLib.com

Often these patterns can be seen on the surface of swimming pool water or on the walls of the swimming pool itself. Sometimes, sitting in the cabin of a boat, the light patterns play on the walls. So I collected images of these webs of light, as I think of them, and in doing that I came across the mathematical explanation for these beautiful, fluid patterns. 











Such a paradox that the patterns of light, so delicate, playful, entrancing, are named something so awful, caustics. It's because concentrated sunlight can burn and caustic is from the old Greek word, burnt. 

From Wikipedia, In optics, a caustic or caustic network is the envelope of light rays reflected or refracted by a curved surface or object, or the projection of that envelope of rays on another surface.The caustic is a curve or surface to which each of the light rays is tangent, defining a boundary of an envelope of rays as a curve of concentrated light. Therefore, in the image to the right, the caustics can be the patches of light or their bright edges. These shapes often have cusp singularities.
Rippling caustics are commonly formed when light shines through waves on a body of water.

Ah, the poetry of that. An envelope of light rays reflected by a curved surface. Or the projection of an envelope of light rays on another surface. Rippling caustics.
Okay, so I can barely forgive the caustics name but the definition is so lovely.

Huh. Who knew that the rainbow is itself a caustic?! Scattering of light by raindrops causes different wavelengths of light to be refracted into arcs of differing radius, producing the bow. Another excellent visual of this here.

Apparently, caustics as a mathematical science are used these days a lot in creating computer graphics. As I explored the math of this caustics thing, down the rabbit hole I went. And a delightfully beautiful, poetic, mathematical, scientific rabbit hole it is! 

There are caustics used in architecture too, "caustic engineering", producing patterns of light projected off buildings, like this. 













Then there are caustics used in photography or film, "raytracing" combined with caustics, as shown here. 

Caustics are also created when light passes through glass.


Caustic networks through glass are the kind of thing one's eyes rest on while having a glass of wine with a friend in a restaurant, the pretty play of light and shadow on the tablecloth. I just never knew what to call that before now.
Caustics are used in designing or constructing glass as well, understanding the play of light when glass is used in any number of ways.


































Then I discovered the art created by Philippe Bompas, who has fallen in love with the math and science of caustics and whose works marvelously use the beauty of caustics.

Then this exquisite creation, the "Aqua Lamp" by two artists at the MadMatter Studio

Poetic Lab, a London-based product design company founded by Shikai Tseng and Hansei Chen, created a marvelous work of art, called Ripple, using a lightbulb that mimics the caustic effect of webs of light.
Certain photographers love the caustic effect and are able to capture its beauty remarkably well. I love this image from The Photographer's Guide website (marvelous photographs of their trip to Fez, Morocco).
Mathematicians are working together with artists to find new ways to use and play with this dancing light. Love the beautiful description here: Choreographing light: New algorithm controls light patterns called 'caustics', organizes them into coherent images

Taming light reflection to create images

Connected with the math of caustic network plays of light are a few wonderfully named concepts. A cusp singularity. For example, an ordinary cusp occurring as the caustic of light rays in the bottom of a teacup.
See that curved light. That's a cusp. 

As I scrolled down the Wikipedia page, in understanding what a cusp is as it's connected with caustic networks of light, I came across the delicious term, a cusp catastrophe. Ha! Had to look that up. Oh, gee, it gets more strangely beautiful, a swallowtail catastrophe, a butterfly catastrophe. The cusps and catastrophes are mathematical names for shapes of patterns, described in more detail here.
This is an example of a swallowtail catastrophe caustic lattice of light. Image taken from Dan Piponi's website page about Caustics and Catastrophes

So, why is it called a catastrophe? Had to dig a little more.

Ah. A lovely, interesting explanation via Vidhya Pushpanathan, here. The word catastrophe comes from Greek tragic drama and refers to the sudden twist of development in the plots. Catastrophe theory is a method for describing the evolution of forms in nature. It is particularly applicable where gradually changing forces produce sudden effects. Its interdisciplinary character was, for people with widely differing agendas, a cultural connector linking mathematics, biology, social sciences and philosophy.
It is represented by using topology. Topology is a generalization of geometry that studies spaces with the degree of generality appropriate to a specific problem. One central concern of topology is to study the properties of spaces that do not change under a continuous transformation, that is, translation, rotation and stretching without tearing.

Apparently, there are  seven elementary catastrophes

The fold catastrophe

The cusp catastrophe

The swallowtail catastrophe

The butterfly catastrophe

Catastrophes in systems with two state variables

The hyperbolic umbilic

The elliptic umbilic

The parabolic umbilic

Those catastrophes would each look differently as caustics. As shown on this web page by Samantha Scibelli.


This is an amazing graphic by Johan Hidding. With it I can better see how the light is refracted to create the webs of light in water. Reminds me a bit of those glass marbles.


Marble by artist Steven Maslach
And this fabulous visualization of something called the Zel'dovich Lens is a web of light animation that is somehow connected with the expansion of the universe and cosmic web complexity. Wow. 
And just to add some wonderful scientific names, the Zeldovich Approximation: Lagrangian & Eulerian Singularity Structure, which has images that show, in part, some of the lattice of light shapes.

All that science and math exploring was discovered just looking for pretty pictures of shimmering webs of light that I love so much. Now I know more about them, that they are called caustic patterns, caustic networks. If one puts the word caustics into Google images, up will come those marvelous nets and spangles of light, those plays of light and shadow, stippled, dappled, webbed, fluid, dancing. 

A caustic cat. 
And on to some of the images of water and light caustics that enjoy.


