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Sinatra at the Paramount

An Extract from SINATRA: The Life

In late 1942, after his stint with band leader Tommy Dorsey, Frank Sinatra was back in New Jersey playing small-town theaters. His luck turned on December 12, his twenty-seventh birthday, thanks to a persistent New York booker named Harry Romm. After weeks of trying, Romm got the attention of Robert Weitman, director of the Paramount Theater, Broadway’s hottest music and movie venue.

Romm went on and on about Sinatra. “Take a chance. Come over and look for yourself,” he recalled telling Weitman. “It’s the damnedest thing you ever saw. A skinny kid who looks strictly from hunger is singing over in Newark and the she kids are yelling and fainting all over the joint. You’ve got to see it to believe it….”

Weitman agreed to go to Newark’s cavernous Mosque Theater to hear Sinatra perform. The place was less than half full. “Then,” he remembered, “this skinny kid walks out on the stage. He was not much older than the kids in the seats. He looked like he still had milk on his chin. As soon as they saw him, the kids went crazy. And when he started to sing they stood up and yelled and moaned and carried on until I thought – excuse the expression – his pants had fallen down.”

Weitman swung into action within hours. “He rang me at the house,” Frank remembered, “and said ‘What are you doing New Year’s Eve?’ I said, ‘Not a thing. I can’t even get booked anywhere….He said, ‘I’d like you to open at the joint.’ He used to call the Paramount ‘the joint.’ I said, ‘You mean on New Year’s Eve?’ He said, ‘That’s right.’…And I fell right on my butt!”

The Paramount was majestic, the tallest structure on Broadway north of the Woolworth Building. The illuminated glass globe at its top could be seen as far away as New Jersey. Its plush red and gold auditorium could accommodate almost four thousand people. Fred Astaire, Gary Cooper, Mae West, Claudette Colbert, were among the stars who had seen their names on the marquee beneath the Paramount’s vast ornamental arch. At dawn on December 30, when Frank arrived to rehearse, there was his name beneath the title of the movie and “Benny Goodman and his Band,” and alongside the billings for the Radio Rogues comedy act: “EXTRA – FRANK SINATRA.”

That night was pivotal. For all his early success, he was still relatively unknown. When Weitman told Goodman that Frank would be appearing, Goodman asked: “Who’s he?” “I introduced Frank Sinatra as if he were one of my closest friends,” the comedian Jack Benny remembered. “I had to make all of this up, because I didn’t know who he was.” He did it only as a favor to Weitman.

Yet as Sinatra’s name was spoken, there came a reaction from the audience that no one present ever forgot. “I thought the goddamned building was going to cave in,” said Benny, “people running down to the stage, screaming and nearly knocking me off the ramp.” As Weitman remembered it, there was a long call from the audience of “F-R-A-N-K-I-E-E-E-E-E!” Sinatra himself recalled a sound that was “absolutely deafening…a tremendous roar.” Conducting with his back to the audience, Goodman could not imagine what was going on.

Frank froze in terror for a moment, then burst out laughing. He could not remember later whether he began by singing “For Me and My Gal” or “Black Magic.” “The devout,” wrote the editor of The New Republic, Bruce Bliven, had recognized “a pleasant-appearing young man” who “with gawky long steps moves awkwardly to the center of the stage while the shrieking continues….He has a head of black curls and holds it to one side as he gestures clumsily and bashfully, trying to keep the crowd quiet enough for him to sing….”

Something unprecedented had begun. Vast throngs of people, most of them very young and most of them female, began flocking to the theater. Frank was soon singing as many as a hundred songs a day – at least nine shows. “One Saturday I did eleven shows,” he remembered. “We started at 8:10 in the morning and finished at 2:30 Sunday morning.”

When his family came to the theater they became part of the spectacle. Nancy was lost to sight in the throng and Dolly was pawed by the fans. “I couldn’t hear,” Marty complained. “Who could hear?” For Frank’s grandfather Francesco, now in his late eighties, it was all too much. “I put him in the third row, in among the kids,” Frank remembered. “He didn’t know what the hell happened to him because when I came out on the stage everything broke loose and he just sat there. I could see his face. He was absolutely terrified. They brought him back in the dressing room after the performance, and he was so angry – that he had come that far and never heard me sing. He didn’t understand that that was the game that the kids played….”

The original one-week appearance at the Paramount was extended, first to a month, then to two months, a theater record. Frank agreed to return in the spring. His audience was made up overwhelmingly of schoolgirls in their early or mid-teens, typically dressed in sweaters, knee-length skirts, and white socks – bobbysoxers. Webster’s Dictionary defines one as an “adolescent girl”.

“The squealing yells reverberated,” Bob Weitman’s friend Armand Deutsch, a film producer, said of the fans, “It was a new sound, a screaming expression of adulation and curiously innocent eroticism. They were, Bob told me sadly, almost impossible to dislodge, fiercely fighting all eviction efforts and drastically cutting the grosses.”

Few bobbysoxers stayed for only one performance. They came with food and drink and settled in. Theater staff often found the girls had urinated on their seats, either out of fear of losing them if they went to the bathroom or out of sheer excitement.

“They would scream every time he sang a word like ‘love,’” said Al Viola, who was to become Frank’s principal guitarist. “I used to think, ‘Oh, here it comes!’” Sometimes, though, the fans were “as hushed as if they were in church.”

Fans fell to their knees in the aisles. Girls lined up to kiss Frank’s picture on billboards, begged for trimmings from the floor of his barber’s shop, snatched the handkerchief from his jacket pocket as he passed. In the hope of forcing him to stop and sign autographs, some flung themselves in front of his car. They gave him teddy bears, heart-shaped flower arrangements, a loving cup, a golden key – said to fit the heart of its sender.

“He was my idol when I was in eighth grade,” Marie Caruba, a former teacher in her late seventies, recalled half a century later. “I had his photos all over my locker. I worked some days at Gardella’s Ice Cream shop, and the only way I’d work in the afternoons would be if Mr. Gardella let me listen to Frank on the radio. I knew, of course, that he was singing just to me. We lived in Connecticut, and a girlfriend and I would hop a train down to New York to go to matinees at the Paramount. I went as often as I could, but my mother never knew.”

“Groups of little girls used to play hooky from school,” said Martha Lear,“off to shriek and swoon through four shows live, along with several thousand other demented teenagers….That glorious shouldered spaghetti strand way down there in the spotlight would croon on serenely, giving us a quick little flick of a smile or, as a special bonus, a sidelong tremor of the lower lip. I used to bring binoculars just to watch that lower lip….Before going home we would forge the notes from our parents: ‘Please excuse Martha’s absence from school yesterday as she was sick….’”

On October 11, 1944, opening night of another run at the Paramount in New York, Frank triggered a frenzy unprecedented in the history of music. Girls waited in the street all night to buy tickets. When the doors opened, a capacity crowd crammed into the theater and began chanting his name. The fans totally ignored the movie that was shown and then – when he appeared – their screaming made him virtually inaudible.

By five o’clock in the morning the next day, a veritable army of young people was already waiting outside and near the Paramount. “I ventured down to Times Square,” wrote Earl Wilson, who had been working through the night at the Post, “and was literally scared away. The police estimated that 10,000 kids were queued up six abreast on 43rd Street, Eighth Avenue, and 44th Street, and another 20,000 were running wild in Times Square, overrunning the sidewalks and making traffic movement almost impossible.

“Over on Fifth Avenue, a Columbus Day parade was forming. Two hundred cops were taken off guard duty there and rushed over….Eventually there were 421 police reserves, twenty radio cars, two emergency trucks, four lieutenants, six sergeants, two captains, two assistant chief inspectors, two inspectors, seventy patrolmen, fifty traffic cops, twelve mounted police, twenty policewomen and two hundred detectives, trying to control some 25,000 teenage girls. Girls shrieked, fainted – or swooned – fell down, were stepped on and pulled up by their companions and resumed screaming. They rushed the ticket booth and damaged it. Windows were broken.”

Of the 3,600 fans admitted for the first performance, only a couple of hundred left when it ended. Angry thousands waiting outside swarmed around the neighborhood all day, not dispersing until nightfall. There was similar chaos when Frank appeared in Chicago, Boston, and Pittsburgh. The New Republic described it as an “electric contagion of excitement…a phenomenon of mass hysteria that is seen only two or three times in a century.”

“What is it you’ve got,” the actress Carmen Miranda asked Frank in 1944, “that makes the girls all cry over you?”

“It’s not what I’ve got, Carmen,” Frank replied, “it’s what they’ve got. Imagination.”

The adulation of Elvis Presley ten years later, or of the Beatles in 1964, perhaps came close. The furor over Frank, though, was the first eruption of youthful idolatry in the twentieth century, and as great as any that has come since.

