Your son, Eric

L-R: Eric is third

My friend Eric's parents visited recently (from a far away place) and brought him a bag of ephemera. Things which were given to him when he was young, and stories and letters he wrote when he was a child (7-12). Above is an image of Halloween c. 1981 and below is a cracking letter he wrote while away from home at camp at age 12. Later, I will post his stories, they are very good for such a tender age. Enjoy!

Yummy cake

Photographer: Holly Northrop, using Holga 120CFN

Source: http://picasaweb.google.com/holly.northrop

I'm tagging back Just Don't Tell Them Elks about it

Garden Art

Topiary is the clipping and training of trees to form three dimensional shapes. The ancient art of "torturing" plants was at its height in the 16th century and was replaced in the 18th century when natural scenes were preferred. Grafting is when the tissue of one plant is encouraged to fuse with another plant.

(Top to bottom: Monastero de San Lorenzo, Spain, growing so close together, clipped from above with scaffolding. The shapes are like medieval griddles used to bake pastry called flores, and the cross of Santiago. Tulcan, Ecuador, nuns walking in the topiary garden and cemetery. Mainau Island, Germany, 19th c. of flower covered birds. Tulcan, Ecuador. The final two, a Buckinghamshire park, photographer: Sue Thomas.)







Espalier is the creation of '2-dimensional' shapes. (Below, Pennsylvania: pear, apple and plum trees created by a man known by the name 'Simple'.)


Using a broom, Chris Parsons makes shapes in the thick, autumn dew on the smooth turf of a bowling green in a Buckinghamshire park.




Source (not already noted): Cooper, G., and Taylor, G., (1999), Gardens of Obsession, Weidenfeld and Nicholson

Threadeology

Mabel’s great-grandparents were darned in 1880, they were the first to be darned in Canada, in Melvihill Manitoba. Their threads came from Ireland. In 1911 they in turn darned Mabel’s grandmother who married a sock darned in Scotland. Thus Mabel’s mother was darned from threads from Ireland and Scotland. Mabel’s mother married a sock darned in Austria from Polish and Austrian threads, this is why Mabel’s eyebrows and hair are Austrian and Polish.

It can become complicated figuring out where your threads come from. Mabel picked up her pen to work on the thread succession illustration; however, she could not go beyond her great-grandmother's threads so she decided to go to bed, to sleep...to dream.

E. J. Bellocq

I've become re-acquainted with E. J. Bellocq's work while pursing my interest in photography in more detail. I like the photos for two reasons: 1. technical aspects and 2. prostitution. I responded to a comment on one of the photos which I sourced from Benaen , the comment was around the 'guilt' of romanticizing and desensitising prostitution engendered by looking at Bellocq's photos. My response:

...I think it [the photos] romanticizes the nature of prostitution. A tragic life is romantic when it happens to somebody else, and photos do not mirror reality, we can only guess someone’s frame of mind or situation in a photo. As for desensitizing? If desensitizing in the sense that there is nothing wrong with prostitution, I think one would have to be pretty naïve to think that prostitution is a great career choice for women, (or men): the majority of the power does not sit with the prostitute. Legalizing prostitution definitely helps increase the prostitute’s power, but marginally. If desensitizing in the sense that women are objects, yes, I think this is true, but it is only true in imagination – obviously women are not objects, hence this is where their power lay (e.g. manipulating/blackmailing clients) and this is why prostitution is a tragic life. I should pipe in that sex and prostitution are not the same thing. One can be titillated by such photos, and not condone prostitution. I think this is a natural response, it is fantasy.

Little is known of the photographer and there is discrepancy as to where these photos were found (see bold text). However the essay: Foucauldian and Feminist Analysies of Bellocq's Storyville Photographs by Wendy Walgate seems well-researched, and is an interesting read esp. for anyone interested in Michel Foucault's work.

Wendy Walgate: Photographer Lee Friedlander had recovered Bellocq's original glass negative in a New Orleans junk shop.

Atget Photography: After his death a collection of about one hundred plates was discovered in a drawer of his desk.

Wikipedia entry: The Storyville negatives were later found concealed in a sofa.

Tiago (James) Albuquerque

Illustration for UN's Millennium Goals-medical pamphlet. This is pretty great, if you ask me. (click on the image for a large view). You can find more of Tiago Albuquerque's work here: Almanac

Numbers Station broadcasts

Numbers station broadcasts are oddly calming. Via Archive.org (Conet Project).

“Numbers stations are shortwave radio stations of uncertain origin. They generally broadcast artificially generated voices reading streams of numbers, words, letters (sometimes using a spelling alphabet), tunes or Morse code. They are in a wide variety of languages and the voices are usually women’s, though sometimes men’s or children’s voices are used.

"Evidence supports popular assumptions that the broadcasts are used to send messages to spies. This usage has not been publicly acknowledged by any government that may operate a numbers station, but in one case, Cuban numbers station espionage has been publicly prosecuted in a United States federal court.^[1]

"Numbers stations appear and disappear over time (although some follow regular schedules), and their overall activity has increased slightly since the early 1990s. This increase suggests that, as spy-related phenomena, they were not unique to the Cold War.”

