Refuge from Misery

“There are two means of refuge from the miseries of life: music and cats.”Albert Schweitzer

I have both; also, great good fortune: the cat shares my eclectic taste in music.

Here's an article on Human-Cat Psychology. Also I laughed at this article on The therapeutic value of cats. It's from a scientific journal. If you are inclined to read it, it starts in the lower right-hand corner & continues onto next page. What made me laugh were the comments from a scientist & from one Simon Teakettle the Younger.

I watched this lovely video several times last night. Wicked insomnia. I logged on to Twitter & there it was...I think everyone in the world has seen it but me. I love the East African music, too.

Trying to catch up is not going well but I forge ahead.

(photograph by Leslie)

Venice in Black & White & November

At the mere mention that high winds are expected later today, the power is starting to go in & out. I'm serious--the wind has not kicked up yet. So here are three photographs by an old friend from Strasbourg days. He took these on a trip to Venice in a November. The little boy's name is unknown. Trying to think how old he'd be now is making my head hurt. Ahem. The photographer & friend (it's not me but I've not asked her permission yet so I'm not showing a third that focuses on her) are very sporting about the pigeons. Bernd claims that he remained unscathed during this shoot. I called him a liar (on Facebook!) & as usual he took massive teasing with equanimity.

Bernd was prescient about taking photos in Venice (& France, Germany, Switzerland) that many of us would value so much later. I hereby apologize publicly for all the times I rolled my eyes when asked to stand still...for a second. Or two. I am now painfully aware of how obnoxious I look when exasperated. See here for explanation...or I'll just tell you. I unwittingly took a video of myself trying to figure out the web camera. It's excruciating but I saved it as a reminder. (Here's a link to a digital library of World War II photographs, including Venice.)

As black & white as these are, I think they are very warm. I like that they are not super-sharp. They are much, much larger in their original print. (Venice in November by Bernd Krause)

Week's End - Hot Off The Press

The BBC has a slideshow featuring some past winners of the Hasselblad Masters competition.

I sifted through the fashion/beauty category on the Hasselblad site & there's not enough time & bandwith (I finally typed it - bandwith, grrrr) to see as much as I'd like. I did not espy a new Tim Walker (yet). Benedikt Ernst's newspaper lady reminded me of the paper tutu by talented Kelly Murry/Jolis Paon.

The competition is open until 31 December. (There's an Up & Coming section, too, so don't count yourself out.) Here's the link to see the rules. Scroll all the way down to the very bottom of the page, the pertinent stuff is there. Hasselblad web-peeps, you should know better.

Can you tell I'm in a hurry? Oof. Need to wrap things up. I have an impatient cat & an impatient human on my hands. I'm outnumbered.

A Dark & Stormy Night in Ferrara

and in Washington, DC. I'd hoped to have one of several posts ready with much more than this...but people have not answered their emails with permissions. Ferrara is a lovely Renaissance town though I don't profess much familiarity with it. I just read that it is a UNESCO heritage site. Very nice. With that, I better shut things down as the rain is now much, much more than background noise. Time to put the kettle on. Cheers. (Ferrara::1 by MisterKey via deviantArt)

A Tiny Cat of Rome

This was gruesome--fighting over a ham sandwich

with one of the tiny cats of Rome, he leaped

on my arm and half hung on to the food and half

hung on to my shirt and coat. i tore it apart

and let him have his portion, I think I lifted him

down, sandwich and all, on the sidewalk and sat

with my own sandwich beside him, maybe I petted

his bony head and felt him shiver. (rest of poem) from Another Insane Devotion, Gerald Stern

So you couldn't have found something pretty to write about a pretty Roman gatto? No, I'm feeling devilish tonight. Besides, I love this poem by Gerald Stern. (He was born in Pittsburgh, by the way.)

Thank you so much to Julie of Being Ruby for sending me a new version of the Coliseum Cat. She included an earlier version in a package last autumn, along with a beautiful handbag that I won on her blog. Julie publishes beautiful photographs of her travels & of her Sydney. This print sits patiently with many other things-I-love, ready to be placed just-so on a wall above the desk. If, when, if, when the wall is painted. Soon, soon. So I am told.

