Elizabeth

Arguably, she was the last of the great Hollywood stars.

Even I have an Elizabeth Taylor story. (She lived in Washington for awhile in that ill-advised marriage to a senator.) If you have Netflix Instant, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof is available, as is Giant. There will be a ton of great pictures of Elizabeth (please, not "Liz"!) in her va-voom mode all over the internets today & in future. So herewith one as a child, for she was a child star first. Here's a link to the Elizabeth Taylor AIDS Foundation. (via imdb)

Made4Aid Month

A bit of cross-pollination with Giulia Geranium & Made4Aid's new Etsy shop. I hope whether you buy anything or not, you'll check out the shop, the website, & also Sally's personal photography blog, Lettuce-Eating, from London. Many of her most popular photographs are available as cards. There's a nice badge that you can scoop up for your blogs & websites, too.

It's enough to prop up my faith in some humans (humanity? I don't know about that...) for the next several hours. This beautiful messenger bag is but one of many hand-made bags for sale. That color. (As always, I don't recommend anything that I have not already checked out. I purchased several things from Made4Aid last year via their auctions. Everything went smoothly. No drama. At all.)

Important: if you have something that you want to donate to Made4Aid, please read this guideline list from the Made4Aid organization site. Any questions after that, please contact them. (Of course, they take cash donations, too.)

(photograph via Made4Aid)

Chimes of Freedom

The Nobel Peace Prize 2010 was awarded to Liu Xiaobo "for his long and non-violent struggle for fundamental human rights in China".

Note: It's not you, I've turned off comments on this post. Reason at bottom in italics.

Liu Xiaobo was sentenced on 25 December 2009, the day after a two-hour trial and more than a year after he was first detained. Articles he wrote about the June 1989 pro-democracy movement were also cited in his verdict as evidence of “inciting subversion”.

Amnesty International has campaigned for his release, along with that of other activists who signed Charter 08 including Liu Xianbin, who was arrested in June.

Several other signatories of Charter 08 have asked to share the responsibility with Liu Xiaobo and a group of senior Communist Party members have questioned the legality of Liu Xiaobo's sentence.

Former president of the Czech Republic Vaclav Havel and Nobel Peace Price Laureate the Dalai Lama were among those who supported the nomination of Liu Xiaobo for the 2010 award. Vaclav Havel co-wrote Charter 77, the 1977 document calling for respect of human rights in Czechoslovakia on which Charter 08 was modeled. (Amnesty International website)

Note: Comments are turned off for this post, as they are permanently on Julie's innocent leetle blog. The spam level reaches heights of absurdity whenever something like this appears. Yes, even on theese leetle blog. I'm still searching for photography attribution; I have had it in a file for months & did not save with info. It's just perfect, to me, though & so I dug it off a CD of pix. (Update - photograph by Ricardson Williams via flickr)

The Interrupted Concert

It was on this day in 1936 that the 38-year-old Spanish poet Federico García Lorca was executed, a few weeks after the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War. In those first weeks, people on both sides — the leftist republicans and the right-wing nationalists — were rounded up and killed, as many as 50,000, with particularly heavy casualties against the republicans. Lorca was a leftist sympathizer, an open homosexual, and a writer who wrote about oppressed people like gypsies, so he was an easy target for the nationalists.--The Writer's Almanac

"Seventy years after his death, his voice is just as alive as on that 19 August night when bullets tried to silence it." --conclusion to this 2006 article, Poet's Death Still Troubles Spain.

Here is the link to the bilingual Fundacion Federico García Lorca (in Madrid) created by Lorca's sister, Isabel. BBC link of Lorca's life in pictures, here. I can barely write a thing as this horrific murder makes me weep.

The Interrupted Concert

The frozen sleepy pause

of the half moon

has broken the harmony

of the deep night.

The ditches, shrouded in sedge,

protest in silence,

and the frogs, muezzins of shadow,

have fallen silent.

In the old village inn

the sad music has ceased,

and the most ancient of stars

has muted its ray.

The wind has come to rest

in dark mountain caves,

and a solitary poplar—Pythagoras

of the pure plain—

lifts its aged hand

to strike at the moon. (trans. W.S. Merwin)

Week's End - Paul, Scene Stealer

Here's a link to Top 10 Paul Newman Movies on Scene-Stealers. How cool was Paul? Paul Newman & legendary newsman Daniel Schorr, who passed away this morning, were both proud to be on Nixon's enemies list. That's the spirit!

(Beautiful Joanne Woodward deserves a post to herself. 'Cause of the scene hog, above. He couldn't help it. He was born that way.)