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more webs of light on and in water

May 23, 2016, 9:53 pm
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Been having a rough time with my health for the last 6 months, am in need of help

June 15, 2016, 10:13 am
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Victoria's emergency survival

https://www.gofundme.com/29yr9pj8

So sorry to ask for help. I prefer to offer help to others. Overwhelming cancer fatigue from the 3 types of cancer, asthma and an unusual amount of rain this year prevented me from street vending enough to get back on my feet after living off my savings for the Winter. 

I'm in a desperate situation. Literally, any donation would be profoundly appreciated. And if you do offer anything, thank you with all my heart.
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Summer, the poetry of light. Mesmerized by light on water patterns

June 22, 2016, 9:52 am
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Dappled, dimpled, sun spangled, reflecting, rippled,
those fluid patterns mesmerize and fill me with peaceful joy.
Sunlit Stream on the Oregon Coast - via


Carved Book by Guy Laramee

Claude Monet, La Grenouillère During the summer of 1869, Monet and Renoir set up 

their easels at La Grenouillère, a boating and bathing resort on the Seine, not far from Paris. 

Untitled by Toni Sirera
Lake-Boat-Wake by Barbara Kemp Cowlin
Fishing boats - Anneliese Clarke











Conversation by Jamie Wayman 
The Mediterranean, 1895 by Nikolai Nikanorovich Dubovskoy
Night on the Southern Shore (1898) by Nikolay Dubovskoy
Mirror-Lake 1929 by Franklin Carmichael
"La piel del agua" by Karen Kruse 2012 
painting by Jamie Wayman
Poplars on the Epte by Claude Monet
Autumn Ripples, photograph by Tony Hadley
"Along in Nature" by Ellen Dittebrandt 2011, sadly, her obituary, killed while riding her bicycle
Cobalt Blue Water by Flickr user cobalt123 
Skrikstract, photograph by John Kosmopoulos
Silence by Nikolay Dubovskoy
The Rainbow (1892) by Nikolay Dubovskoy
Seascape by Nikolay Dubovskoy 
watercolor by Colleen Nash Becht
"Blue cool Creek" by Ellen Dittebrandt
Sunset on Rock Creek Bay - Picture of Lake Powell, Utah by David Drummond

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Some Indian miniature paintings

June 27, 2015, 11:45 am
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I love Indian miniature paintings of all kinds. the more abstract ones have a marvelous sense of space and color. The romantic ones are charming, often depicting moods so well, I love the ones of the monsoon rainy season, which is considered a time of romance in India, the details and patterns of leafy trees and flowers and the paintings which include animals. 

Below are a few Indian miniature paintings found on the web. It's possible to buy Indian miniatures on eBay. There's a great selection. 


Kangra painting of the Cosmic Sun, 18th century





































From a series of Vishnu Avataras: Yagya. Jaipur, circa 1860





















Kalki Avatar
Punjab Hills, Guler, c. 1765

Two girls standing on a terrace, clasping hands and holding lotus flowers - Rajput Painting, early 19th century

From the Mary Binney Wheeler Image Collection


Divine Lovers in Moonlight, Kangra style, 1810, Chamba Museum, Himachal Pradesh, India

A miniature painting depicting two lovers watching birds in the sky, 1975-1982



Equestrian portrait of a princess, Guler style, 1790, Chamba Museum, Himachal Pradesh, India

Krishna releases the defeated Rukmi, Guler style, 1770, Chamba Museum, Himachal Pradesh, India


Radha and Krishna, Guler, 18th century, Panjab University, Chandigarh, India


Portrait of a woman, Mughal miniature painting

Indian miniature painting showing a woman with peacocks in a landscape, 1978
Miniature Painting, The Rainy Season, Kangra, 19th century, Panjab University, Chandigarh, India

Miniature Painting, The Rainy Season, Kangra, 19th century, Panjab University, Chandigarh, India


Siva and Parvati, Kangra style, 1815, Chamba Museum, Himachal Pradesh, India

Krishna saving passengers from a shipwreck caused by a nefarious horse-headed deity, 1978-1982






'Divided from her darling,
most unhappy in love,
like a nun renouncing the world,
this Todi abides in the grove and
charms the hearts of the deers.'
(Pal, 1978, 128, quoting Coomaraswamy)
The lone lady, symbolic of love in separation or loss, is a leitmotif of ragamala paintings. Whether gathering flowers, wandering through the forest, or ruefully strumming a musical instrument, the lady yearns for her absent lover. One of the most easily recognisable and common images is that of the Todi ragini, where the lady holds a 'rudra vina' ('bin'), and is surrounded by deer. The physical attraction of bucks for human females has been used as a recurring sexual metaphor in Sanskrit poetry from antiquity. (Pal, 1978, 128) and significantly, in this image as most other Todi ragini, the lady faces the buck rather than the fawn. The musical raga is to be played in the first quarter of the day from sunrise; its expression tender and loving. It is believed that originally Todi was a song of village girls guarding the ripening fields against the deer who became so absorbed in listening, they would stop feeding (Ebeling, 1973, 60).
The delicate drawing of this image, the fineness of detail focussed on the central figure, and the minimal background, is typical of late Mughal styles. Different texts on Todi ragini allude to the lady's limbs being tinged and perfumed with saffron and camphor.
Goddess Durga fighting with Mahishasura (buffalo-demon) - Early 18th century Guler School painting

 Tansen and Swami Haridas in Vrindavan - Jaipur-Kishangarh mixed style, ca. 1750

 
Miniature Painting, Rukmini sending a message to Krishna, Guler style, 1790, Chamba Museum, Himachal Pradesh, India


Laila, Majnu, Kota, Rajasthan, c 1760, National Museum, Delhi

Saint Musicial Haridas,Akbar and Tansen, Kishangarh, Rajasthan, c 1760,National Museum, Delhi
Miniature from Gwalior, 1978
Bride and Groom, Agra, 1972

Ragini Todi Pratapgarh, Rajasthan, circa 1710 A.D., National Museum, New Delhi
Shri Vishnu Saving the Elephant Gajendra, Pahari region, Guler, circa 1760.

from the excellent Indian Miniature Paintings blog
From the Navin Kumar website,
 Court Paintings of India from the 16th to the 19th Centuries

From the Victoria and Albert Museum website

Hindu hill kingdoms


Nainsukh, 'Mian Mukund Dev of Jasrota riding through a meadow', about 1754. Museum no. IS 7-1973. Opaque watercolour and gold on paper.