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anthro in the news 11/30/2015

ISIS recruits through friends and social media

An article in the New York Times on ISIS recruitment provides extensive commentary from cultural anthropologist Scott Atran, co-founder of the Center for the Resolution of Intractable Conflict and senior research fellow at Oxford University. He noted that research has found that radicalization rarely occurs in mosques and rarely through anonymous recruiters and strangers. At a meeting held on Foreign Terrorist Fighters organized by the U.N. Security Council’s counter-terrorism committee. Atran said: “it is the call to glory and adventure that moves these young people to join the Islamic State…jihad offers them a way to become heroes.” Atran, who has interviewed captured fighters from the Islamic State and the al-Qaida linked Nusra Front, added that Islamic State leaders “understand youth much better than the governments that are fighting against them.” They know how to speak to the rebelliousness and idealism of youth, and they are adept at using social media to target youth.

Weapon of mass destruction

Nuclear weapons test on Bikini Atoll of the Marshall Islands. 1946. source: Creative Commons

The Washington Post reported on the enduring effects of U.S. nuclear testing in the Marshall Islands in the South Pacific where, from 1946 to 1958, the United States conducted 67 nuclear tests. If their combined explosive power was divided over that 12-year period, it would equal 1.6 Hiroshima-size explosions per day. The article quoted cultural anthropologist Glenn Alcalay who teaches at Montclair State University in New Jersey. “We have basically destroyed a culture…We’ve stolen their future. When you take the future from a people, you’ve destroyed them.”

Six steps to the Sustainable Development Goals

Cultural anthropologist Jason Hickel of the London School of Economics published an article in the Guardian in which he lays out six guidelines to attaining the new Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs): 1) It’s very unlikely that all SDGs will be met, but we shouldn’t lose faith; 2) The SDGs need to be seen as a springboard, not an end in themselves; 3) We need to dramatically change the existing rules of our global economy; 4). Those working on economic development and human rights should work together; 5) Companies now face the challenge of contributing to the development agenda; and 6) The SDGs can be a driver of climate action. [Blogger’s note: the meaty points in my view are 3,4, and 5, which require drastic changes in the neoliberal economic regime but how such changes might happen is up in the air].

On not erasing colonialism and making reparations

Monument to slaves in Zanzibar. source: Brocken Inaglory, Creative Commons

Jason Hickel, cultural anthropologist at the London School of Economics, also published an article in the Guardian arguing for reparations to populations that suffered from European colonialism, especially slavery. He writes: [Colonialism is] …something you’re not supposed to discuss in polite company – at least not north of the Mediterranean. Most people feel uncomfortable about it, and would rather pretend it didn’t happen. In fact, that appears to be the official position. In the mainstream narrative of international development peddled by institutions from the World Bank to the UK’s Department of International Development, the history of colonialism is routinely erased. According to the official story, developing countries are poor because of their own internal problems, while western countries are rich because they worked hard, and upheld the right values and policies.” Hinkel argues that development aid is a paltry response to the massive harms colonialism did to developing countries and enslaved populations and that reparations are called for.

Juvenile sarcasm in the news

Forbes Magazine published an op-ed by a policy commentator who is sarcastically dismissive of Jason Hickel’s article in the Guardian about colonialism, world poverty, and the need for reparations. The author, who attended the LSE where he “learned [his] economics,” writes that he is surprised that Hickel, an anthropology professor at LSE, can even find Houghton Street which lies in the center of the campus.

Nepal rebuilding

WBEZ Radio (Chicago) reported on protests in Nepal’s southern region and carried an interview with Sienna Craig, professor of anthropology at Dartmouth College. Craig has recently been in Nepal working with local Tibetan doctors to help bring healthcare to rural communities hit by the earthquakes. She discussed the complexities of what has been happening in the country recently as well as Nepal-India relations [with audio].

Helping out in Greece

SFGate (San Francisco) carried an article about Americans going to Greece as volunteers to help with the massive influx of refugees. According to the New York Times, more than 300,000 refugees have arrived on the island of Lesbos this year, overwhelming its 86,000 residents. This influx shouldn’t be surprising for European leaders, but they have not developed a plan to handle the number of refugees, said Andria Timmer, an anthropology professor at Christopher Newport University in Virginia. She is quoted as saying: “What’s going on is that most of the work being done is by volunteers…It’s coming through individuals putting food in their car. These are the people on the ground doing aid.”

Bound to happen: 2015 reprises begin

An article in Forbes provides a reprise of a June 2015 event where Bill Clinton lauded medical anthropologist and health activist Paul Farmer as a great humanitarian for his work with Partners in Health which Farmer co-founded. Yes, Farmer was a great humanitarian in June and still now, deserving of a lifetime achievement award.  Almost 200 billionaires, “world-class philanthropists and social-entrepreneur game changers” convened in New York in June for the annual Forbes 400 Summit on Philanthropy.

Take that anthro degree and…

…become a medical doctor. Kayla Rudolph is currently an M.D. candidate at Rush Medical College and is expected to graduate in May 2016. She earned a B.A. in anthropology from Washington University in St. Louis.

…become an actor and musician. Tessa Creed, the star of Dear White People, has also played Jackie Cook on the film noir television series Veronica Mars, Nyla Adrose in the film For Colored Girls, civil rights activist Diane Nash in Selma, and starred as Bianca in Creed. She attended Santa Monica College where she studied cultural anthropology.

…be an administrative assistant. Nicole Burreson works for Soderholm Insurance Services in Alexandria, Minnesota, as an executive administrative assistant. She has a B.A, in anthropology from Luther College in Iowa.

Thanks to mastodons for squash

Just in time for Thanksgiving, CNN reported on a study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences documenting the role that mastodons played in the squash we eat today. The authors studied seeds preserved in ancient animal dung. Daniel Sandweiss, professor of anthropology and climate studies at the University of Maine, who was not involved in the study, said he appreciated the study as a reminder of the impact even a tiny population like early ancestors in the Americas could have on food we eat now: “Humans have such a large and sometimes unexpected influence on economies and ecosystems…The squash we have today are remaining representatives of this genus of plant which otherwise would have been in trouble for survival because of the changing landscape…It’s fascinating to think what impact human intervention can have even through the depth of time.”

[Blogger’s note: I am having a hard time getting from seeds in mastodon dung to domesticated seeds and edible squash. Here’s the study article’s abstract:

“Squashes, pumpkins, and gourds belonging to the genus Cucurbita were domesticated on several occasions throughout the Americas, beginning around 10,000 years ago. The wild forms of these species are unpalatably bitter to humans and other extant mammals, but their seeds are present in mastodon dung deposits, demonstrating that they may have been dispersed by large-bodied herbivores undeterred by their bitterness. However, Cucurbita may have been poorly adapted to a landscape lacking these large dispersal partners. Our study proposes a link between the disappearance of megafaunal mammals from the landscape, the decline of wild Cucurbita populations, and, ultimately, the evolution of domesticated Cucurbita alongside human cultivators.”

I am happy, however, that we have many kinds of edible squash no matter what the trail from dung to soup, casserole, and dessert].

Being a terrorist is not hard-wired

An article in the Huffington Post on human violence, especially terrorism, mentions viewpoints of biological anthropologist Richard Wrangham of Harvard University, who favors hard-wired violence in what he calls “demonic males,” as well as primatologists Jane Goodall founder of the Jane Goodall Institute, and Frans de Waal of Emory University, who do not.

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Star Wars: Episode VIII is coming May 26th, 2017

Rian Johnson is finally, officially confirmed as writer and directorStar_Wars_Episode_VIII_Poster

Following J.J. Abrams’ The Force Awakens, the second film in the new Star Wars trilogy (the yet-to-be-subtitled Episode VIII) will hit theaters on May 26th, 2017. That’s 40 years and one day after the very first film, A New Hope, premiered in 1977. Disney CEO Bob Iger also confirmed that Star Wars: Episode VIII will be written and directed by Looperfilmmaker Rian Johnson (that’s technically been known since last June, but this is the first time Disney’s confirmed it). Continue reading

Apple is hiding an embarrassing iPhone 6 camera bulge

Apple has an unpleasant bulge it’s hiding. The latest iPhone 6 has slimmed down to just 6.9mm of metal in what apple_iphone_6_camera_bulge_edit_appleApple describes as a “streamlined profile,” but it has picked up one element that isn’t particularly streamlined: an ugly camera bulge at the rear. You wouldn’t necessarily spot it if you were browsing Apple’s website though. While some images display the bulge clearly, there’s a number where it has simply vanished from sight. Continue reading

Apple launches public beta for iOS 8.3

But not everyone’s able to sign up at the moment

For the first time ever, Apple is inviting regular users to test out an upcoming iOS update. The company has ios-8-app-tweakslaunched a page where interested iPhone owners can sign up to trial iOS 8.3 before it’s released to all consumers later this year. Apple’s signup page, pictured above, suggests it’s gained valuable feedback by running a public beta of OS X on the desktop, and now it’s extending the program to cover iOS as well. Continue reading

Even Apple didn’t want my iPhone 6 Plus

I bought a really expensive phone last week. Then I got rid of it.plutus91503

After the big Apple announcement, I internally debated the merits of a mobile phone that would instantly connect me to a lifetime’s worth of entertainment and knowledge, and a slightly larger version of the same thing. I chose the big one. Like so many bad decisions, I made this one at 3AM in my underpants.