Tuesday, 27 July update: I've been without power since Sunday, it returned about an hour ago (4am EDT). While I recover & assess the damage to finances & everything else, not to mention my one last delicate nerve, thanks to everyone who stopped by with comments & to queries in my email about 'are you OK?' Til later today, xo

[photograph via, where else? Paul Newman tumblr]

Dorothy Height - RIP

An elegant celebration of an extraordinary life at the Cathedral this morning (in a sea of hats, no doubt, thank goodness). You can watch a live webstream from the Cathedral's site. We recommend it. We love you, Miss D. [photograph via civil rights flickr]

Worlds Collide (Always)

"There is within these peoples' souls a tremendous amount of beauty and [conviction] that they can actually make a difference.." - Tom Block, artist & activist

This event is more detailed on Giulia Geranium; also here on the festival site. My entire life as a writer & poet (& let's face it, as a bon vivant:) has a tension that I wish I could work out as Tom has. (I've spent my life trying.) We're fellow members of a local Amnesty International group; he's founder/producer of a humongous Human Rights Art Festival in our neighborhood. The list of executive producers, sponsors, & other helpers is quite impressive. Last year, about 4 of us sitting around a table in a now-defunct café, talking with Tom about the festival seems a million years ago. Many local (& beyond) bloggers are having great fun with this, of course. Like the answer is...do nothing? Well, I guess I won't be kissing them at the booth.

I really am thinking of taking Julie to a few events but concerned about her asthma. Will try to borrow decent camera. I'm not officially volunteering as I didn't know how I'd feel on any given day...but I'll be hanging out at various venues...so come up & talk to me, already. Two fun words to tempt you: Flash Mob. (I know, I know...technically not if people know...simmer down, people.)

The YouTube video is worth watching...just a few moments with Tom. I tried to embed it but it's not cooperating.)You should be there when he meets someone he's painted. (You want/enjoy surreal? I can't even begin to describe it at this moment.) The funny thing about the video though...I forgot that Tom wore a suit that day...I barely recognize him. (Don't tell him. Puhleeze.)

[image by Tom Block/all rights reserved/used with permission of artist]

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]

A Battle Lost

Van Gogh's Prayer by János Pilinszky (originally published in Poetry, March 2008)

A battle lost in the cornfields

and in the sky a victory.

Birds, the sun and birds again.

By night, what will be left of me?

By night, only a row of lamps,

a wall of yellow clay that shines,

and down the garden, through the trees,

like candles in a row, the panes....rest of poem, here.

It might seem unfair, that title, as it is Van Gogh's birthday, but...it's my blog. Such as it is. Hazel at the Clever Pup has a nice tribute today.

[the first of 3(versions) La chambre de Van Gogh à Arles in VG museum/Amsterdam via French wikipedia; Rami di mandorlo in fiore/Amandier en fleurs is a postcard via my old scanner. Update, nope. Here is a much better link via Arianna at Wikimedia Commons.]

Lucille Clifton

Come celebrate with me/That every day/Something has tried to kill me/And has failed. ~Lucille Clifton

Beyond upset. Just found out. Here's a link. Funeral arrangements are pending. (I'm still in exile but hope to be home later today.) Update: Here's a poem written for Lucille, by Grace Cavalieri.

[photograph via famouspoetsandpoems]

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]

Week's End - Albert in Black & White

Camus, A Romance by Elizabeth Hawes is quite enjoyable. Here's an amusing review about literary obsession. Back to work.

Update: That's it. The end. (I mean for the week.)

bonne nuit

[molto famoso photograph by H. Cartier-Bresson/Magmum; other photographs of Camus at work & play by Loomis Dean via LIFE archives]

Week's End - To Autumn

Where are the songs of Spring? Ay, where are they?/ Think not of them, thou hast thy music too,

--John Keats, complete poem...

Oh no, another Keats post? You bet. Thank you, Jane Campion, for your new film Bright Star. I heard high school students talking this afternoon & the word 'Keats' floated through the air between them. This wasn't in a school building.

Keats arrived in Rome (via Naples) 21 October 1820; the ship was quarantined & he did not arrive in Rome until 15 November. Though he did not write poetry in what were to be his last months, he wrote one letter, to his friend Charles Brown. It's heartbreaking, especially the last two lines. "...I can scarcely bid you good bye even in a letter. I always made an awkward bow."

The photographs are from the Keats-Shelley House near the Spanish Steps; the salon & Keats' bedroom. In these very rooms & at the Protestant Cemetery, I have disgraced myself several times with squeaky sniffs. Once, I embarrassed a younger sister & have not yet been forgiven. Ever after, I have visited alone.

A lovely weekend to all. (Sniff.)

Lungo Tevere by Giampaolo Macorig via flickr; Keats-Shelley House photographs by frattaglia via flickr; Protestant Cemetery, Keats' grave by Piero Montesacro via wikimedia commons.