In the hills at the edge of the Panjab plains, isolated Hindu kingdoms nurtured strongly distinctive styles of painting. For some of the 17th century and throughout the 18th, Pahari artists - artists 'of the hills' - produced extraordinarily vibrant paintings for the rulers of states such as Basohli, Mankot, Nurpur, Chamba, Kangra, Guler and Mandi. They illustrated the ancient stories of Hinduism and depicted the lives of their patrons, the characteristics of these divine or earthly figures drawn from a large repertoire of conventions.

Their work is stylised, but full of vigour, their subjects often isolated against backgrounds of saturated colour - deep yellow or intense red, or gentler hues of sage green or ultramarine.
Little is known about these artists, but the family relationships of some Pahari masters has come to be established, providing the key to understanding stylistic influences between the different courts. Artists travelled from one to the other over the generations, creating their own individual styles yet working within a recognisable family tradition. One of the most significant families was that of Pandit Seu of Guler, who died in about 1740, and his sons, the remarkable Nainsukh and Manaku.
Pahari artists also worked for Sikh chiefs in the late 18th century and when Sikh rule united the Panjab and the Hindu kingdoms declined, the later generations of Pahari artists increasingly turned to the Sikh courts for patronage.



Attributed to the "Durga Master." Vishnu Reclining on Ananta. From Sage Markandeya's Ashram and the Milky Ocean, c. 1780-1790.

Via: translinguistic other

"Vishnu’s flotation device is Ananta-Shesha, the infinitely-headed serpent on which the god reposes during the endless, timeless period before/between the creation of the universe(s). In Hinduism—as in most mythological systems around the world—the serpent is a complex and multivalent symbol.  Cosmologically speaking, Ananta may well represent the Milky Way―he is said to wear the planets on his myriad hoods and he is instrumental in the churning of the cosmic “ocean of milk” described in the Samudra manthanepisode of the Puranas.  But he also represents the infinite potentiality of energy and consciousness in all matter."


Bikaner school indian miniature, XIXth century Region: India Period: Bikaner school, XIXth century Collection of the Maharadja of Bikaner Collection Of Pastor H. Maas, The Netherlands. Painting in good condition, framed.

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The bliss of being in or near the water

September 7, 2016, 10:39 am
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Blue, aquamarine, teal, cobalt, sapphire, sea green. Sensual, languid, fun, contemplative, soothing, expansive, blissful enjoyment of being in or near the water. Floating, frothy, limpid, relaxing, plunging, calming, peaceful, laughing, playful.
Tombé du ciel by Antoine Renault
by Bato Dugarzhapov
Zig Zag by Lorraine Shemesh



Matthew Davis

Sandy ocean floor , Great Barrier Reef , Australia Creative RF By: Comstock

Por alla resoplan! / Blow ho! by purolipan 

Mária Švarbová


Mária Švarbová


 Heather Horton 

Samantha French


by Antoine Renault 




Underwater by Keek



Water Reflections by Jill Wagner 


Blue Bacchanalia by Martine Emdur

Tatyana & Vadim Klevenskiy







Samantha French




Heather Horton


underwater I - Giordano Cipriani

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Christine Finley's geometries of color

October 22, 2016, 9:28 am
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Christine Finley's marvelous geometric, fractured stain glass color kaleidoscope paintings, wow.
Psyche and Amore
Double Pieta
Amaranthine Sarangel
Psyche and Amore
Future Islands
Logos Continuous Spirit



Olympic Fencing
Future Islands
Angel Pushes Consciousness With One Finger
Pieta
Multiverse Two Moons
Christine Finley standing in front of one of her paintings
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Sunday night in late October

October 23, 2016, 3:59 pm
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A few of  the quietly sublime, painted ceramic art works by Don Jones, these are from his "Atmospheres" collection.


A few of the exquisite porcelain sculptures by Jennifer McCurdy. Her website. 

The gloriously detailed recycled paper art by Kate Kato. Her website.

Love these little Bruegel like mushroom people.

Mushrooms- collage by Amy Ross
Ooh, her under the sea ones are so cool too!
When I was a teen in NYC in the 1960s, I discovered a small shop packed full of marvelous old Victorian images, which I now understand are called scraps, used for scrapbooking. They were vintage or antique ones beautifully printed, mostly in Germany by Ernst Freihoff. Many were kitsch but many were like illustrations from old children's story books. I fell in love with the cherubs and used them in my collages and journals. I still love them in a nostalgic kind of way, all these many years later, delighted to see them on the web. Apparently, the scraps are printed on old machines that are between 60 and 200 years old.

I learned just now they are chromolithographs. Some are called Dresden die cut and some in metallic, embossed foil paper. In German, these are called Glanzbilder, gloss pictures. Apparently, in the mid to late 1800s, scrapbooking became a craze all over Europe. Printers created these really wonderful images to cut out and glue in scrapbooks, which is called découpage.

Interesting to read a little about how these wonderful images came into being. The history of printing between 1800 and 1899. I think the Germans had the forests to make wood pulp for the paper and the technology for the printing.