On Friday evening, the colossus arrived. Removed from its slim, minimalistic cardboard home, the iPhone 6 Plus’s size intimidated me. I couldn’t decide how to hold the thing, so I cradled its bottom in my right hand and its top in my left, like a vulnerable cranium.

“This is huge!” said my wife, snatching the phone. She held the slab to her cheek, as if to make a call, and half her head disappeared behind a wall of space gray. It looked like she’d stolen a prop phone from the set of a 1980s sci-fi movie. Continue reading


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My Kid Is a Horrible Liar, I Am a Rockstar.

Child, ready for school, doing the over-spectacles peer.

Everyone, meet child.  This is a photo of her a short time ago, and she looks the same now, except we no longer have to roll those jeans, and she got bangs.

A cool thing about six-year-olds is that you can have conversations with them. They say things that are accidentally hilarious, and they’re figuring out sarcasm and all kinds of other verbal/social nuances, cues, and tricks.

Six-year-olds like to make stuff up.  Especially knock knock jokes.

Fella taught Child to say “wocka wocka” after every joke, regardless, so that at least we can laugh at the Fozzie incantation.

Here’s a transcript:  “Knock knock.” “Who’s there?” “Cat.” “Cat who?” “Oh no! There’s a dog next to me, I better run, wocka wocka.”

Child is at once sophisticated and deeply naive.

She is coming to terms with the world.  She experiences sadness and empathy.  She has dreams that scare her and delight her.  She tells me about them, and I feel lucky.

When she tells me she can’t sleep or when she seems to be deeply sad, I feel helpless and worried.  And I tell her that it’s okay to be sad, and I ask her about it, and she doesn’t have good answers.  Her go-to is, “I don’t know.”

So even though her emotional experience is visibly complex, her ability to discuss it is limited.

Yesterday, she came home from school with a hole in her pants.  It was a hole that smacked of intention, and it was on her right thigh.

Can you see where this is going?

“What happened to your pants?”

“I don’t know!”

“Clearly you do.  What happened?”

“I just told you, I don’t know.”

“Did you cut them?”

“How did that hole get there then?”

“Well, maybe it happened when I pulled up my pants because they were falling down.”

“Child, c’mon.  I don’t think that your pants would’ve ripped there if it happened when you pulled them up or down.”

“I don’t know!” She begins to weep.

The conversation continues like this, until she finally admits that she did, indeed, cut her pants.  Then she said it was because she was bored, then she said somebody else did it.  Then she said she did it because she was trying not to make eye contact with the little boy who the day before tried to kiss her and was probably on his way to try to kiss her again and then copy her work, when she got called away to her reading tutor.

I explained to her that she should tell me the truth about things, and that it’s important to be honest to that people trust her, and that I was less upset that she cut her pants, and more upset that she lied about it.  I said this for her benefit.  So that she would experience the unpleasantness of regret.  The sting of disappointing one’s mother.  These are extreme sensations to the under-ten set.

She was so scared that she’s not going to get to go to a birthday party on Friday that she would’ve said anything.

I explained that we’d probably go to the birthday party regardless because it’d be rude not to, since we already said we’d go, and because of the rules of child-party-reciprocity.

It did upset me that she cut her pants.  It didn’t really upset me that she lied.  I used to lie ALL the time when I was a kid.  Now, I’m so honest/ethical that it’s sometimes counterproductive.  People found it to be refreshing when I sold cars, and infuriating when I sold cell phones.

So I view the lying as a symptom of her limited vocabulary.  She lies because she wants to know if I’ll tolerate it, and because it’s way, way easier than trying to dig around for the words to use to tell the story of the truth.

Turns out, some people who study child behavior agree with me.

It also seems that I accidentally expressed a reasonable amount of displeasure in appropriate language.

Finally, my parenting instincts are good!  I expect this will be the case as child gets older.  She’s reached an age I remember being, and I think I have a more-clear-than-is-usual recollection of the emotional experience of being 6, 7, 8, etc.

When I was a kid, I lied because I enjoyed the thrill of getting away with something I knew was wrong, and because, as it turns out, I was testing my chops for writing fiction, which is my art of choice, and which was not a choice.

Now buckle in for the grownup portion of this post.

Fella believes that Child should’ve emerged from the chute with adult reasoning skills.  He finds what I view to be regular, childhood, testing-the-water behavior, and picky eating, and other strange, annoying, “these are the only ways I have to control my life” kid things to be cosmically imposing.

Fortunately, he always defers to me.

Unfortunately, I have a strong reflex to second guess myself. And I say all the time, “She’s only six!”

So when he postulated last evening about how “we must think of a way to stop this lying,” and “sometimes I think you don’t think very far into the future!,” I kind of wanted to curl into a ball and quit everything.

Yesterday was a long, mildly disappointing day, and I was emotionally drained from the hour-long pants conversation, and I’d been up since 5, and busy the way through, and hadn’t done zumba for like 2 days, and some other stuff, too, and just ugh.

(By the way, if you are depressed and sedentary, do zumba.  It is like Prozac, no joke)

This morning, I googled, “six year olds lying” and as it turns out, lots of other parents must also google that phrase, because the first five results were sites affiliated with hospitals, some more useful than others, and I sent Fella like 3 links, and congratulated myself, but not too much, and felt much better about things.

Then I went on to another extremely productive day, but I was clever enough to get up at 5 this morning and do Zumba straight away, so my day was entirely without unreasonable disappointment and self-consciousness and I was and will probably continue to be extremely productive.

I like days like today.

Author: April Line Writing

Writing about whatever the f*ck I want.

3 thoughts on “My Kid Is a Horrible Liar, I Am a Rockstar.”

  1. I get up at 4 so I can meditate, write, and have breakfast with hubby by 7 am. Then, as long as it’s not pouring, I walk for 45 minutes on the banks of the Pequea creek where it empties into the Susuquehanna– then it’s back to writing interspersed with loading the dishwasher, doing laundry and prepping for supper, etc…
    As long as I get up early and get meditating and some writing in BEFORE the rest of the world wakes up, it tends to be a good, even a great day.
    If I oversleep till say, 6:30 or 7, I never catch up with all that I want to do, and I feel rotten and sluggish without exercise and dopey and unable to focus without meditation.

    Zumba sounds like a great idea… even if you don’t need Prozac! Gotta give that a try when the creek trail is snowy or sheeted with ice! Zuma…zuma…zumm!

    1. Ann, You have inspired me. My get-up time is, starting today, 5:00 a.m. Then, Zumba, then time that is mine. Get some things done. So when it’s time to hit the day, the day doesn’t hit back.

      Zumba is amazing. It’s not good if you have back or knee or ankle problems. I’m lucky not to (yet). But I am, after two months and a week, more limber, at least 2 pants sizes smaller, and my body feels like a body, instead of an amorphous blob.

      Since you already exercise, it probably won’t shock your body the way it shocked mine. For the first 3 weeks, I hurt all over, constantly. It got so I’d take Ibuprophen before going to Zumba. Now I can do it every day with very minor muscle strain. And it’s fun. That’s the thing that kills me about it.

      And Jamie, thanks as always for the encouragement. You’re a rockstar, too.

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Spring 2012 Rocks, Notes On Family, Weddins, Hijinks, and Love.

Child with Mustache

So far, this has been a pretty righteous spring.

In the picture, Child is wearing a Groucho Marx Mustache that was originally purcahsed for my team, THIMP (or The Hammer is my Penis, thanks Dr. Horrible) at Quizzo Cup 5.

You might remember my wildly self-indulgent post about an unfortunate end to a friendship.  The bad news is that the frienship is still over.  The good news is that the Quizzo Cup event went off with both of us there, without a hitch, and with a minimum of weirdness.

We didn’t win the cup or the costume competition, but we had a blast and tons of beer and deep fried food and pizza.  Good times.

Today is Easter, the celebration across religious disciplines of rebirth and fertility.  Or Zombie Jesus Day.  Whatever.  It’s not important to me for religious reasons, but I have always enjoyed coloring eggs & chocolate.

Child and I are hanging out in Connecticut for a good part of this week with her biological second (or something) cousins on that mystery side of the family.  The older cousins are aware of the relationship, but I have not explained it to Child.  She does not yet really get the cousins thing, and has accepted that they’re related without questioning or upset. The biological connection is kind of convoluted. But this is a great precedent, and these kids are pretty terrific.