I love the nerve of this cat but I worry about him (or her), too. Don't blame the big cats for the hideous goings on at the Coliseum. Man invented it. Cats kill to eat, not to entertain themselves & others.

[photograph by Julie Newcombe/Being Ruby/all rights reserved]

Bayou in Black & White

[Photograph by Rodney Smith, via SEBASTIAN]

Rose Clothes

[Nina Leen/LIFE archives]

Leonor in Black & White

That is, painter Leonor Fini (1907-1996) born in Argentina, raised in Trieste, & lived in Paris. Her traumatic early life as a pawn of warring parents on different continents couldn't have helped, surely hurt this person. What makes me laugh is that though considered a Surrealist, ah non, she refused the 'honor'. But of course, that didn't annoy the Surrealists. Her personal wild style apparently rivaled only Dali. Now that, might interest some of you. (I'm not a big Wikipedia fan but this page seems fairly good.)

No time, nor energy to write something as The Clever Pup [right sidebar] surely would, but I want to post the photographs before some wild thunderstorm arrives. Here is an excellent summation from the Leonor Fini page on Lenin Imports. The photographs are via the LIFE Archives (John Phillips, 1947) & Museo Revoltella. On that site, there are pages for a Fini exhibit in 2009 . Also an interview (in Italian). The third photograph reminds me of an old Bedouin in North Africa. Not sure if that was what she was going for, but it seems so. But I'm in that desert-frame-of-mind. So.

Oh, yes, Leonor also loved cats but possibly took this too far.

Blonde with Black Umbrella

I saw this* the other day & it keeps popping out of pix files. If I post it for Tina, Our Lady of the Pink Gloves, Black Cats, Eden climbing roses & much else at The English Muse, it'll leave stay where it belongs & send her good cheer at the same time. Buona fortuna, Tina.

Update: I'm so very sorry to report that Tina's beloved father, John Daunt, passed away on Wednesday, 19 May 2010.

[*Tina has an excellent copy but I cannot locate it quickly on any of her blogs. To avoid an unnecessary nervous breakdown, it appears via way-too-many-places w/out attribution via we heart it. Got that?]

Week's End - Streets of Jerusalem

Some of the best (& most surreal, disturbing, intriguing) walks were here. You want material? For writing, for thinking? It's here. Tramping up & down hills, through villages (where I should not have been), everywhere. My scanner is broken* (of course, it is)...& so just this evocative Streets of Jerusalem photograph by Julian Kaseler via we heart it] That's a little girl walking down an inexplicably (to me) empty street. But it happens, that bit of quiet there, yes, sometimes. I wonder where she is now. OK, that's enough from me because I just found a pix of Leonard Cohen in concert in Israel. Oh, too tempting, too tired. It'll be fun just to think of it. Have a peaceful weekend. And feel fortunate for it....(that goes for me, too, yes).

[*Though most of my photographs were destroyed there, I have friends who have wonderful ones & I'm sure they'll lend them to me if I would just ask. So I will. Tomorrow, said Scarlett]

Monday update: resting for today at least. Hope to be back tomorrow. I see many tempting posts just on this site...Cheers all.

Benjamin L. Hooks - 1925 -2010

Today's loss is to be reminded that we are losing the direct connections to the brave men & women, famous & not famous, of the civil rights movement. These are the people who helped form the conscience of a little white girl in Ohio & Pennsylvania (among millions of others). If you don't know who he was, or even if you did, here is quick link to Washington Post. [family photographs via Commercial Appeal, Memphis, Tennessee; they also have a good timeline slideshow]

Here Kitty, Kitty - Two Drama Queens

Sometimes I act like a cat to get my way. (Yeah, I know.) Julie, Julie please let me give you your medicines. If looks could kill, I would've been a dead mouse last night. Oh woe. Friday Update on previous post, here.

[photograph by Roger Ballen, via Cup of Jo]

Water Cure

Why the mini-surge of people following (Julie) on Twitter? What has someone tweeted in my name, oh man. Can she have her own account & I can bow out? I rarely go there, peeps. I'm a great re-tweeter, though. [Medicine bath by Nina Leen, LIFE archives]

Satellite Dishes

Phftt. Bombs in Moscow. "Tea parties." Listening to a favorite WAMU-FM (NPR) show & two Maryland /DC TP-ers. OK, bravo, for having them on to expose their lunacy. I can just predict it: I'll bite through my mouthguard tonight (again).

