A Graphically Stimulating Way To Show Large Numbers - An American Portrait

This image is made up of several thousands photos of the ends of stacked packs of cigarette. Check out this Chris Jordan site, with a dozen or more of these number-cruncher graphics about America's numbers. I thought that this could help me stop smoking or at least start counting!

This Sure Looks Like Fun!

Le Tablier De Grand'mère

Te souviens-tu du tablier de ta grand-mère ?
(Merci à Yolande. English translation in the comments below)

Le principal usage du tablier de Grand'Mère était de protéger la robe en dessous, mais en plus de cela, il servait de gant pour retirer une poêle brûlante du fourneau; il était merveilleux pour essuyer les larmes des enfants, et à certaines occasions, pour nettoyer les frimousses salies.
Depuis le poulailler, le tablier servait à transporter les oeufs,les poussins à réanimer, et parfois les oeufs fêlés qui finissaient dans le fourneau.
Quand des visiteurs arrivaient, le tablier servait d'abri à des enfants timides; et quand le temps était frais,Grand'Mère s'en emmitouflait les bras.
Ce bon vieux tablier faisait office de soufflet, agité au dessus du feu de bois. C'est lui qui transbahutait les pommes de terre et le bois sec jusque dans la cuisine.
Depuis le potager, il servait de panier pour de nombreux légumes.
Après que les petits pois aient été récoltés venait le tour des choux.
En fin de saison il était utilisé pour ramasser les pommes tombées de l'arbre.
Quand des visiteurs arrivaient de façon impromptue, c'était surprenant de voir avec quelle rapidité ce vieux tablier pouvait faire la poussière.
A l'heure de servir le repas, Grand'Mère allait sur le perron agiter son tablier, et les hommes au champ savaient aussitôt qu'ils devaient passer à table.

Grand'Mère l'utilisait aussi pour poser la tarte aux pommes à peine sortie du four sur le rebord de la fenêtre pour qu'elle refroidisse, tandis que, de nos jours, sa petite fille la pose là pour décongeler.
Il faudra de bien longues années avant que quelqu'un invente quelque objet qui puisse remplacer ce bon vieux tablier qui servait à tant de choses.

The War - The Ken Burn Masterpiece Preview

Nikki's Art Exhibit Avant-Première

Nikki's pre-opening video is intended for our bloggers who are not Second Life member and, having no avatar, cannot attend the Grand Opening of her Art Exhibit. So we bought 3 bottles of champagne and three dozen sushis with the intention of giving you a quick go-around, in the case that you could not attend the REAL event.
My Gawd, that word REAL suddenly takes a strange color. Considering that Nikki's oldest paintings are over 20 yrs old, it is not difficult to see that she started her career pumping out those large canvases before kindergarten!. (The growling noise towards the very end of the sound track is the golden lab Chase getting bored for not having a ball to chase!)

A Second Life Art Gallery To Exhibit Nikki's Work

This is exciting. Nikki's Second Life's persona, Nicolasa Bonetto, her avatar visible above, is having an opening in a prestigious SL gallery. Twelve of her wall size paintings will be shown to other Second Lifers. It needs to be said that all these works are RL, or Real Life productions photographed and reissued in a virtual world. In a quaint parallel move, Nikki's Second Life art is being printed on real media, some of it woven into tapestries, all of it visible in a Real Life context. For those of you not able to access this virtual world, a movie of the gala opening will be shown here. Equally, a video of her Real Life exhibit will be shown on Second Life screen for the benefit of those who spend most of their days in Second Life. Oh I know! this is so confusing. I'm the geek that helps with the process. I dont have an avatar. I just have a blog to report all of that modern and quaint theater of the absurd.

Siquieros, A Mexicain Painter At The New Ensenada Fine Arts Museum.

Click START to view animation, REFRESH page to stop it. I know, it sucks!

The newly opened 'Casa De Artes' in Ensenada is a lovely building. Equally admirable was their first show, the Mexican painter called Siquieros who produced this energetic fresh piece back in 1952. It is a perspective study for a mural, one that I interpreted in 'loop format' to make the pleasure last ...much longer. The remix is something done by throwing together a cumbia (great Columbian music like this tune posted earlier) with a flamenco piece and some special effects.

A New Batch of Even Cuter Animalitos

You must admit that these 'animalitos' are a lot prettier than the first bunch I put together 3 months ago Thanks Jackee for letting me steal them from you! All animals including us are potentially 'cute' when looked at the right way, right?

The Santa Ana Winds Blow Long, Hot and Dry

(IMPORTANT: The sound level button is at the lower left of the above Quicktime Player)
This wind can blow non stop for three days, killing kill any plant that is not native. Standing outside 5 minutes after a shower will blow dry your hair and blind you with desert dust. Yet autumn in Baja is wonderful between these episodes. YOU ARE ALL INVITED one or two at a time! This will make you appreciate the native plants, the low-water need variety like those grown by Molly.

A Gem Of An Animation Film, by Chris Lambeth

I must thank Bob (The 13th) for this link. As a Canadian, I knew nothing about either Larkin of Lambeth, although they both made the Oscars in the animation category. Nice to be educated about our own by a considerate American neighbor. This is awesome, for lack of a better descriptor.

"The Crystal Method- Roll It Up" .......A New Author On This BLog? .

This morning we asked '13Videos' to become an author on our blog, anxiously awaiting his answer. Without having secured his permission, we posted one of his videos here, to bait him in, so to speak! :-) We need variety and originality, and especially 'strength in numbers'. Check this artist out over in YouTube His short productions have thousands of viewers there, a lot more than any of our amateurish pieces. We need quality co-posters, don't you agree?

Illustration Blog Of Great Interest

n 1913, a pernicious little busybody named M. Blair Coan spied on visitors to an art exhibit in Chicago. Coan, an investigator for the State Vice Commission, was upset by the "immorality" of modern paintings and suspected that Matisse's painting of nude dancers might even be "attracting the gaze of young girls."
Coan stirred up a great public outcry against immoral art. He then turned his talents to spreading alarm about the imminent communist takeover of the United States. In one of his books, The Coming Peril, Coan warned that socialism would ruin society by encouraging free love and giving women the right to vote. For Coan, the most "monstrously immoral" threat was that socialism might permit white women to consort with men of other races:

I just discovered this interesting blog where the writer digresses with examples and history about the power of illustrations and the consequences on human morality. Certainly worth the trip by clicking here

La Femme Mouvante

Merci, Roberpierre Monnier du Canada français.