Here’s an adorable image of the sister cousins enjoying some co-snuggied, co-pillow-petted fun:

Child and her Some Kind of Cousin.

Child is enjoying her first Easter without my religious family, and Sunggie Cousin made her an excellent, clue-laden egg hunt.  This is much more fun than loads of toys, but we are long on candy (again).

Yesterday, we went to a wedding.  Cousins’ mom got re-married, and invited us to join the festivities.  She used to be married to biological father’s uncle.  That was not good.  There were loads of problems with that union.  But her new man is a gem, and the wedding was a small, unpretentious affair at which we met loads of really lovely people and had some pretty good food.

I get super emotional at weddings.  I cry for joy for the happy couple, and for the terrific energy we expend as humans to make our love known, and for the possibility that the love won’t last.  I also cry, less flatteringly, out of mourning for my own failure to understand the value of the marriage paradigm.  I pity myself for not wanting it.

Today, I’m making wedding-leftover soup.

The hotel pans of wedding food leftovers made the trek back with us yesterday, and totally beshitted the trunk of my car with chicken sauce and chicken fat stink.  Eww.

So this morning, Child and I scrubbed the trunk and backseat of the car, and hosed down the trunk lining carpet.  The backseat was long overdue.  To quote my dear dad, “They call them crumb crunchers for a reason.”

Then, Snuggie Cousin, Child and I dyed eggs and Rugby Cousin is watching something on his in-room TV.  Rugby cousin is a giant, intense, teenage boy.  The last time I regularly spent time with him, he was ten and a less giant, intense, kid.  It’s so cool to see how he’s kind of grown into himself.  He has Asperger’s, and I think that accounts for a lot of his intensity.

And I’m reflecting this morning on family and how comfortable I find it to have a flexible definition thereof.  And how lucky I am to have made such lovely friend-family members in my little life.

It is probably a luxury I can’t afford not to recognize, since Child’s family is at least nontraditional and at most stubbornly odd, given Fella’s and my fairly aggressive plan not to get hitched.

I am reminded today that love is much more important than the names we give our relationships.  I am happy to be me, and grateful for the surpassing generosity of the human spirit.

Author: April Line Writing

Writing about whatever the f*ck I want.

2 thoughts on “Spring 2012 Rocks, Notes On Family, Weddins, Hijinks, and Love.”

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F1 changes radio ban after team concerns

SINGAPORE (AP) — Formula One has significantly altered its proposed ban on pit-car radio transmissions after teams raised concerns, with information on car performance allowed for the rest of the season.

F1 initially proposed drastic rules to prevent most radio messages due to fan disquiet that it was the teams rather than drivers that were effectively controlling the cars, with drivers altering settings at team behest and following instructions on fuel, tire and brake use.

The new rules were to have started at the Singapore Grand Prix this weekend, but following a meeting between the teams and the FIA late Thursday, the ban on car-performance information will be put off until 2015.

However, driver coaching messages via radio will be banned immediately. The includes advice on gear selection and braking points at corners, car set-up for particular parts of the track, racing lines, speed and acceleration rates, and how and when to use the drag-reduction system.

Part of the rationale for the dilution of the rule was that the ban would have had an uneven impact on teams. Teams that have high-tech steering wheels with enhanced data telemetry would be more able than others to provide drivers with information on car performance. Data telemetry is not part of the ban, only radio transmissions.

“It became quite clear some teams would be at a serious disadvantage compared to others,” FIA race director Charlie Whiting said.

“With the benefit of hindsight, it would have been better to introduce it in two stages, and that is what we are doing now.”

A delay until 2015 on car-performance messaging will give teams more time to prepare their telemetry, and also train drivers how to interpret it so they can make the requisite adjustments themselves in the absence of any instruction from the team.

F1 commercial chief Bernie Ecclestone hinted that telemetry, too, might be banned to make the racing more pure, but Whiting said the radio ban was “not planned as a step in that direction at all — it has not been discussed.”

During practice sessions, qualifying and races, there are an average of eight officials listening to team radio transmissions, and they will pass on to race stewards any messages which they think may have breached the rules.

Any breaches upheld by stewards will be subject to ‘sporting’ penalties rather than fines. That would mean relegation down the starting grid if breaches occur in qualifying, or stop-go and drive-through penalties during the race.

Whiting acknowledged the difficulties of policing the breaches, with teams likely to try to skirt the rule using codes.

“It’s going to be very hard to make it simple, unless one was to remove radios from the cars, but that might not be well received,” Whiting said.

Copyright © The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.


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Amchit Residence by BLANKPAGE Architects, Aamchit, Libanon.

From the architect. “Conceived as a layering of decks, the beach house seeks to maximize its relationship with the sea through a visual and compositional celebration of horizontality in general and the Mediterranean horizon in particular. The slabs are held by a minimal steel structure made of equally sized square columns on a regular module of 2.55m, as well as a discreet glass enclosure.
Given the inclined nature of the site, the house is approached by car on the street level just below the upper deck. At the external landing entrance, the circulation interconnects the three levels of the house. The upper platform contains the master bedroom that opens up on an elongated lap pool and expansive sun deck. The middle platform houses two bedrooms and a family living. Finally, the lower deck serves as a reception area that extends outdoors towards the sea through an infinity pool as well as a staircase to the shore. In addition to the inner circulation core, a smooth promenade formed by a system of external ramps and staircases connects the platforms, linking the various levels of the rocky landscape that stretches between the street all the way to the sea.
The rhythms of the steel structure and wooden decking create a multiplicity of overlapping patterns of shadows that vary in direction and length all through the day rendering the simple structure at once complex and alive. At the particular moment of the sunset, the house, oriented almost due west at the elevation that faces the sea, acts as photographic diaphragm that invites the rays of the setting sun into the depths of the house, dashing the prototypical spaces in a horizontal glow of deep red.”

Pictures © Ieva Saudargaitė

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What is Refinancing?

Getting a new mortgage to replace the original is called refinancing. The first loan is paid off, allowing the second loan to be created in an effort to reduce monthly payments, lower your interest rates, take cash out of your home for large purchases, or change mortgage companies. Most people refinance when they have equity on their home, which is the difference between the amount owed to the mortgage company and the worth of the home.

What are the Advantages of Refinancing?

One of the main advantages of refinancing regardless of equity is reducing an interest rate. Often, as people work through their careers and continue to make more money they are able to pay all their bills on time and thus increase their credit score. With this increase in credit comes the ability to procure loans at lower rates, and therefore many people refinance with their mortgage companies for this reason. A lower interest rate can have a profound effect on monthly payments, potentially saving you hundreds of dollars a year.

Second, many people refinance in order to obtain money for large purchases such as cars or to reduce credit card debt. The way they do this is by refinancing for the purpose of taking equity out of the home. The equity of your house is calculated as follows. First, the home is appraised. Second, the lender determines how much of a percentage of that appraisal they are willing to loan. Finally, the balance owed on the original mortgage is subtracted. After that money is used to pay off the original mortgage, the remaining balance is loaned to the homeowner. Many people improve upon the condition of a home after they buy it. As such, they increase the value of the home. By doing so while making payments on a mortgage, these people are able to take out substantial cash-out as the difference between the appraised value of their home increases and the balance owed on a mortgage decreases.

Refinancing a home mortgage has its own set of subtleties that can make a big difference in how well the process goes — and what your monthly payment will be. Trust the loan officers at Ark Mortgage to walk you through the process, and get you the best possible refinance package.

For more info, take a look this recent article in Time magazine on refinancing:


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Monthly Archives: July 2012

Nothin’ But A G-Tube Thang, Baby.

It’s time. Armand’s had such a decline and such a tough time over the past 6 months that we’re going ahead with plans to put him on a feeding tube. The medicines he is on, and the episodes he’s been … Continue reading

Posted in Medical, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

After about a week on the Klonopin, Armand’s still having major issues with drowsiness, cause as a side effect of the drug, and as part of the postictal phase coming out of an episode (seizures still sound so harsh to … Continue reading

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In Layman’s Terms

Without having the full extent of the results back (some of his major results like his enzyme and mucopolysaccharide* levels needed to be sent out to a special lab, could take a couple weeks to get them back), the news seems … Continue reading

Posted in Medical | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

Heck. Yes.

Aaand also Armand had his neuropsych evaluation this morning.  We opted to learn the actual results via the reports they send to our respective abodes.  It’s kind of hard to hear how your son is declining, especially when you really … Continue reading

Posted in Whimsical | Tagged | 1 Comment

Eye See You [Update: We’re OUT!]

Long story short –we’re stuck here for another night.

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Sleep? We Don’t Need No Stinkin’ Sleep!