I wish I knew more about the people who created these illustrations but I haven't been able to find much yet.

From the Walter Kunze website: These old-fashion styled Dresden trims/ foils/ papers (also known as German foils / scraps) are manufactured with centuries-old, original molds from the Erzgebirge (ore mountains) region around Dresden. Once it was the main center of crafting products in Germany.


The Krampus one scared me but was amazingly dramatic too.
I preferred the more peaceful images.



Looking up the crafts of Erzgebirge, I realize now that a large part of my childhood was under the influence of the cultural visuals of that part of the world, about which I knew nothing until a few minutes ago. The Christmas ornaments, like the nutcracker soldiers, all those simple shaped little wooden Christmas tree ornaments, the paper Easter egg containers, the little sets of wooden farm animals, they all and so much more, came from there, on the border between Germany and Czechoslovakia, a region called Saxony.

From the Käthe Wohlfahrt website: 

The supplies of silver, pewter, copper and lead were almost exhausted towards the end of the 18th century, leaving miners with the need for different work. As wood was a plentiful resource at the time, they focused on developing the skill of wood-turning. They became artisans of the craft, and we have been beneficiaries of their gifts ever since.




From the Saxon Gifts website: History of Erzgebirge

History of the Erzgebirge

The Erzgebirge region is located in the eastern portion of Germany that borders the Czech Republic. The area is known also as the Ore Mountains. The region grew from its mining industry but today is widely known for producing wooden German Folk Art. Nutcrackers, Smokers, Christmas Pyramids, Blumenkinder and Schwibboegen are produced in the areas workshops in the town of Seiffen and it's surrounding villages.History of Seiffen 
1324 - First documented mentioning of the town “cynsifen”
1500 (late) - Beginning of tin mining in the Erzgebirge region
1551 - Seiffen records 146 residents
1570 - Building of a mountain chapel
1600 - Establishment of a mining office in Seiffen1635 (after) - Intensified movement from protestant refuges from Bohemia to the region 1650 - Earliest documented mentioning of a woodworking in the area
1699 – Johannes Friedrich Hiemann brings wooden products (Drechslerware) to Leipzig for the first time
1750 (around) – Beginning of the toy production using water-powered mills (wasserkraft drehwerk)
1765 – 28 spin workshops in 8 spinning works
1776 - The old Mountain chapel is built
1776/79 – Building of the old Mountain church
1784 – Beginning of the oversea trade of Seiffen’s products
1810 – First documented mentioning of the ring spinning (reifendreherei)
1834 – Seiffen records 1000 residents
1849 – The Erzgebirge regional Mountain Mining office is closed bringing an end to mining
1853 – The Founding of the state Toy Production School
1869 – The first steam power operated spinning mill is employed
1871 – Seiffen records 1453 residents
1841 – The establishment of a steady toy exhibition at the toy production school
1900 – Seiffen records. 1500 residents
1905 – Seiffen has an unusual winter receiving over 23 feet of snow
1910 – Seiffen records 1427 residents
1914 – King August visits the toy exhibition
1919 – Seiffen records 1764 residents
1936 – Toy manufacturer becomes an acknowledged profession
1951 – All of the in 1946 workshops into one state owned company
1957 – Seiffen has10 privately-owned and one state-owned toy production workshops 1991 – First Christmas Market in Seiffen
1996 – On the weekends before Christmas, 200.000 people visited Seiffen’s Christmas Market Erzgebirge History
Textile art moth by Mister Finch
Embroidered Luna Moth by YumiOkita, her shop on Etsy
Miyagawa (Makuzu) Kōzan, Kōro (incense burner), porcelain, 11 x 12 x 14 cm, Japan, 19th/20th century, Meiji/Taishō period

A website called Love Is Speed with a collection of great photographs of fabulous, over the top Viennese rock crystal antiques from the 18th Century. All incredibly ornate, flamboyant, sumptuous and amazing.
A Russian website, also showcasing excellent photographs of 18th and 19th Century Austrian rock crystal antiques. Worth exploring. 

Am a bit of a sucker for ormolu and Sèvres porcelain. And the occasional wow Meissen porcelain too. Like this incredible one. 
 Flower bouquet Ormolu mounted baluster vase with forget-me-not flower décor and gallant scenes 95 x 76 x 44 cm Meissen, circa 1750
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This is life. December 2016

December 7, 2016, 10:49 am
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Years ago, in 1978, I was living in the Himalayas, in Manali, India. My boyfriend, an American who was also studying Buddhism with Tibetan lamas in India, needed to go to the next small town, Kulu, to get his visa extended.

So we took the bus down the winding mountain road from Manali to Kulu and asked to see the police officer at the Foreigners' Registration Office. We were told to come back in several hours. After having a bite to eat, we decided to go see a Bollywood film at the small country cinema there.

The film was called “Yehi Hai Zindagi” (This is Life). It was a marvelous, very entertaining film, a charmingly told morality tale. The "movie features LORD KRISHNA in it, visiting its lead hero Sanjeev Kumar at regular intervals, granting him all he wishes for in his life, of the material world. Though at first Sanjeev doesn’t believe that he is the GOD himself meeting him in person, so he very casually treats him as a ‘theater artist’ dressed in the attire of LORD KRISHNA. And even later, when he unwillingly has to accept the truth, he starts asking ‘Big things’ from THE LORD just to test his powers and KRISHNA goes on fulfilling his every single wish at an appropriate time.

