Saturday, November 27, 2010

Happy Birthday Johnny Allen Hendrix

Radio One, Live at The BBC  (1967)
Released in 1998
Some of Jimi's best guitar work is on this album.
 You'll wonder how 10 fingers can play so many notes.

Also, it's the BBC's practice to serve champagne
to their guests to loosen them up. It worked.


Old typewriter

Salvador Dali

The Trojan Horse
1971

Brush up on your Classics:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trojan_Horse

Friday, November 26, 2010

American Painter Elizabeth Nourse

Meditation
1902

Self-portrait  
1892

Elizabeth Nourse was Cincinnati born (raised in Mt. Healthy), and studied at the McMicken School of Design. She found international success in Paris and was the first American woman to become a member of the Societé Nationale des Artistes Francais and the Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts.

Many of her works are displayed at The Cincinnati Art Museum.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabeth_Nourse
 http://www.tfaoi.com/aa/5aa/5aa280a.htm

Out of the mines and mills

In 1938 the U.S. Fair Labor Standards Act protected children from abusive labor practices, and set federal standards for the minimum ages and the maximum hours a child could work. About this time, a mandatory education law was enacted.
 
http://nationalchildlabor.org/history.html

American painter Abbott Handerson Thayer

 A Virgin 
1893
Depicts the artist's daughter and sons
 Smithsonian

 

Frost

There was a heavy frost this morning.
Coldest morning of the season at 22° F.

Black Friday madness

I feel sorry for the employees.

Wednesday, November 24, 2010

JFK on Thanksgiving


As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them.  

John Fitzgerald Kennedy

Cheers everyone.

Tuesday, November 23, 2010

Chateau Frontenac, Quebec City



The 600-room hotel was built in 1893 by the Canada Pacific Railway and sits above the St. Lawrence River. Frontenac was built to promote a higher class of tourists to the West using the railroad.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ch%C3%A2teau_Frontenac
http://www.fairmont.com/frontenac

Monday, November 22, 2010

Sunday, November 21, 2010

Goju-no-to Pagoda, Japan

The five-story Goju-no-to Pagoda on Miyajima Island was built in 1407 and is the oldest wooden tower in the world. The architectural style of this Buddhist shrine is a mix of Japanese and Chinese influences, and features a Japanese tiled roof. It was built as a symbolic tomb where a relic of Buddha is placed. The first floor contains an ancient drawing of Buddha on his death bed. The shrine was named a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1993. It is closed to the public.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pagoda

Saturday, November 20, 2010

Vincent Van Gogh's final painting

On The Threshold of Eternity
or 
At Eternity's Gate
1890

Painted a few days before his suicide.


Spiral staircase at the Vatican



In the news

An 86-year-old woman in New York City told police someone stole her motorized scooter while she was inside a church visiting the minister. You go, Gran.

A Jacksonville woman spotted her own stolen car on the road, followed it for 20 miles, then watched as it crashed into a bridge and fell into a river. The thief swam to the other side and ran away.

A roofer's union in Joliet, Illinois resorted to installing a giant inflatable rat in front of a local church where they have been protesting the church's decision to use non-union laborers to repair part of the roof damaged by lightning. The rat's name is Scabby.

A window display at an upscale clothing store in London is reportedly so obscene that the volume of complaints about it has become a Twitter topic and has the Advertising Standards Authority in Britain looking into it. The main concern is the denigration of women depicted in the display.

Two sixth grade teachers in Massachusetts exceeded their authority when they issued a memo banning pens and pencils from their classrooms out of a concern students were using them as weapons. The memo said students would be given a pencil that had to be returned at the end of the day. The school board rescinded it.

A Michigan man is suing Del Monte and Kroger claiming that he was injured when he opened a jar of fruit that exploded in his face. He said the lid forcefully popped off, struck him in the eye and rendered him unconscious. A lawyer for the defendants declined comment.

And saving the best for last, a woman in Boise is free on a $100,000 bond after being accused of impersonating a physician and giving breast exams to women she met in bars around the city. As part of her ruse, she gave the women a phone number of a real, licensed plastic surgeon's practice where she recommended breast augmentation. When the doctor's office started getting numerous unexplained calls from women wanting to set up an appointment, they alerted police.

That's it for now. Stay safe — it's crazy out there!