So, Jefe did not sleep very well last night.  After a day of not eating much but a few bites of avocado and yogurt, and a day of being knocked out by either episodes or anesthesia, he had a very … Continue reading

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Day 3 Update and Review So Far

First of all, Armand made it through the surgery today just fine.  No complications as of yet, and he came out of anesthesia better and more calm than he’s ever done before.  However, overall it’s taking longer (he’s still not … Continue reading

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Quilting done…on to Binding

I stopped while I was quilting last night to grab a picture. I’ve been meaning to mention how much I’m LOVING my walking foot – it has made all the difference when quilting to keep my fabric from puckering. Wow, something so small can have a huge impact!!

Walking foot

You can see in the picture that I’ve marked my quilting with pencil lines – no worries it’s water soluble so it’ll come out in the wash; actually some of the first lines I marked are barely noticeable now. I used the blue Clover Water Soluble Pencil.

Clover pencils

I finished up the quilting this morning by adding a few rounds of framing stitches on the tangerine border. Next, I laid it out on the floor and squared it up to so it’s ready for binding.

Top from above

Here’s a better shot of the quilting – simple straight lines mimicking the center diamonds, which created their own diamond pattern…pretty cool!

I plan to use the same fabric as the back for binding which will create a contrast on the front but will blend in on the back.

Backing fabric

This is the part I love the most…Binding…it means I’m almost done! I’ll machine bind this quilt; I’ve tried hand binding (once) and didn’t really love it so I’ll stick with the machine. This time I’m going to try stitching the binding through the top – check out this post for a better explanation. Since the binding matches the backing fabric it’ll be a bit more forgiving if I should mess up :-/

It’s been raining all morning and it’s supposed to keep doing that for the rest of the day…so I guess there’s nothing else to do but stay in my sewing room! 🙂

7 thoughts on “Quilting done…on to Binding

  1. This looks so pretty, and your quilting is great – simple but very effective. I yearn for a walking foot – sadly my Elna SU is of a vintage when they didn’t have walking foots (feet??). Not that it doesn’t still perform very well, it does – but I still yearn for a walking foot … 🙂

    1. Thank you! I’ve come to really rely on my walking foot! I have a very old Singer Stylist (40+ years old) and I was able to find a universal walking foot that fits.
      I’m sure you’ve already tried to Google it but just in case you haven’t, I found this link that might have what you need…?? It says it fits Elna SU…Hope it helps 🙂

      Liked by 1 person

      1. Ooooh! Thank you so much for that link, I’m really excited to think that I might be able to get one to fit my Elna! I shall contact Brother dealers here in NZ first to see if any of them have it, and if not I’ll follow up through your link. I’ll let you know how I get on, and thank you again! 🙂

        Liked by 1 person

      2. Thanks to your pointing me in the right direction, I have now located an outlet in NZ which has a suitable universal walking foot on its website. Although they’re presently out of stock, they have offered to order one in for me, and it should be here in about 2 weeks 🙂 Gold star for you, my friend, and thank you again!

        Liked by 1 person

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Abraham Bosse and the mirrors in vista

This painting (or etching, to be precise) may remind you some of the works about Five Senses I just wrote about  (‘just’ should not be read literally here – I thought I would write this posting in the next day, and instead it happened to be in two months; well, it’s still the next posting, technically speaking).

But in any case, it will be a correct interpretation, since it is indeed the Five Senses (and specifically the Sight part), created by Abraham Bosse, the famous French engraver of the 17th century.  In all my metaphorical stories about the links, between different art traditions and schools, the links connecting and juxtaposing different art ‘mirrors’ etc, Bosse for me is not the weakest or the strongest link, but the liveliest one, the most jovial and vital. More even, it would not be more fair to call him a ‘nod’, rather than a ‘link’…. but more on that below:

Even if you know nothing about art history in general, and the history of French art in XVII century specifically, most likely you’ve seen this giant:

This work became embedded in cultural matrix of modern man (often literally, as a front-page of numerous textbooks on philosophy, economics, political sciences (and even urban planning); but the picture is used so widely used that it’s hardly possible to miss it even you don’t study any of these subjects.

Originally it was, in fact, indeed a front page, of the famous volume by Thomas Hobbes, called Leviathan, that was published in 1651 in Amsterdam. The book made quite a splash and quickly made Hobbes one of the most debated philosopher of the time (which in turn made the image very known too). Although the reverse interpretation is also valid: good infoviz never hurts.

By the fact, this Arcimboldinian puzzle is only an upper half of the front page (although its lower part is hardly remembered anyway, a hint to the masters of information visualization – you can look at the full version here, and just in case, I am also placing here both the portrait of Hobbs and the front page of the book).

The drawing is very complex and powerful, there are about 200 people, together composing the entire giant figure:

All that is very interesting, but serves only as a preface to my story today. The giant Leviathan, however mighty, doesn’t have any mirrors, and I am telling this story to only introduce a broader historical context, of the time and place. To add few more fact & figures, I need to mention some basic bio-data, like the birth & death of the master (1602 – 1676); which also reveals that the Leviathan is a relatively late work of Bosse. It’s wise, perhaps, to start from his earlier works first, and move to the mirrors later.

Abraham Bosse was born in France, but his parents moved there from Germany, and it explains his relatively unFrench name.  His father was a tailor, and that fact is often cited as an explanation of the abundance of beautiful, yet very accurately depicted dresses in the etchings and drawings of his son.

Abraham Bosse – A woman standing, dressed in black, pointing to the linen chest in which she is about to put a richly embroidered dress

Abraham Bosse – Valet de chambre

These etchings also show that Bosse was more an illustrator than a painter. He made an enormous amount of book illustrations, and even his ‘true’ art works often resemble what we would call today ‘information visualization’. But in any case, these are still examples of his late works.

He begun his studies in the workshop of French engraver Melchior Tavernier – who was quite famous in his time, but now known more as the “teacher of Abraham Bosse”.  Tavernier was known for his maps and plans; for example, it was him who created the very first bird-view maps of Paris, in 1630:

Those who have been to Paris can not resist a smile, seeing how tiny the ‘Capital of Europe’ was by then (today it’s a tiny fraction of an average tourist tour around the city.)

But I show this image also because it can help us to better understand the way Bosse was constructing the perspective of his own works later. The ‘bird-eye’ plans are not simply the views from a certain altitude (as the name suggests). To create a really interesting plan, the painter must slightly bend the space, somewhat similar to the way it was deformed in the recent movie Inception.

Not so mind-blowing, yet quite useful application of this projection was lately shown by the London-based design agency Berg that developed 3D maps of Manhattan called Here & There:

Tavernier’s (and later Bosse’s) panoramas are not that spectacular, but they follow the similar principles, of distorting the perspective to provide a more interesting and – surprisingly! – more realistic view on large panoramic landscapes.

As often happens, Bosse’s first works were copies, or versions of the existing maps and charts. Here, for examples, is the plan of the battle at the Pass de Suse (Combat du Pas de Suse, 1629), a copy of the maps by Tavernier himself:

But this very characteristic, bird-eye perspective will be appearing in his own works, too, for example, in various battle scenes, or depictions of the court life.

Abraham Bosse – Siege of La Rochelle, in September 1627 (1631)

Abraham Bosse – Siege of Saint Martin on the Ile de Ré July-November 1627 (1631)

Abraham Bosse – Princes and princesses look at the Dauphin (Luis XIII) on the lap of ‘France’ (1645)

Abraham Bosse –  Fortuna endows the French, while the Spaniards implore her aid (1640)

Interestingly, but these etching also have mirrors, small hand-held ones, attached to the belt of the ladies:

There is a feeling that Bosse’s ‘point of observation’ is somewhat near the ceiling, and the perspective is not exactly linear, but follows a more complex topology:

I am also using this image to show that Bosse was producing not only black and white etchings, but the colorful plates too. My guess that they were colored manually, but I wouldn’t bet on it, they were very inventive and could have developed a way to produce colored copies by a press.

Now, back to the starting point, the the Five Senses series. Here are few sheets, produced circa 1645, each representing a certain ‘sense’:

and Touch (1645):

These works also show another very typical feature of the Bosse’s works, they are always filled with all sort of small details, of clothes, furniture, interiors, and what not, all that we now call ‘material culture’. A collection of his engravings is a priceless source of information about life and activities of people in his time, a treasure for any cultural anthropologist. And these are not only the live of rich nobility, the elite of the society, later in his carrier Bosse began presenting the life of the commons, too.

Here is a sheet on Sight, a color version of the one I’ve shown earlier:

Unfortunately, I have only a reproduction of a poor quality of this work, that doesn’t show the second mirror, on a wall (you can see this mirror much better on the black & white version). But it’s there on a color version as well, as shown by simple solarization of the picture:

I think that in case of Bosse the Five Senses motif was yet another way to indulge in what he was best at – depiction of very nuanced scenes of everyday life of the Parisians.  He created – literally! – thousands of such sheets during his life, a true visual ethnographer.