EABLA records

Excellent blog attached to this new record label. The rarities section offers past releases from Nuf Sed records and Amarillo records: notably The White Shark and Job's Daughters.

Grab 'em while you can.

Dublin Days - Moleskine notebook doodles

In 2004 I lived in Dublin City for 9 months. I shared a house with 5 people and stayed in a little nook of a room. No computer, a bag full of books and my little Moleskine book with a couple of pens. It was lovely.

August Strindberg asked himself...

I found this some years ago. Each year in June I answer the same questions and compare them to previous years' answers. They don't change much, but they do change and I bet the longer the gaps in years, the more changes to the answers there will be. Then I think about why there are different answers, what changed in my life, and so on.

Strindberg asked himself:

1. What is the main trait in your character?

This strange blending of the deepest melancholy and the most astonishing light heartedness.

2 Which characteristic do you prize most highly in a man?

Absence of narrow mindedness.

3. Which characteristic do you prize most highly in a woman?

Motherliness.

4. Which talent would you most like to possess?

To find the key to the world's mystery and the meaning of life.

5. Which fault would you least like to possess?

Narrow mindedness.

6. What is your favourite occupation?

To write dramas.

7. What would be the greatest happiness you could imagine?

To be nobody's enemy and to have no enemies.

8. What position would you most have liked to have?

To be a dramatist whose dramas were always being played.

9. What would you regard as the greatest misfortune?

To be without peace of mind and conscience.

10. Where would you most like to live?

In the Stockholm skerries.

11.Your favourite colour?

Zinc yellow and amethyst violet.

12.Your favourite flower?

Cyclamen.

13.Your favourite creature?

The butterfly.

14.Which books do you like most?

The Bible; Chateaubriand's Genie du Christianisme; Swedenborg's Arcana Coelestia; Victor Hugo's Les Miserables; Dickens's Little Dorrit; Andersen's Fairy Tales; Bernardin de SaintPierre's Harmoni de la Nature. Kipling: various.

15.Which paintings do you like most?

Theodore Rousseau's "Paysages Intimes." Böcklin: various.

16.Which musical compositions do you like most?

Beethoven's Sonatas.

17. Which English writer do you admire most?

Charles Dickens.

18. Which English painter do you admire most?

Turner.

19. Which male historical personages do you admire most?

Henri IV of France and Bernard of Clairvaux.

20. Which female historical personages do you admire most?

P;Elizabeth of I hŸringen and Marguerite de Provence (consort of Louis i.e. Holy).

21. Which historical personage do you most despise?

One has no right to despise anybody.

22. Which fictitious male characters most attract you?

Balzacs Louis Lambert: and the Bishop in Les Miserables by Victor Hugo.

23. Which fictitious female characters most attract you?

Margaretha in Faust and Florence in Dombey and Son.

24. Which name do you like best?

Margaretha.

25. Which fault in others do you find it easiest to forgive?

Extravagance.

26. Which social reform would you most like to see accomplished?

Disarmament.

27. Your favourite drink and your favourite food?

Beer and fish dishes.

28. Which season and which weather do you like best?

The height of summer after warm rain.

29. Your motto?

Speravit infestis. (He was hopeful in adversity)

Moomin Madness!

A couple weeks ago, for two days, I looked after my friend’s son. He is 19 months. While eating his lunch I lent him a moomintroll spoon (with the figure at the top of the handle), I thought it might be fun. I pointed to the figure and said “this is moo-min”. He paused, then looked at me, pointed and said “mah-mih”. Very clever I thought.

Next, he noticed a moomintroll bank on the fridge. I gave him the bank to hold while eating: he didn’t make a mess because he preferred to hold the moomin to throwing food around. He looked at me and repeated “mah-mih” several times. I praised him and repeated “mOO-miN”.

My friend’s son loves to read, he has lots of books. I pulled out the book The Book About Moomin, Mymble and Little My and we read it about seven times! He pointed out moomin correctly each time, and when I pointed to an owl he said “woo-woo”. I told him he was very clever.

On the second day, while eating, he noticed the twenty moomin mugs on a shelf above the sink…my goodness his eyes grew to the size of watermelons!

About a week later I gave him two moomin books, the ones with lots of text and some nice drawings. He remembered the moomins. I was astonished.

Today, I learn that he is mad about moomins. He was saying “mah-mih, mah-min” and it took his mom a bit to figure out what he was saying. One of the books I gave him is 130 pages long and he demanded that he and his mom ‘read’ it twice in a row.

I became aquanted with the moomins in adulthood (being from Canada the moomins are scarce). I’m crazy about the books for many reasons, and I find it fascinating that my friend’s son is so drawn to Tove Jansson’s creation. He remembers and thinks about moomins, at such a young age.

The people that I know who met the moomins in childhood are just as crazy about them today. It looks like the magic of the moomins will be with him for a long time.

The following are some photos of moomin comics and one magazine from 1957. If you would like more information on the images, please leave a comment.