The Real Dream/The Current Nightmare

I thought I'd be able to stand watching this but it's beyond anything I can possibly explain. I'm about to crack another tooth. It's like being in the middle of Being There & Network. Toss in Dr. Strangelovian bizarreness. Where are the new Paddy Chayefskys? Glenn Beck is now having a predictable meltdown & boohooing as the invited speakers (those he invited) spray blessings over him. He is being compared to Jesus, among great personages. He (Beck) is being called The Great One. (Jackie Gleason?) Oh, yeah, & toss in Elmer Gantry.

Also, as this nonsense is being held in the honor of veterans...as the sister of a veteran of Afghanistan, regular visitor to Walter Reed Medical Center, & the friend of many Vietnam veterans...I object to this cynical use of our veterans & their vulnerable families.

I am not being a reactionary. I'm reacting to a real threat. Ignore people like this at your own peril., in every country. Freedom of speech is here in my apartment, too. Below is a quote from Totally Mad, Man.

"...History demonstrates what a mistake it can be to treat a crazy fringe as merely that—particularly one with unfettered access to its audience and little sense of responsibility to distinguish between truth and fiction.

How else do you explain the fact that presently, according to a Research 2000 survey, nearly 60 percent of Republicans questioned were unsure if Barack Obama..".read the rest, here. And then weep.

Loony-palooza

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Dear Glenn Beck:

Dude, seriously, get a grip.

I've had my virtual skirts over my head trying to ignore the impending spectacle (tomorrow) at the Lincoln Memorial. I feel like I can say this because you are (negatively) affecting me personally: stay the hell out of my neighborhood. Oh, I can calm down because some Tea Party websites/blogs advise those-of-you-who-come-to-restore our honor (?) to stay out of certain neighborhoods/areas. Mine is one of them. Phew.

Ciao-meow from Susan & Giulia Geranium (la gattina)

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To international visitors who are thinking, "Wha?" Good people, this person is a troublemaker, most definitely not of the stylish variety, & is suspicious (or worse) of you, too. You must be un-American 'cause you weren't born here. What might be of interest to non-Americans is what comedian (& neighborhood native) Lewis Black calls Glenn Beck's "Nazi Tourette's."

These nincompoops have the right to be here, of course, but they do not have the right to hijack Martin Luther King's message. If I can, I'll be at another event honoring Dr. King. If I'm too tottery, I'll watch via Twitter & listen to music. Anti-Tea Party folk - do not take the bait. Listen, it's already happening; they want violence, do not give it to them. (Update: I feel I should say, "some people want violence." Not everyone.)

This post obviously can't stand as a week's end, even by my much lower-of-late standards. Something pretty or cheerful over the weekend. tt4n

Update (already): Whaddya know? There's a new blog, Loonypalooza, which is monitoring the weekend's activities. I don't know the blog owner (yet) & must read it before I link to it. But they have posted a link to a Eugene Robinson's Washington Post column today: Even Beck Can't Mar King's Legacy.

Fireflies

Being a self-respecting fashion photography obsessive, I love Tim Walker. Click here for a short Vogue Italia film. What self-restraint--only one photograph. It's like being on a diet. Just playing around, I can't do much at moment. Julie the Cat & I have been moon watching. In other night light news, I am happy to report that the annual festival of fireflies is lighting up a pagoda-shaped pine out back. I wait for it every year. Julie is still on a chair looking out, but her mewing-reportage has subsided so I think the show is over.

Dancing on Wine Bottles

Valued Exposure:17 year old Bianca Passarge of Hamburg dresses up as a cat, complete with furry tail and dances on wine bottles, June 1958. Her performance was based on a dream and she practiced for eight hours every day in order to perfect her dance. Photo: Carlo Polito/BIPs/Getty Images

Via BBC while doing some research. Utterly unrelated to people acting out their cat fantasies. On wine bottles? I'm too tired to make up anything sillier.

Leave the Light On, Please

Well, I'm going to keep the light on if I have to plug myself in. Haven't worked out just how yet.

The power went out (again!) on Sunday early afternoon & returned today at 4am EDT. If not for 18-20 unexplained outages in 40 hours the previous week, I might have been sanguine about the wretched business. I checked--when I was a kid, the power rarely went out. In fact, I don't remember it ever going out. I have an excellent memory. Even with wind gales off Lake Erie (or later in Pittsburgh, with similar hideous weather--hot or cold). That's because the infrastructure was maintained. [photograph by great Tim Walker]

Off to collapse. Until the next outage.

PS: Here's the great Chris Smither singing his "Leave the Light On."

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.

Towards the Oasis

Camels on parade. Here's the story (& eight additional photographs) about the Master of Miniatures, Nikolai Aldunin on My Modern Met.