Gloria in Black & White

We will have real health care reform in this country or I'll eat my huge, polka-dotted umbrella.

[Photographs by Yale Joel for LIFE, 1965]

Naomi

...in LIFE. I was hoping for posts in some of the style & fashion blogs I link to & otherwise read but except for My Inner French Girl (In Memory of Chic, Naomi Sims, 1948-2009), I haven't seen them. I'm really disappointed. So from one girl who grew up in Pittsburgh to another, rest in peace Naomi. Much too early.

Here is a link to Naomi Sims Retrospective which has been set up for remembrances & posts. Funeral services will be in New York tomorrow (6 August).

[photograph by Yale Joel, October 17, 1969, LIFE archives]

Week's End - The Fringe Benefits of Failure, and the Importance of Imagination

No time for other photos, perhaps I'll do that when I return from the outside world. [see 4 June update at bottom, if it really matters.]

This has been in mind all last night (& the past year). I posted about it twice in the Giulia Geranium blog. Once last June (in our random series, "Scots We Like...") & again at the beginning of this year.

Let's just say that if an interesting, attractive, single man approaches you while you are sitting at an Amnesty International table, engages animatedly with you for who-knows-how-long, & offers not once, but THREE times, to fetch his copy of an alumni magazine to give to you...take the offer. Because no matter how much information you've exchanged, if you don't know his name or where he works, duh, you'll never be able to contact him if you finally, finally get what he was trying to say (beyond the importance of hearing this speech).This was witnessed by a good friend who knows what she sees, she couldn't believe what she saw. I am, in fact, an idiot quite often.

Returning home that day, after my personal failure-in-hindsight, I read the speech online (dial-up doesn't do YouTube). I was a sobbing mess after reading about Rowling's early stint at Amnesty's London office. I knew exactly what she meant & have been in the same exact situation. I knew she'd spoken at Harvard; the press mentioned not one bloody thing about Amnesty. I (& enlisted others) badgered them to finally mention her shout-out on the mother-page website. I began to post regularly on GG (one-year anniversary is Monday, 4 May) because of this encounter. I just saw, when I went to get the link that it took me from 15 June to 21 June to post it. Hmmm.

Over the past year, I've received (& continue to receive) scores of email (I didn't take comments on GG until recently) from humanitarian field workers thanking me for posting it. This was the first they heard of the speech, too. So I'm rerunning the photo that I found back then, the link to Harvard Magazine, online.

A stubborn, peeved me wants to reprint the whole thing here & force the issue. But if people don't want to read it, what can I do? It's hugely important to me. And if anything comes out of my personal failure to act, then that will be something. Yes, he came back & left his contact information; the idiot at the table who relieved me of duty felt it was "inappropriate" & tossed it. I got that much out of my colleague. And no, the man does not know it. So, while I hear from people around the world, someone who lives but two miles (at most) is out of reach. Yes, I was a reporter & have excellent investigative skills & a bunch of information. Couldn't be done, gracefully.

I'll be back but I don't know when. Meanwhile, I see that The Clever Pup has a mouth-watering feast to attend ...I see it in my Google Reader...and very important: Tina's dad at The English Muse was rushed to hospital...please check in on her, those of you who are regulars. I can only see that he's OK but can't see the details. She must be slammed with exhaustion.
See you later. Happy May Day.

[4 June 2009 temporary update to photos: JK Rowling writing-in-full-view because I cannot stand to see the Harvard photo come up in LinkedWithin every single day so many times. Still looking for better pix. 4 June 2009]
[second photo/Harvard University Magazine/online]

Never Again: What You Do Matters

Same title as on the Giulia Geranium blog. It's this year's (American) theme for Holocaust Remembrance Days (19-26 April). For more details please go there. Worlds collide but sometimes it's too much--even for me. (photo credit)

“There may be times when we are powerless to prevent injustice, but there must never be a time when we fail to protest.”
— Elie Wiesel

Please visit the cleverest of Canadian pups for her fascinating post today. I know (or knew) many people who were at Terezín & have heard about the opera Brundibár, but have not seen the documentary about which she writes so beautifully. The outside world calls, so please visit The Clever Pup & also the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM) for more archival material than you could hope to use in a lifetime. Some of it is newly-released & I believe some is online now for non-scholarly (in the strictest sense) work.

Jeanne, later

I'd not planned this but I thought it would be nice to post more current photographs of Jeanne Moreau. The first is also from Life's archives (1985) when she was 57; the other is from the 2006 San Sebastian Film Festival (photo credit), at 78 years young. It's not easy to find photographs that are usable due to copyright; I've written to a few photographers this morning. There's also a lovely creamy white rose named for JM & there are some on flickr. I can't junk up my feeds with so many links (I have been warned), so just go to flickr & peruse. Also have asked for those permissions. These will have to do for now.