However, the moment Sanjeev starts becoming rich from a poor labourer, his mind begins functioning differently, his EGO comes into action and from here onward the film gets into the mould of A LIFE TEACHING LESSON with many interesting twists and turns in its well written script. A pure gem for its every sequence of the enlightening interaction between KRISHNA (adorably played by Vikram Gokhale) and Sanjeev Kumar at the various phases of his life, the film has some exceptionally written dialogues which are so simple yet highly effective, that seriously force you to think making that instant connect. Particularly watch out for the conversations with the word “My Sin” which is simply outstanding, insightful work from both the writer and the director, still remembered as the key point of the film by many who watched it in the theaters".

That scene is my favorite. It is delightfully witty with its double meanings. The lead character, Sanjeev, is ill. He cannot eat all the many delicious foods with sugar and salt he loves because he now has diabetes and other ailments. Krishna points out that the names of all the antibiotics he's taking, Terramycin, Achromycin, Ladamycin, Garamycin, all end with the words, "my sin". The lesson is that because of the 'sin' of his egotism, harming others, there is karmic payback in the form of not being able to enjoy his life.

It's such a delight to be able to find that scene on YouTube now, after all these years. 

One of my favorite multi-cultural plays on words in film. Sanjeev says, when he turns and sees the radiantly blue Krishna, adorned with flower garlands and gold headdress, "Oh you." Krishna offers him all kinds of delicious foods. Sanjeev whines that he can only eat and drink bland things. Krishna says. "Have a seat." Sanjeev cannot sit because he has hemorrhoids. Then Krishna looks at the names of the medicines. When Sanjeev reads the names, Krishna points out the "my sin" endings of each of the medicines. Sanjeev starts to wake up to the reality of his misdeeds. 
I love the times Krishna appears and talks with Sanjeev. Such a warmly human, personal relationship between the Divine and Man, endearing.

Stunningly beautiful Nature pics by Stefano Ronchi.

How astounding macro photography can be! Love these extraordinary images.

Whoa. this is a butterfly's tongue.


Photograph by Jochen Schroeder

Chiang Mai, Thailand


Subject Matter:
Butterfly proboscis
This is a close-up of a butterfly's wing!



Photograph by Francis Sneyers

Brecht, Belgium


Subject Matter:
Scales of a butterfly wing underside (Vanessa atalanta)

A joyful video I like a lot. With good recovery lyrics.

Nice info, concise and interesting. Every country in the world.



How terrible New York City would be without Central Park! The true story of how that almost happened. 
A map of the City of New York, from 1811.                                                                                                                      PHOTOGRAPH BY THE NEW-YORK HISTORICAL SOCIETY / GETTY
  An original copy of John Randel, Jr.’s Manhattan grid map at the County Clerk's Office, in New York. The intersection in focus, Sixth Avenue at West Eighty-sixth Street, is now a part of Central Park.PHOTOGRAPH BY MICHAEL APPLETON / THE NEW YORK TIMES / REDUX
Turkish Artist Paints Unbelievably Tiny Paintings Onto Small Objects
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Savoring the quietly sublime art of Rockwell Kent, December 2016

December 9, 2016, 8:54 pm
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Rockwell Kent (American, 1882 – 1971) • The Angel, Christmas Card, 1928


























Rockwell Kent, View at Asgaard , 1945




















Illustration by Rockwell Kent for Herman Melville's Moby Dick
Illustration by Rockwell Kent for N by E, 1930, his account of a voyage on a 33-foot cutter from New York Harbor to the rugged shores of Greenland

Rockwell Kent, Moonlight in the Adirandacks, date unknown






























Rockwell Kent, Dan Ward's Stack, Ireland

Rockwell Kent, The View from Asgaard



























































Rockwell Kent's paintings feel uplifting to me, like time spent walking on the beach, looking out at the sea and the sky. They're boldly contemplative, a clean but also sophisticated, intelligent simplicity to them. There is something austere about them too, a spiritual starkness.

His prints have an art deco edge. His snowy mountain paintings remind me of  Nicholas Roerich. Something about the boldness of his landscapes remind me a bit of Thomas Hart Benton.

After a lifetime traveling the world, surviving World War II, his political interests leaned toward socialist ideas. He became targeted and scapegoated by that monster, Senator Joseph McCarthy, in the 1950s. That destroyed not only his career, his livelihood, but estranged him from neighbors he cared about and had spent much time with in Maine, where he'd built his home.

In 1947 Kent’s mother died at the age of 91, leaving each of her children $30,000. Kent invested most of his inheritance in hopes of building a hedge against his plummeting income. 

    With the rest, the artist returned with his wife, Sally, to Monhegan Island, Maine, the scene of his earliest triumphs and transgressions. 

    He reacquired the little cottage he had built back in 1907. By visiting in the fall and early spring, when the tourists were gone, Monhegan seemed little changed: 


“My body has grown old. I walk now where I used to run; step carefully where once I’d leap. But still, my eyes are good. And seeing, must I not respond to nature’s beauty? I began to paint again, with undiminished love for the familiar scenes.”

“I lug my canvasses across the gullies, up the headlands. I relive my youth. Or better I am young again.”


    But fallout from Kent’s clash with U.S. Senator Joseph McCarthy was immediate. Kent’s politics were never a secret to the islanders, but now the symptoms were instantly apparent: avoidance on the footpaths, hurried departures from the general store whenever the Kents came in. Unable to find sanctuary even on Monhegan, Kent and Sally soon left, never to return. 

    The Adirondack Mountains that cradle Asgaard still inspired the aging artist, but his paintings were accumulating in his studio, most unseen by anyone except Sally. 

    In 1960 Kent arranged to give eighty canvases and eight hundred drawings and prints, work that covered every phase of his career, to the Soviet Union, “the one people in the world who have demonstrated their high regard for what I do.”