For me his work is also a treasure, since they show the way mirrors were used in everyday life at that time, where they’ve been placed in the houses, and to some extent what were the beliefs about the mirrors in the society.

I found a few examples of the Bosse’s works where he depict mirrors. The majority of them are ‘just’ mirrors, interior details of household not loaded with any symbolic meaning (although I also found a few that may have more complex meaning).

For examples, here is the scene of a soon-to-be-mother visited by her companions:

The bride lying in a canopy bed, talking with women while two children are playing on the floor; room with tapestries on the walls and carved fireplace” – this is an official title of the etching, today we would say that it sounds like the fieldnotes of an ethnographic expedition. I am not sure this was the title given by Bosse himself; he often used much shorter titles, understandable to his contemporary viewers without lengthy explanations.

However, what’s interesting to note is that many of his sheets also have long verses, not so much explaining but rather moralistically commenting on the depicted scenes.  I don’t know French well enough to full understand them, but my first quick reading didn’t reveal that any of these verses ever comment on the mirrors.

Here is the fragment showing this wall mirror:

Below is another sheet, showing already a real mom; the French title of the work is La Visite à l’accouchée, and one of the meaning of ‘l’accouchée’ is exactly ‘a young mother’. One of the maids (?) or friends(??) holds a baby:

There is also a mirror here, and in this (rare for Bosse) case we do see a reflection. But it’s only purpose seems to be making sure that we understand that this is a mirror (and not a painting, for example):

I am curious about a few things about this mirror:

– The dots along the frame.

They seem to be located on the mirror surface, but I don’t know how they are made. Are they just dots of paints? or special engravings (?) on glass? Was their purpose merely decorative, or they have a special meaning?

– The ribbon knot on the top of the frame.

Again, was it there to merely add an element of decoration (and/or hide the knob)? Or was it the trace of an earlier tradition to hide mirrors with curtain(s) of some sort?

– Finally, the very function of this mirror:

We don’t see any table (toilette) nearby the mirror (it’s particularly clear on the first etching), so it’s not the mirror for making make-up. One can assume that this is the mirror to simply look at yourself in the morning, or may be to check if everything is right with the dress. But the presence of the mirror near the bed is also strikingly similar to the placement of many ‘Arnolfini-like non-mirrors’, that, as I often argue, served to spiritual purposes, rather than the utilitarian ones.

There is also a very interesting (not to say, quite macabre) tapestry on the wall, depicting the scene of delivery by a certain goddess (?) or nymph; from how the process goes, we can conclude that it’s the Caesarean section. I was surprised to see it depicted so early, to my knowledge, the operations of this sort began much later, in the end of the 19th century (as the name suggest, the procedure was known from the ancient times, though the mother inevitably died after such section.)

Few more etchings with the mirrors:

The scene of a family meal (1630):

And here is the same scenes, but flipped horizontally (the way of printing the etchings easily allowed for such inversions):

Here again  we could see this mirror merely as the object of interior, however, it may also have some correlation with the topic (Virility, and subsequent multiple offsprings).

Here we, perhaps, see the moment of making this meal – the title, L’Hyver (Winter), suggests that it could be one of the special seasonal dishes (e.g., special pancakes).

Notice that the mirror here is actually used, the lady does look at it:

But I would also like to say that the mirrors are not automatically in very picture, we see many etchings where they are not, like in this one (Caring for a baby):

Some sheets show not only inner life of the families, but their interaction with other agents, like in this case, a visit of shoemakers to the house:

May be the second guy is a tailor but he could well be an assistant, who is to measure the foot size; in any case, we see here the table mirror, surrounded by some artifact that all indicate that this mirror is used for a make-up:

Bosse has a few etchings showing various medical procedures – here, for examples, a doctor conducts bloodletting:

and here prepares enema (or clyster):

In both cases we see the mirrors on the wall near the bed, similar to what we saw in the previous works, although the frame in the second case is more complex, octagonal.

I also found a couple of etchings with more allegorical meaning, and with references to the Bible. Here, for instance, the so called Foolish Virgins, the sinful part from the Parable of Ten Virgins.  One of these foolish virgins is looking at the mirror – which indicates that mirrors still sustained their negative connotations at this time.

Moreover, the mirror here borders with a very explicit painting depicting, perhaps, Danaë who is being lit (fertilized?) – not by rain, but by sunbeams, in this case.

There is another etching on Biblical motif, the so called Parable of Rich man and Lazarus.

The very visibly Rich Man is surrounded by his companions,  and they all have a meal, in the room with a mirror in a wall. This may simply indicate that mirrors were still an expensive item, but can also hint to their somewhat sinful meaning (a symbol of Vanity, perhaps).

I also found few more sheets where the mirrors are placed in a very unusual context, that I never encountered earlier. Here we see the school for girls, supervised by its mistress (La Maîstresse d’Ecole). What is interesting here, is that this space is public, not private, and yet we see the mirror here too.

I found a version of this work, flipped and slightly reduced, but still with the mirror.

The mirror is very simple, and it doesn’t reflect anything; it’s meaning in this scene is not clear, either.  It’s obviously not for making make-up or smartening up, more likely it has some surveillance/supervision (and it’s placed not far from a very indicative scene of the Crucifixion):

Later Bosse made another etching, reusing the earlier ‘Girls’ School’; in this case it’s Reformed School, and my understanding that it’s mixed school, both for boys and girls (Bosse was the Huguenot, though he managed to live relatively conflict-less live in predominately Catholic France, and even made few comission with explicitly Catholic content, e.g., the Masses.)

In this case we actually see two mirrors on one etching, one on the boys’ side, and one on the girls’ one:

The next work can be seen as simply as A Woman at the Mirror, but could be also interpreted as the Sight, thus belonging to yet another series of the Five Senses.

In any case, what is interesting is the presence of two mirrors, a larger table one, and a smaller hand-held mirror:

The following etching is clearly defined as La Veve, the Sight (currently ‘la vue’ in French):

Here we see three (!) mirrors in one work, with one having the woman’s head reflected in it:

What we see in all these examples is a very diverse panorama, of both the mirrors themselves, and their use: in the worlds of Bosse mirrors are small and big, they carried, hang on the wall, and stand on tables, and their meaning could also vary widely, depending on the context.

Interesting, but all these mirrors are flat ones, we already don’t see any convex mirrors.  The production of mirrors is still a cumbersome process, and they are expensive, but it’s an established business by now. In fact, thanks to Bosse’s interest to all and every aspect of life, we also see a few works showing the process – if not mirror-, than at least glass-making:

To conclude, a few sheets about the profession that Bosse was intimately familiar with, the work of engravers, and then of printers:

Thanks to Bosse’s attention to details, we can reconstruct many intricate peculiarities with which the printers of that time produced their works:

Finally, the work of a copyist (does he use a sheet of glass?):

and of the painter, who is also using a grid, as an aid to produce more accurate copy, quicker.

Bosse was an interesting figure, not only a painter and engraver, but a theoretician of art and an active teacher. He was invited by Cardinal Mazarin as the founding member of the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture in Paris (Académie royale de peinture et de sculpture), though he was forced to leave it after the death of the Cardinal in 1661, because of the disagreement with this views on art, and on the way to construct a perspective specifically.

Ironically enough, we don’t have his own portrait, neither by him nor by other artist. Most likely they existed, but didn’t survived time.

I started to write about the Five Senses in the previous posting, and finished it with the works of the 17th century (around the time of Bosse, that is).  The theme itself didn’t stop, of course, and I would like to show a few more examples of the later works.

This etching by Pierre-Jean Mariette called La Veiie (Sight) continues the tradition of depicting this sense with mirrors. However, in this case it is unlikely the real mirror in use of the time (beginning of the 18th century), but rather a symbolic reference to ‘a mirror’.

Pierre-Jean Mariette – La Veüe (1710)

Dutch painter Gerard de Lairesse also choses to depict a very archaic convex mirror in this version of the Five Senses:

Gerard de Lairesse – Allegory of the Five Senses (1668)

From the 18th century on the theme lost it popularity, and I find only occasional examples. Here is the group portrait by Philippe Mercier, depicting few optical devices, including the mirror (flat one).

Philippe Mercier – The Sense of Sight (1744)

Much later, but the end of the 19th century Hans Makart, an Austrian painter, will create his impressive Fünf Sinne, returning to the older tradition to depict the senses as human person (we saw this approach earlier, in the works of Hendrik Goltzius and others.)  The Sight/Vision of Makart holds a mirror, but also very old, almost archaic for the time when the series was created.