Life is a Merry-Go-Round

You have many chances to break free (& hop back on if it was a better deal than you first thought). Now back to bed, cough, cough, groan. Happy April 1st. [photograph: Freedom/Impress on Me, via we heart it]

Week's End - Woman at the Window

Salvador Dali's 1925 painting at the Philadelphia Museum of Art via Artcyclopedia. The Dali print is in my bath & the plumber is entranced by it. (I think it's the colors, he's not quite sure yet.) Meanwhile, he feels that I am unhealthily fixated on the photograph & that it does not belong next to the Dali. While noting his opinion, I respectfully disagree. Mostly so I'll stop thinking about the subject. I hope. Good night.

[The photograph via we heart it from an unidentified tumblr blog, here]

Curious(er)

Yikes. It's an Alice Day/Night.

[illustration by Arthur Rackham via Liam's Pictures from Old Books]

Week's End - Slow Down & Look Around

People in town for the National Book Festival. People calling. People soliciting advice. People seeking the counsel of someone afraid of her new laptop? Think about it. Here's good advice for writers (& in general) at any level. The photograph synchronizes with Giulia Geranium today because, frankly, the bewildering assortment of photographs & images on hand is, well, a jumble. My tiny kingdom for a camera. Yesterday's foray to the new farmer's market near the White House (& assorted wanderings) called out for one. On the desk sit about-to-bloom pink lilies & stripey grasses from a cut-flower farm, Wollam Gardens, featured in yesterday's Washington Post.

And that's that. Happy weekend.

(Easy Day by gloeckchen via we heart it -via deviant art. The artist's gallery, here.)

Week's End - Totally Mad, Man

Not since the dawn of time has America experienced a man like Howard Beale! - the tagline from Network.

Update, Saturday, 22 May 2010: Almost a year later, & the situation gets madder & madder: Rand Paul. Glenn Beck predicts that soon the President will pee on us, or is..I can't look too closely, but you can at The Political Carnival.

The good news is my hair looks better than Faye Dunaway's (above). The bad news is that CNN seems to be imploding. [see: Dobbs, Lou] It stuns me that people I knew/know are working there. They don't like it either but hey, a job is a job right now. As is pointed out below, the mainstream media (of which I was a modest part) allows this garbage spewing. I recommend the article below. Especially if you are GOP-inclined. Then I would go save my party if I were you.

Another more pleasant topic... if you're looking for a good read, try the late Laurie Colwin's Home Cooking: A Writer in the Kitchen. It's next on my re-reading list. A few days ago I recommended some cooking/memoir books & realized that I hadn't revisited Colwin or M.F.K. Fisher in a coon's age--as Julia C. would exclaim.

And now to the Totally Mad part...A few lines from Think Progress by Eric Alterman, The Mainstream Media Opens the Door to Hate & link...

"...History demonstrates what a mistake it can be to treat a crazy fringe as merely that—particularly one with unfettered access to its audience and little sense of responsibility to distinguish between truth and fiction.

How else do you explain the fact that presently, according to a Research 2000 survey, nearly 60 percent of Republicans questioned were unsure if Barack Obama..".read the rest, here. And then weep.

[photograph of Faye Dunaway & Steve McQueen by Bill Ray, LIFE archives; remaining photographs by Network still photographer, Michael Ginsburg]

Blue Window

Literally. Well, there's more. According to photographer Yannick Vigouroux, it is Window # 1047, Blue Still-Movie, Oct. 2008. Link to From My Window set. Yes, I'm back to blue & windows & French stuff. Sorry. Lots of great blogs in the right sidebar. You can even go put a bid on something over at Made4Aid. I put the link in about three places on the page here & a few over at Giulia Geranium.

Italian bloggers were on strike today (14 July 2009). I wasn't keeping up with news & so can't honestly claim no Bastille Day post as an excuse; that would've been a nifty (Italian) move. No, not Italian but simpatico. Go to Bleeding Espresso blog under writers or wait & I'll see how it went. (Censorship legislation for Italian internet, etc.) I'm sure if nothing else, it was a fantastic operatic spectacle. That's a compliment. Would that I had been in Piazza Navona today, literally muzzling self along with Italian bloggers. YouTube videos out there but I can't access them with this bleeping machine (soon, soon) & therefore can't screen it for delicate eyes & ears. Irony. Or something like it.

Merci, Yannick...

Crossing the Street

Paris, rue de Rivoli, 30 juin 2009 by Yannick Vigouroux

I'll add to this later. But it's already July? Yes, everywhere on Earth. Patterns, unfortunate: my shriek of surprise when it's a new hour, a new day, a new month.

Crossing the street is something I do several times a day & almost always it is fraught with danger most would associate with life in....well, elsewhere. I adhere strictly to proper ped behavior--89% of drivers at the closest intersections in my neighborhood do not. (Yes, I stand out there & conduct surveys.) Family & friends have been instructed time & again: you know that I always follow the rules. Therefore, sue like there's no tomorrow if I get hit by a car & I can't do so myself. Then have huge party. Or something. This is a way of steeling myself to once again, go out there.