I have nothing (that I can write here). Please consider going to Giulia Geranium (Julie the Cat's blog) & clicking some do-gooder links over there.

These pix cracked me up a few weeks ago--LIFE Archives. It's not the era I'm researching, so I don't remember why these popped up. Probably because I love Nina Leen photographs. Did anyone's mother (or did you, do you?) wear these? My mother was more a pencil skirt person. She was a dish, though. (As we were always told. Endlessly. I'm not bitter.)

Gregory in Black & White

Distressed that racial epithets were hurled at civil rights hero John Lewis & others over the weekend. It stings, it really does. Also homophobic (to be polite about it) screams at Congressman Barney Frank. It's at times like these I clutch my copy of To Kill A Mockingbird & re-order the film from the Netflix Fairy. I saw a dreadful production at Ford's Theatre years ago...it was worth seeing for the sake of the young sons of my then-boyfriend (hate that word). These children were (are) biracial as are some of my family members. Their racist grandmother took us to the play; that was one weird day.

Gregory Peck was a card-carrying, proud liberal, too; that makes the film that much sweeter. And did you know he became a friend of Bob Dylan? Yep. Because of Brownsville Girl. When Dylan received the Kennedy Center Honor, he asked Peck (along with Springsteen) to be part of the festivities. Here's the Peck-narrated video.

It's gonna be a long haul.

[photographs via classicmoviekids.com; alt film guide]

Claudia in Black & White

Did you know that bella (& smart) Claudia was born in Tunisia (of Sicilian parents)? Here's a good link to a UK site--a Tribute to Claudia Cardinale. Much, much better photographs than here. I like the one of her on a Roman street (left in collage); it's so familiar. She has a book called "My Tunisia." Alas, I cannot find it (yet). Ciao.

[the large photographs by Paul Schutzer/ Rome, 1961/LIFE archives; the others are via we heart it, from Femenino plural & por FactoryGirl photography/tumblr; pASTelgIRL/flickr]

Santa in Black & White

December 1953 [via myvintagevogue's tumblr blog]

Week's End - Lazy Susan, Waiting*

Charge Bikes_Lazy Susan from Charge Bikes on Vimeo.

Friday Evening Update: wild & woolly snowstorm on its way. From the scene in the market (especially dairy & pet food aisles) it seemed people thought an invasion was imminent. Buying a gallon of milk is the last thing on your mind if that's the case. Of course, I was there too, so... Anyway, to satisfy my OCD weekly ending thingies, this shall serve as such until tomorrow sometime. Have a good Friday/Saturday.

I can't resist posting this advert/video seen on Cycle Chic from Copenhagen, one of my favorite blogs. I hated the words 'lazy' & 'Susan' together when I was younger. This, I don't mind. The photographs are called Waiting* & Frosty. A copy of Waiting* is on the wall by my desk. Expecting snow this weekend.

Week's End - Anouk in Black & White

La Dolce Vita still. Good luck finding the still photographer. Maybe Fellini took it. Here's the link to the full credits.

Week's End - Lena in Black & White

Glamorous Lena in 1948 (in Paris & NYC). I cracked up listening to various versions of I Feel Smoochie (LH reportedly singing it in close-up club shot). I could not pull off saying it, much less singing it, & be glamorous. (Yes, I know I am not glamorous no matter what. Don't rub it in! Snarl.) Julie the Cat seemed to enjoy a few versions of the song but then, being a modern sophisticat, she barfed onto the modem, nearly shorting it out. This sums up the last few weeks.

Update: 9 May 2010 - RIP, Lena. She did a lot more than look fabulous; she fought for civil rights - her own & others (notably, African-American GIs in WWII). Obituary, here. It's more than annoying that everyone seems to have chosen "sultry" for their headlines. Ah well.

[photographs by Yale Joel & W. Eugene Smith for LIFE archives/Lena arriving in Grand Central Station via myvintagevogue]