Hans Makart  – Die Die fünf Sinne (The Five Senses)  (1876)

Today the subject of Five Senses is very rare; our understanding of human sensorial capacities makes the Five Big Ones a gross simplification. This theme appears more like a remake of some old works, like in the case of Kevin Best who specialized in this genre:

Kevin Best – Allegory of Five Senses (2009)

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Tuesday, October 18, 2011

Envisioning Doha skyline as Emerald City backdrop.© Sue Pownall 2011
 The day after I returned to Doha I ended up at the welcome night of the Doha Players, the local theatre group. Somehow, I ended up volunteering to be involved in the set building for their upcoming Wizard of Oz (WoOZ), and better have been engaged to translate the director's and build team's ideas for the sets into workable designs. Sue Pownall- Artist, illustrator and set designer??? Unfortunately not as I am leaving Qatar tomorrow.

Waiting to audition © Sue Pownall 2011
My A3 sketch pad.
Anyway, my first task was to turn up to the auditions to view the space we would be working with. By coincidence the next day, Cathy Gatland, A sketch in time,  posted a lovely sketch of children rehearsing. Inspired I decided to see if I could produce something similar.

First off I drew the stage, and then concentrated on the groups of children sitting, standing,and singing. Considering how much children move about, I am very pleased with the results.

Then, the following week, I had to produce the first, and as it turned out last, set idea, which was for theEmerald City backdrop. I would like to have done more, and seen the project through, but life has other plans for me. Keeping me focused on drawing perhaps?
Auditions © Sue Pownall 2011

btw the sketches were done in pencil and the set with coloured inks and ink pen.


text:
Hugh Jackman Returning to Broadway in ‘The River’

Hugh Jackman at the Tonys in 2012.Credit Sara Krulwich/The New York Times

Hugh Jackman, who has become one of the theater world’s most lucrative draws, will return to Broadway next season starring in Jez Butterworth’s play “The River,” the producers and Mr. Jackman said on Friday.

“The River,” a spiritually searching drama about a trout-loving loner in a remote cabin and two of the women in his life, was a critically acclaimed hit in its premiere at the Royal Court Theater in London in 2012. It was Mr. Butterworth’s first new play since “Jerusalem,” another much-praised work that ran on Broadway in 2011 starring Mark Rylance, who won a Tony Award for his performance. Ian Rickson (who directed “Jersualem”) will stage the 80-minute “River,” as he did in London. The play is expected to begin performances on Broadway in early 2015.

Many theater producers consider Mr. Jackman to be a box office prize, because his popularity – he is best known as Wolverine in the X-Men action movies – has allowed them to charge exorbitant prices for tickets, up to $350. In his last outing on Broadway Mr. Jackman, who recently quit a long-gestating musical project called “Houdini” (citing his schedule), brought in a total of $14.6 million over 10 weeks for his concert performance in late 2011, which sold many $350 tickets over the busy holiday season. Prior to that, he and Daniel Craig starred in the Broadway play “A Steady Rain” in 2009, grossing $15.2 million over 13 weeks. By contrast, in his Broadway debut in the musical “The Boy From Oz” in 2003, when premium pricing strategy hadn’t been perfected and Mr. Jackman wasn’t as famous, the show grossed less per week than his later Broadway outings, for a total of $42.7 million over 51 weeks. Mr. Jackman won a Tony for “Boy From Oz.”

“The River” will be mounted on Broadway by Sonia Friedman Productions and the Royal Court. The New York Post first reported the news about the Broadway production. Mr. Jackman also tweeted about the news on Friday morning. No theater or other casting has been disclosed.


text:
as de espadas
torero con estoque

Pep: "There was a fuss every time I left Messi on the bench"

The ex-Barcelona coach told autopista.es: "If you can’t motivate your players anymore, you know the time has come to leave."

Pep: "There was a fuss every time I left Messi on the bench" Ampliar
Bayern Munich coach Pep Guardiola. | DIARIO AS (DIARIO AS)

Pep Guardiola has looked back on his time as coach of Barcelona, discussing the reasons behind his departure from the Camp Nou in 2012.

In an interview with autopista.es, the current Bayern Munich boss also talked about his summer appointment at the Allianz Arena.

Winning is easy: “When the season ends, no coach or player can guarantee success. And there’s no magic formula to winning. If there were one, football would be as simple as going shopping at a big shopping centre: you simply go and pick what you like most. Where would the challenge or excitement be in that? I didn’t win the European Cup immediately. I started my career at Gimnàstic de Manresa, a regional team in Catalonia.”

Low points at Barça: “There were a lot of sad moments. When Barcelona lost to Chelsea in the 2012 Champions League semi-finals – that was one of them. We were much better than our opponent, but we conceded a needless goal in the second leg and, before we knew it, we were out. That was a big defeat for me. I felt as if I couldn’t lift my team again.”

Departure from Barça: “If you can’t motivate your players anymore, as a coach, you know the time has come to leave.”

Demands placed on a coach: “Leading a team requires tonnes of energy. In other words, there are times when you need to recharge your batteries. That’s what I did when I took a sabbatical in New York. That was very important for me, for my family and also for my previous team.”

Racking up silverware at Barcelona: “We were incredibly successful. 14 trophies in just four years; it was the best period in the club’s history. But that can also be a burden. I progressively encountered more difficulties in motivating myself and the team. I had won everything with Barça, both as a player and as a coach. And I realized that it was getting more and more difficult for the team.”

Appointment at Bayern: “My first contact with Bayern Munich was at the Audi Cup in 2011. I had an espresso in the VIP Lounge and spoke to Karl-Heinz Rummenigge and Uli Hoeness about my plans for the future. At that time, Bayern’s current success couldn’t be foreseen. But, for me, the challenge is simply to coach a new team and continue the achievements of my predecessor, Jupp Heynckes.”

Handling a team full of stars: “With a lot of stars in the line-up, like we have now at Bayern Munich or at my previous team, Barcelona, you can encounter situations in which having so many can be destructive. Everyone wants to play, but you can only put out 11 players on the pitch at any one time. The players I leave on the bench are likely to be the ones who won’t be happy with my decision. And there’s the pressure from the press and the fans of having to pick certain players. Every time I left Messi on the bench, for example, there was a fuss.”

Estadísticas AS.com


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Used Books & Hidden Treasures.

I recently ventured to a local used book shop to stock up on books as I wait for my little prince to make his grand entrance. The days are longer now, filled with longing and impatience. Reading is helping to pass the time and occupy my mind.

This year I set a goal to read 12 books. One book a month. It’s June and I’m halfway through book 11.

My “pregnancy brain” is getting a good work out and my vocabulary is improving. When I write, I notice new words popping-up to wow me. I smile, pleasantly surprised, and grow a little taller in my chair.

At the book shop, I picked out four memoirs to further study The Art of Memoir (book 8 by Mary Karr). I’m traveling down the non-fiction road, writing my own path, and plotting along the way.

Book 11, A Tiger in the Kitchen: A Memoir of Food and Family by Cheryl Lu-Lien Tan, was one of the purchases I casually flipped through and decided to take home.

As I opened it to read, I discovered an inscription from the author: For Ariane – Hope you enjoy my little story…bon appetite! Cheryl Tan June 3, 2011.

This is what I love about used books. There’s always hidden treasures inside.

In book 3, Eat to Live by Joel Fuhrman, M.D., I found a green juice recipe on the back of a piece of paper torn from the “Daily Teachings” of The Secret. This page is Sunday, Day 70, and has a quote from Buddha on it: “If a man’s mind becomes pure, his surroundings will also become pure.”

The recipe, titled “Juice,” is written and underlined in black ink with the following ingredients listed below:

1 bunch Kale

4 stalks Celery

1 Cuke

2 Granny Smith Apples

½ Lemon

Ginger Root

Each ingredient (including the title) is highlighted. I don’t know what the purpose of this is. Is it a way of checking off each ingredient as she purchased it? Why is the title highlighted? Was it just for fun? A way of showing enthusiasm for health?

And in the last book I read (book 10), The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon, I found a ticket to Cass Park Aquatics Center dated July 28, 2009. The phrases, “GOOD ONLY FOR DAY ISSUED” and “SWIM AT YOUR OWN RISK” stood out in bold letters.

The warning to “swim at your own risk” screamed at me. I was reading a book of mystery at the time. Everything seems risky when you’re looking for the answers to who done it.

I wonder if the person who went into the aquatics center felt risky or if they ignored the blaring words on a ticket they might have purchased numerous times before. Maybe, he/she is an avid swimmer. However, the ticket in the book would indicate he or she sat on the sidelines reading and faintly watching the water fun. After all, the ticket did make for a good book mark.

I’ll never know for sure. But I love these little clues to the book’s previous lives. The hands that held them and took them along their travels.

I have books with notes in them. Lines that are highlighted or underlined, help me peer into other minds and wonder, what were they looking for?

Lines marked to remember, remind me to remember. The words, the books, the hands and minds that connect us. The people who loved and let go. My finger prints on theirs. I become a part of their journey.

And here you are, passing along the words.

The journey continues…

Author: AshleyKagaoan

Ashley Kagaoan is a wife, mother, writer, & yogi. She resides in Southern California with her family. Ashley writes poetry and self-help messages. She is currently studying to become a certified health coach through the Institute of Integrative Nutrition.