About Rockwell Kent.
Rockwell Kent was an American painter and illustrator born in 1882 in Tarrytown, New York. He was a highly prolific print maker. Kent painted landscapes of New York, Alaska, Vermont, and Minnesota. He was also an author of a number of books, which he illustrated.
He was most renowned for his illustrations for Herman Melville's Moby Dick.
He was commissioned by the United States government to paint murals on new buildings. Sometimes he would sneak in his own comments and ideas on their work in tiny letters or in Inuit syllables writing.
Kent illustrated several magazines and had many cover issues to his credit.
For his artistic education Kent studied at the Art Students League of New York City and also with private classes at ateliers. Some instructors include William Merritt Chase and Robert Henri.
> Rockwell Kent became increasingly radical and outspoken during World War II. After the war he advocated friendship and peace with the Soviet Union. U.S. Sen. Joseph McCarthy targeted him during the red-baiting era, and his reputation suffered. Once one of the most famous, well-paid artists of his day, he was no longer in demand as an artist or illustrator.
A snippet of a documentary about him.

An Antiques Roadshow snippet about a woman who owns a Rockwell Kent painting, Greenland, Land of Peace, 1946


A woman he knew died an accidental death, while staying at his house in Maine. The gossip surrounding this death was part of the reason Rockwell Kent and his wife sold their house in Maine.
Rockwell Kent, in honor of the Spanish Civil War

Rockwell Kent, Charlotte
Rockwell Kent, The Seven Ages of Man. Embrace 1918
Seven Ages of Man
William Shakespeare (1564–1616)


From “As You Like It,” Act II. Sc. 7.

                    ALL the world ’s a stage,
And all the men and women merely players:
They have their exits and their entrances;
And one man in his time plays many parts,
His Acts being seven ages. At first the Infant,        5
Mewling and puking in the nurse’s arms.
Then the whining School-boy, with his satchel
And shining morning face, creeping like snail
Unwillingly to school. And then the Lover,
Sighing like furnace, with a woful ballad        10
Made to his mistress’ eyebrow. Then a Soldier,
Full of strange oaths, and bearded like the pard;
Jealous in honor, sudden and quick in quarrel,
Seeking the bubble reputation
Even in the cannon’s mouth. And then the Justice,        15
In fair round belly with good capon lined,
With eyes severe, and beard of formal cut,
Full of wise saws and modern instances,—
And so he plays his part. The sixth age shifts
Into the lean and slippered Pantaloon,        20
With spectacles on nose, and pouch on side;
His youthful hose, well saved, a world too wide
For his shrunk shank; and his big manly voice,
Turning again toward childish treble, pipes
And whistles in his sound. Last scene of all,        25
That ends this strange eventful history,
Is second childishness, and mere oblivion,—
Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything.
Rockwell Kent and wife Frances, Greenland, circa 1930
Rockwell and Frances Kent in Greenland, ca. 1930 / unidentified photographer. Rockwell Kent papers, Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.

Some wonderful photographs of Rockwell Kent's life here, at the Plattsburgh State Art Museum, NY
101 Broad Street, Plattsburgh, NY 12901

Rockwell Kent: Still Photos of an Active Man 
As well as a collection of several dozen paintings.
Kent gave Asgaard Dairy to two loyal farmhands (left)
after Kent’s political views created a regional boycott, 1948
Rockwell Kent playing his father's silver flute, c. late 1940's

Rockwell Kent at home, playing piano with a silly glasses and nose mask.
Rockwell Kent, Resurrection Bay, Alaska, 1965

Rockwell Kent, Greenlanders, 1932

Rockwell Kent, Cloudy Day. Fjord in Northern Greenland
Rockwell Kent, May, North Greenland, 1935 -1937

Rockwell Kent, Whiteface Sunset

Rockwell Kent, Asgaard Jerseys, 1965

Rockwell Kent, The Trapper, 1921

Rockwell Kent, America Land of Our Fathers, 1956-59
America, Land of Our Fathers was painted during the period when Senator Joseph McCarthy, suspicious of Kent's socialist leanings, had summoned the artist to trial. Kent portrays a quiet farmhouse nestled in the undulating Virginia hills south of Charlottesville, the light of day radiating. The bucolic scene alludes to eighteenth century Jeffersonian ideals of pride, patriotism, and freedom. The luminous palette, contrasting colors, and tight, spare composition are characteristic of the artist's work of the 1950s.
Rockwell Kent, Landscape, 1933

Rockwell Kent, Alpes

Rockwell Kent, Sun, Tomorrow, Monhegan, 1907

Rockwell Kent, Asgaard's Meadow 

Rockwell Kent, Moonlight Sleigh Ride, December 1st, 1943

Rockwell Kent, Sturrall. Donegal. Ireland, 1926/1927

Rockwell Kent, Voyagers, Alaska, 1919-23

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December, 2016, a dark month, aching for light

December 10, 2016, 1:57 pm
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Franz Sedlacek (Austrian, 1891-1945)- 
Evening Song (Abendlied), 1938
































Franz Sedlacek, Evening Landscape, 1933


























So, there was this scientist, Franz Sedlacek, (1891–1945) an Austrian,
who had trained as a chemistry technician but when he was older, he became an interesting, innovative artist. He let his imagination roam in strange, often darkly hilarious, eerie directions. A number of his paintings depict light in the distance, which is how I think of December at this latitude. And how I hope, yearn, for the future of the world, to go from this darkness toward the light.
Franz Sedlacek, Storm, 1932
Franz Sedlacek, Übungswiese (Training Ground), 1926
 Insekt mit Blüten, 1935


Study of Trumpet Blooms and Insects, 1935

Landschaft mit Jäger - Landscape with hunter, 1934 
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Heading into 2016 Christmas, jangling all the way

December 11, 2016, 10:36 am
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Funny how dark humor can be comforting at times of grieving, horror and dread.