And yes, I'm running behind on both blogs. And everything else.

This photograph is with kind permission of Yannick Vigouroux (in Paris); an all-round terrific guy who is now taking photos with his phone & playing around with distortion & so on. It was perfect for today. Plus I love stripes, les rayures & it would be oh-so predictable of me to post gorgeous photos of those patterns in clothing, interiors. Not that I won't revert to predictability any time now.

Happy Canada Day to my friends up north. Had a devil of a time procuring meaningful-ish photographs for your day (in time). Unless I scan a red maple leaf (on a board to my right) & post that, I can do little honor you today. I have low standards at times, I know, but that would be truly disgraceful.

[Thanks to cher Yannick as always, go here for his varied flickr sets]

Week's End - Poet's Day

When I last left here, I said I didn't envision myself as Milton Berle. I still don't. There's a funny photograph in the LIFE archives of Uncle Miltie, asleep with a mask on. I was being literal. My sleep mask is navy blue silk, if you must know. Sequin-free. Julie the Cat would surely spend hours prying them off anyway.

Where to begin. Week has been weird, weekend forecasts more of the same. I've tons of beautiful photographs but I cannot bring myself to use them now. Perversely, I have to go with these two wackidoodles.

First, in what state of lunacy/inebriation did a Pond's executive say, "Yes! A nightie-wearing, corsage-sporting gal sitting with a kitten...juxtaposed in front of a photo of the Colosseum....yes yes it's genius!" Perhaps it did sell tons of night cream. Hey, I can't claim it wouldn't work on me...though the Colosseum. Egad. But as a sign of Rome for Americans, sigh, I guess. Perhaps this was from the beginning of the la dolce vita period. I bet that's it. Otherwise, they would've tried a Parisian theme. No way am I "researching" this now. [advert from Jesssica aka myvintagevogue's flickrstream; she has a new website in progress & that is great news.]

Before you say, no ad guy would use "juxtaposed"...yes, they would. Art & literature majors were in that business. My parents had many friends in advertising...all with excellent personal vocabularies. They were terribly ambivalent (or hating) about the business. Wonder what they think of Mad Men. I suspect quite conflicted. As my mother says about the 1950s...it wasn't that Happy.

Second. I know he was a decidedly troubled & difficult man, but we didn't have to put up with it. We (the audience) got the best of him. Peter Sellers in a rare photo (via scan from The Hollywood Cats book, of Catapalooza-in-DC fame). From the British film, The Wrong Box. The text says..."In this comedy about inheritance, Peter Sellers played the mad surgeon Dr. Pratt, his office overrun by kittens. As one cat sits in the surgical bowl, the doctor contemplates the phony death certificate he's just made out for Michael Caine."

Of course, he played a mad surgeon named Pratt...what else?

Off to walk in the warmish DC weather (with my hat on!)...hope it's warm (or warming up) where you are...& I can't help myself. I have to say it, though it's not "mine." You naughty cheeky monkeys!

Circus of Flying Lunatics

The first of three in a set of camera-poetry by the luminous Ola Bell of England. I happened upon a photograph in weheartit, but it was an all rights reserved photo, originally on flickr. I wrote to ask her permission & she quickly answered; & could not have been more gracious. Go visit not only No. 2 & 3 in the set (I could not download them with this dodgy computer), but also her professional website, Oladios, for portfolio, bio, & more. Of course, it's quite the plus that she loves cats (& they, her). Bella Ola, indeed! [The results are always perfect published by kind permission of Ola Bell]

Venetian Rosy Glow

Love these. The lampioni rosa are a well-known (& beloved) Venetian symbol everywhere in Italy. When I was there, I thought they would make great jewellry (scaled down, of course) & still do. For all I know, that happened long ago. I've drawn (badly) over & again, a pair of chandelier-style earrings...with imaginary Murano glass. Well, at least there isn't any blue in here, right? Rose, rose, rose.

(photograph by Alice Lucchin of Venice & a very interesting woman.)

Update: So tired that I scheduled this for tomorrow's date instead of today. Will keep repeating, "Wednesday, Wednesday, 25th, 25th" for rest of day, I'm sure. ciao.

Carnevale di Venezia 2009 - Azzurro

Spooky, blue-ish Venice (even without the graduated tint). I'll stop with the blue stuff soon, probably.. (photograph by mysterious wax0r, who is in Venice right now.) ciao

Carnevale di Venezia 2009 - Viola

Julie the Cat is racing around the apartment with Mardi Gras bead necklaces in her mouth. I have officially lost control of the apartment to her. (photographs by the still-uploading, busy wax0r from Venice). ciao.

Week's End - Wings of Desire, Roma

Have an inspiring & slightly spooky (in a good way) weekend.