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Sunday, October 26, 2014

Happy Birthday Daddy

October 26 was my Daddy's birthday.  I have been going through
old albums and found photos of him I don't remember because I was
too young.  He lead such a fascinating life.  He was was the
president of a major international corporation and was fortunate enough
to travel first class around the world many, many times.

He travelled extensively for three decades to every sophisticated and
exotic location one could imagine.  How times have changed!  In
almost every photo, someone is smoking a cigarette.  It was the
era of James Bond.

These are some of my favorite pics of Daddy.  Daddy and one of his
business associates ~ Harold "Hutch" Hutchison often had dinner at this
restaurant in Paris ~ La Table du Roy.  Chef Georges was quite a sociable
chef and loved it when Daddy and Hutch came to visit.  They were both
treated like royalty and each were given a 10% discount on their tab for life!

They put a mustache and goat tee on Daddy in this pic.
Apparently Chef Georges loved to treat his regulars like "royalty";-)

Here is Daddy in Baghdad.  He actually did quite a bit of business
there.  His company manufactured farm machinery and heavy duty trucks
that were used in the vast agricultural areas of Iraq.  Fertile crescent you know.
That's Daddy down on the far right.  He's the one who looks like
President Eisenhower.

Daddy really enjoyed spending time in Iraq because of all the ancient
history and artifacts there.  We often had long discussions about the
ancient Sumerian civilization.  He was fascinated by ancient history.
How the world has changed since his day.

Here he is in Beruit.

And in Rome.

Visting a coffee plantation in Columbia.

He was on the board of directors of the International Road Federation
in Washington, DC

And when he retired from international business, he went on to
teach international business at the graduate school level.

And when he wasn't busy with that ~ he was a great husband to my
Mom and a great Daddy to me.

Cheers Daddy ~ to a life well lived!
Thanks for indulging my memories of him today.

Big Texas Hugs,
Susan and Bentley

  1. Awww .... how lucky you are to have had such a wonderful man as your daddy.

  2. What a worldly, sophisticated man to call Daddy! You were a very lucky little girl to have him.

    1. Although he was worldly and always sophisticated, he was always ready to be a good Daddy to a little girl. That means taking me along to the lumber yard to help with projects and telling the most amazing bed time stories. He was wonderful in every way and I was so blessed to have him as a Daddy. I don't think I will ever fill his shoes.

  3. Thanks for sharing the wonderful memories of your father. I'm glad he was able to travel and enjoy the amazing history of different cultures around the world in what seems better times. It sounds like he was a great father. Hugs.

  4. Those are wonderful pictures you have of your Dad on his adventures. To document them is terrific. We miss our Daddy's, or should I say we missed being Daddy's little girls. Thanks for sharing.

  5. Happy birthday to your daddy. Mine had a very similar job and traveled all over the world. My mom often accompanied him. I miss my daddy too. xo Laura

Bentley and I LOVE and read every comment.

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text:
Wednesday, December 7, 2016

Last Day of the Cozy at Christmas Tour

This is the last day of the Cozy at Christmas Blog Tour.
It has been so much fun visiting the homes of our friends.
Everyone has a decorating style that is uniquely their own,
yet each home is filled with cozy Christmas cheer.

Bentley and I have finished decorating the tree in the family
room and we are now beginning to start decorating the tree and
the mantel in the living room.  Bentley is so sweet, he follows
me from room to room as I gather the decorations and I talk to
him while I am hanging the ornaments on the tree.  Sometimes
he is interested, but often he's not all that interested in what
I am saying and he curls up and goes to sleep.

We will be sharing more with you in the days ahead, but in the
meantime, please stop by and visit our friends on today's tour:

I hope y'all have enjoyed this tour as much as I have!

Big Texas Hugs,
Susan and Bentley

  1. LOL- I am kind of laughing about Bentley not being interested in what you are saying. lol I thought--hmmm- Typical male.

    Love your style, Susan. It is warm and homey and welcoming. Beautiful. I bet people coming in to your home feel right at ease immediately. xo Diana

  2. Your tree looks so pretty and this little spot looks so cozy!

  3. Love your ornaments Susan! How fun to have Bentley follow you around. This has been such a fun tour. I have a few more to visit.

Bentley and I LOVE and read every comment.

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text:
The Longest Hour in Heathrow

With only one hour to make our connecting flight at Heathrow, we knew we were cutting it short. At the time we booked, it seemed like a good idea, but now it seems misguided. Even though the plane to Delhi takes off from the same terminal we arrive in, we still have to take a shuttle to the departure gate.. Following the flow, we rush down to the boarding platform. A train sits there, stalled because the doors won’t open. After an interminable wait, it leaves with doors still closed, its passengers trapped. Another interminable wait of at least 15 minutes….

Even though the Gate is well in walking distance, its mandatory to take the shuttle. A yellow “help line” phone makes its presence known; Gerard dials just as a train is finally arriving. “You have to go through security check before boarding the train,” we’re told. So we run back up the escalator and find security. First Gerard is patted down thoroughly; then my back pack is removed from the conveyor belt. A zombie in the guise of a security checker proceeds to methodically remove every item from my back pack and like a jeweler testing the validity of a precious diamond, holds each item close to the thick lenses of his round wire glasses for cross examination. The clock is ticking – we now have half an hour till take off.. You’ll make your flight he tells me, while taking even longer to empty my pack as if to test my confidence in his word. It’s not appreciated. The inevitably of spending the night – and maybe longer – in Heathrow airport is becoming ever more real.

This year we bought new lighter – but yet smaller – suitcases. I compensated with a larger back pack. I watch in desperate fascination at how much I had managed to stuff into the bag and that he is now pulling out item by item at the speed of a sleep walker. I want to wrench the bag from him, stuff everything back in and make a dash for it. Short and skinny, he seems a push over; I could easily wrestle him to the ground – but. what if he calls for reinforcement?

Finally he sends my now empty bag back through the xray machine, along with my various potions and lotions that I had failed to bag according to aviation regulations – and hands everything back to me. With adrenaline pumping in overdrive, we dash back to the train platform. Again we wait and wait… I dial the yellow help phone again and shout at the operator, Call Gate C6 – tell them we’re coming and to hold the flight. It is now barely 15 minutes to take off. She assures us a train is coming…and within minutes it does. We run from the train to an elevator, picking up another frantic passenger on the way – and with a few wrong turns finally to the gate.

 Everyone has boarded. A line of idle desk attendants greets us as we cross the finishing line – no cheering – but I don’t care; their professional smiles are just as welcome. The nearest attendant inspects our boarding passes and waves us on as she announces over the loudspeaker, Gate C6 for Flight 2430 is now closed. Sighing with relief, I feel my body physically deflating as the adrenaline escapes like gas from a hot air balloon – I can finally relax.  It has been a LONG hour…

One thought on “The Longest Hour in Heathrow

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Home > Aspen installation > Welcome to my blog

Welcome to my blog

My name is John Uczekaj and I’m the CEO of Aspen Avionics.  I invite you to follow my blog as I talk about my Aspen System installation experience.

Categories: Aspen installation
  1. Tom
    March 14, 2010 at 12:15 am

    Flying now with my new PFD 1000 for about 2 months, I am looking to find new panel real estate… and remind myself the Aspen allows removal of the VSI and Turn Coordinator/rate of turn (with Century 2000 vacuum driven AP).

    What is the experience flying without the VSI or Turn Coordinator steam gauges as backup?

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BizTalk360 Managed Services can be used by anyone who needs to manage BizTalk environments remotely. This can be consulting companies who provide BizTalk support or companies that have offices in multiple locations and needs to remotely login for supporting BizTalk on an adhoc basis. Currently based on the Customer, the remote mechanism is via VPN, Citrix or in some cases there is no option to remote access at all and the support can only be provided by physical presence to the customer site.

With VPN/Citrix access, one of the biggest challenge is the consultants needs to be aware of the various techniques and also have his VPN version properly configured/set up. Let’s assume a scenario where Partner #1 has three customers (ACME, Contoso, and Northwind) running BizTalk server in their corresponding on-premise environments. As you can imagine, Partner #1 has to maintain different versions of VPN/Citrix as per the customer's configuration/set up and keep upgrading as and when the customer changes their configuration.

BizTalk360 Managed Services feature solves this problem seamlessly by providing remote access to various customer site from a central portal in safe way with very little configuration. The only requirement is to have internet connectivity on the server where BizTalk360 (7.1 or above) is installed in the on-premise customer environment. BizTalk360 uses Windows Azure Service Bus Relay and Windows Azure Active Directory to make this possible.

All a partner consultant needs to remember is the user credentials of the BizTalk360 managed services portal and once logged into the portal, he can remotely log in to any customer sites that he has access to with a click of a button.