Who would have imagined a year ago that Saturday Night Live would end up being one of the most potent political activist platforms of 2016? I anticipate the show each week, now waiting to see how they will critique the insanity of this Presidency, grateful for their ridiculing the patent madness of it. This week it was brilliant, as usual, excellently mocking the Cabinet positions being given one after the other to people who embody the antithesis of the role for which they were chosen.


A number of Twitter accounts offer some delightfully dark wit, tersely smart or politically savvy comments. This one has something fiercely good about many of her tweets, with a name like @Elina Shatkin no less. wtf rennaissance. Andy Borowitz. Ronan Farrow. Robert Greenwald. Bill Moyers. Daniel Ellsberg. Mark Ruffalo. Thomas Drake.

Heh, a savvy Christmas related political tweet from the witty 
Where is the organizing body to torment plutocrats with three ghosts a night?

"I hope NBC plans to re-run The Sound of Music. It would be nice to see someone get away from fascists."Tweet via .

It's that time of year again.

"Sorry, You Just Missed Them. They Left This Morning, Something About Egypt..."

37 Cats Crashing Nativity Scenes


Land dragon meets water dragon

Apparently, Hatchimals are the toy of the 2016 Christmas season.

Hatchimals are eggs that hatch into furry creatures. There are five so-called "species" of Hatchimals: Pengualas, Draggles, Owlicorns, Burtles and Bearakeets.

When a consumer buys a Hatchimal, the toy comes in the form of an egg. It eventually starts to make cute noises, and the more a child plays with it, the faster it hatches from the egg. Once hatched, the Hatchimal goes through three life stages — baby, toddler and child — and sings "Hatchy Birthday" between each stage, drawing comparisons to the '90s Tamagotchi toys.
The retail value for a Hatchimal is $60, but consumers are now selling them for hundreds (even thousands!) of dollars on eBay, Amazon and other online retailers.
Sea bunnies are mollusks. The 'ears' are actually rhinophores: organs that help it sense chemicals in the water. 

So marvelously 1980s. Grace Jones sings The Drummer Boy on Pee Wee Herman's Playhouse (I miss him so much!) 


Squirrel Steals 150 Christmas Lights

Margaret Rican of Seattle is having a hard time this year, as her Christmas lights keep disappearing.  A squirrel has been making off with the bulbs one by one. The brazen their pulls off his heists right in front of her sometimes, while some capers are recorded from a distance. She uploaded a compilation of his trips to chew off and abscond with the bulbs one by one. Is he trying to decorate his nest with the colorful bulbs? Maybe but, he probably considers them a food source, in which case he'll be in for a big surprise.(via HuffPo)

You can't make this stuff up.

Putin Aide's Wife Sparks Outrage With Holocaust-Themed Ice-Dancing Performance


End of 2016, even the angels are facepalming


Sasha the Christmas tiger
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December meandering, 2016

December 12, 2016, 10:45 am
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 Nicolas Amiard- classic paintings rock modern tats

Whoa, so humbling. Ronnie and Donnie. Had never heard of them before today. Wow, living in such close proximity. Maybe they need to speak to the united Nations and tell them how to keep peace in impossible circumstances.



It's always aggravated me when people denigrate any kind of bird as a sky rat, whether seagull or pigeon. Finally, some vindication, science based truths about pigeons, how exceptionally intelligent and excellent they are.  
Pigeon Story: How the Rock Dove Became the Sky Rat

Awww, teh helpful Nemo. A sweet relationship between postman and dog

This is so amazing and cool. What fabulously practical reciprocity. Huh, "mutualism".

I like the fun Animal Doodles by Rohan Dahotre
Eye mosaic by Andjelka Radojevic

Glass sculpture by László Lukácsi: Jewel Fan

Marvelous online collection of images by J.J. Grandville, here is his Un Autre Monde (1844)

Cosmic Night by dandingeroz on DeviantArt

David A. Hardy - Saturn from Rhea '53



Needing the sublime these days, the authentic, the true.
A Love Supreme is a four-part suite, broken up into tracks: "Acknowledgement" (which contains the mantra that gave the suite its name), "Resolution", "Pursuance", and "Psalm". It is intended to be a spiritual album, broadly representative of a personal struggle for purity, and expresses the artist's deep gratitude as he admits to his talent and instrument as being owned not by him but by a spiritual higher power. Coltrane plays exclusively tenor on all parts.
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Radio Garden, an amazing internet creation, free radio stations around the globe, in so many languages and styles, 24 hours a day

December 13, 2016, 12:15 pm
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This is a Christmas present for anyone who comes to visit this little blog in the vast reaches of cyber space. 

Pick a place anywhere in the world and listen to their radio! Live, what is playing this minute. For free. How cool is that! 

Radio Garden
Listen to live radio all over the world by navigating an interactive globe

This is one of the most fantastic things I've seen/heard online in ages. 

Apparently, it was created by TRE (Transnational Radio Encounters). It is so awesome to be able to travel around this amazing planet, see the geographic details on the map, listening to the languages, music, ambiance, news in so many countries, far flung corners of the world. Just like that. Boom. One moment listening to music in Bamako, Mali, Almaty, Kazakhstan, Bengaluru, India then swiveling the globe and listening to music in Chalcis, Greece.

I love the Stories part of this website too, in different accents. The History part too around the world, in different languages. Even the Jingles part is cool.

Looking at the globe is wonderful as well, connecting to parts of the world by their radio programs is an interesting sort of intimacy. I like targeting the littler dots in exotic places I've never heard of before.

What a great sound adventure this is.

If you like classic jazz, just dedicated to jazz, here is Moscow's Jazz 101 via languagehat with thanks.

If you like Reggae, here's a great dub station out of Nicosia, Cypress of all places. 


And Radio Locator
Welcome to Radio-Locator.com, the most trusted radio station search engine on the Internet. We have links to over 15,100 radio stations' web pages and over 10,200 stations' audio streams from radio stations in the U.S. and around the world.



From BBC's Planet Earth II
teh kitten and owl chick friends, in Japan
So  interesting! Beauty salons in the sea, where fish and amphibians come to get groomed by "cleaner fish"of all kinds. One of the cool things is that predators repay the service of being cleaned by these fish by not eating them, remaining patient, even when the cleaning is irritating, hurts or tickles.

Wow. Human population through time



Yella - Tom Tom Club - a 1980s favorite and so true about NYC


Tom Tom Club - Yella Lyrics


Yella



  • Up in the morning at 8:05, my room€'s too cold to crack a job
  • There's no beginning, there is no end
  • The landlord has cut the heat again (Say what?)
  • It'€™s freezing cold in New York City
  • I have no heat and it'€™s a pity
  • I pay my rent bill right on time but I'€™m so cold that it's a crime
  • They say that New York'€™s red hot
  • I'm here to tell you that it'€™s not
  • And since the landlord he don'€™t care, I gotta live in my Long John Underwear

  • You gotta have a strong heart to live in New York
  • You gotta have strong lungs to live in New York
  • You gotta have a strong skin to live in New York
  • You gotta have Long Johns to live in New York
  • It'€™s gonna take a lot of heart to live in New York
  • It's gonna take a lot of soul to live in New York
  • You gotta have a lot of cash to live in New York
  • You gotta have a lot of dash to live in New York

  • Freezing heart and froze below, with freezing ears and frozen nose
  • On and on and on, on and on from midnight to the break of dawn
  • I shiver in the shower, stutter on the phone
  • Wonder why I end up an Eskimo

  • If the landlord he don'€™t bend, I guess I have to move again

  • You gotta have a strong heart to live in New York
  • You gotta have strong lungs to live in New York
  • You gotta have a strong skin to live in New York
  • You gotta have Long Johns to live in New York
  • You gotta have a lot of heart to live in New York
  • You gotta have a lot of soul to live in New York
  • You gotta have a lot of cash to live in New York
  • You gotta have a lot of dash to live in New York
  • I like to move where I can groove
  • Once a move to twice improve
  • To the South where the sun is hot
  • To a place where the landlord's not

  • I take my wife and the three fat babies because I came for New York lady
  • Left, right, left and to the South
  • (Forward march) I'm stepping out

  • You gotta have a strong heart to live in New York
  • You gotta have strong lungs to live in New York
  • You gotta have a strong skin to live in New York
  • You gotta have Long Johns to live in New York

  • Left, right, left, right, left, right, left
  • Left, right, left, right, left, right, left
  • Left, right, left, right, left, right, left
  • Left, right, left, right, left, right, left
  • Why don'€™t you move into the Louvre?
  • It'€™s cozy there and you could prove Monet was hot, Picasso was not
  • I should have moved but milk's no joke
  • Fool blew his bankroll tootin'€™ coke
  • Now he don'€™t like my on the spot
  • His New York baby and they'd rather freeze
  • That would be the bee€'s knees
  • To London please
  • I said, €œExcuse me if I have to sneeze€
  • I fear the cold like a disease
  • Have you ever seen a Londoner have a heart?
  • Have you ever seen a shark bark?
  • Have you ever seen a snake with hips?
  • Have you ever seen a chicken with lips?
  • Have you ever known a harp to talk?
  • My god (Describe it)
  • Have you ever heard applause for a pause?
  • Have you ever seen a flasher flasher, flasher?
  • A hooker, hooker, hooker
  • A rub of rubber, rubber?
  • A millionaire have an affair?
  • I date the lady I say?
  • But you could have seen an empty day job
  • A summer in the summer?
  • A rock and roller reefer
  • A brother kill another?
  • Loved by your lover?
  • Stick by a sticker?
  • Lit by a lighter?
  • Have you ever got robbed by a robber?
  • Dreams form a dreamer
  • Have you ever given a gift to a giver?
  • Time to a timer
  • Books to a booker
  • And Shocks to a sinner?
  • No
  • I am freezing high, I am freezing low
  • In fact I'€™m freezing from the cold
  • On and on and on, on and on from midnight to the break of dawn
  • I shiver in the shower, stutter on the phone and I wonder why I end up an
  • Eskimo
  • I like to move where I can prove, once removed and twice confused
  • Go South where the sun is hot
  • Go South where the landlord's not

  • New York, right on














  • Very nice reading with pictures from the original book, How the Grinch Stole Christmas

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    A little Japanese meandering

    December 15, 2016, 7:32 am
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    Marvelously mischievous woodblock print by the Japanese artist, Kawanabe Kyōsai. This is one of his comic images in the erotic style of Japanese art known as Shunga.
    Japanese grandmas dance to Bruno Mars. 

    Masters of old school craftsmanship by artisan,Hiroi Masaaki. Beautiful Japanese wooden toys with moving parts and trick tops. Edo koma toys.
    Such delightfully whimsical Edo Koma wooden toys with their naughty sense of humor. More footage of the master artisan, Hiroi Masaaki, making them.
    A little Japanese food porn. A wet omelette, expertly made.

    Paintings by Utagawa Hiroshige, 1797 – 12 October 1858, master of the ukiyo-e genre

    Hiroshige's work came to have a marked influence on Western painting towards the close of the 19th century as a part of the trend in Japonism. Western artists closely studied Hiroshige's compositions, and some, such as van Gogh, painted copies of Hiroshige's prints.




































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