The Worst Jobs in History

I've ended up with a slight cold yesterday and I'm slightly better today.

All I've been capable of doing is watching the telly. I stumbled
across The Worst Jobs in History on the History Channel. It's a series
hosted by a chap named Tony Robinson and what an interesting program!

The Worst Jobs in History

Did you know...

Lances for joust tournaments had to be made to shatter when you hit an opponent?
Falconers not only had to carry multiple birds to the hunt, had to
follow on foot (not horse back) and had to retrieve the birds no
matter where they went?
Boot boys had to make their own blacking paste that contained sulphur
and they cleaned everything from party shoes to hunting party boots
round the clock?
The Romans held the patent on the making of purple and all
purplemakers were wiped out in the Siege of Constantinople 1453-ish?

I heard this song on the way home from me mum's house last night. When the guy on the radio described this video, he said that Bob Dylan looks like Tom Petty's Aunt.

I think he looks like the love child of Tiny Tim and Alice Cooper.

It Must be Santa

Psychedelic Psaturday

For whatever reason, I decided to search for Brian Jones playing the sitar on YouTube today. I liked the early Stones - the Brian Jones era. To me, the epitome of 60's cool is seeing some white cat playing sitar in a rock band. I dig that sound. I ran across this ditty with Keith Richards wearing super nerd glasses. Not sure why he didn't pursue that look. Keith, can you help me with my algebra homework?

Keith can you help me with my algebra homework?

One of my favorite songs - Paint it Black. Looks like Keith lost the super nerd specs. How cool can it get? Brian Jones sitting cross legged on a chunk of plastic on some TV show playing sitar. Get Mick out of the way and let the musician play. Funny comment below about white cats playing sitar. Chuckles.

White cats can play ( and wear white too I suppose)

Blood of my Blood

Strange drive to work yesterday (Monday) morning. I'd just taken the prior week off for vacation (caught a cold half way through). Even though it was only a quarter after seven, the traffic was pretty bad. The area is still reeling from horrible tanker explosion on I-465:
http://www.theindychannel.com/news/21391396/detail.html

No one was killed. Death took the day off.

Driving in to work (very slowly - rerouted traffic) I got to hear part of Orson Wells' Mercury Theater production of Dracula on the radio.
http://www.strangehorizons.com/reviews/2005/11/orson_welless_d.shtml

Ancient Mongolian Competition Ties Past To Present

I head the horse race part of this on the way to work one morning.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=112514153

Marble Hill

During a conversation at work the other day, the subject of Marble Hill came up. Marble Hill - the lovely nuclear power plant project in Marble Hill, Indiana that started construction in the early 70's and went grossly over budget due to things like attempts to make the shoddy construction of the containment walls safe. Say that out loud.

I actually worked with a girl, years ago, who had been an admin at Marble Hill before it was closed down.



Has anyone thought about making this story into a movie? I can picture 70's era Bloomington IU campus students providing some of the protesters. A nuclear power plant out in the sticks.

http://www.abandonedonline.net/index.php?catid=179

Not your mother's prosthetic devices.

I was going through some old magazines and came across old pictures of Aimee Mullins. She had both legs removed from knee down at the age of 1. She was a collage athlete and a model, among other things. Pretty inspiring stuff.

I got to thinking - I wonder what ever became of her.

http://www.ted.com/talks/aimee_mullins_prosthetic_aesthetics.html

Worn out like an old coffin pillow

Yawn. The next two episodes of the first season of True Blood (yes, I'm behind) just fell flat for me. Mr. Ball gave us these wonderful, complex characters in Six Feet Under. We got to peek behind the curtain at a funeral home. I delivered papers as a kid and one of the houses happened to be a funeral home. I always wondered what happened inside...

In episodes 1 and 2 we saw Sookie attracted to a seemingly laid back civil war era vampire. In episodes 3 and 4 we see a vampire who clearly used to hang out in the vamp bars and he can also drive a car. Where did he get those glad rags? Bill used his vampire ways to subdue a cop. Jeeezzz. TB seems to rely heavily on Southern stereotypes for human characters and vampire characters. Bill seems to be glowering in every scene. Yawn. Yes, the series is based on a book, but show me something I don't already know about the South and undead.

Having said (typed) all that - I've added DVD 1 of Season 1 Six Feet Under to the top of my Netflix queue. I want to see some worthwhile Alan Ball material.

Sucked In

After noticing a few blogs that mentioned an HBO series called True Blood I had to do some research. When saw the opening title sequence on YouTube, I knew I had add it to my Netflix queue - pronto. The series 1 DVD contained 2 episodes. I truly wanted to hate it. Knowing how much I loved Alan Ball's Six Feet Under I wondered what would he do with Southern vampires.

I'm pretty picky about my vampires. I don't care for Buffy the Vampire Slayer, I have no desire to watch anything related to the Twilight thing, and I didn't really care for Ann Rice's contribution either.

The first two episodes of TB remind of the aliens-among-us series V. Just like the vampires in TB, the aliens in V had became part of society but faced discrimination from some Earthlings as well as acceptance by others. There was a bit of alien dating as well.

I must say Bill is everything a vampire should be. Up till now, Gary Oldman in Bram Stoker's Dracula was at the top of my vampire list. Bill is a really close 2nd. Even though he's British, he really handles that Southern gentleman accent. He looks like he could've been in the civil war. He acts as if the weight of existing almost 200 yrs is more than just a little unbearable. He's not just pale; he's down right cadaver grey. Hats off to makeup. That tiny bit of red around the eyes is like icing on the cake. I must confess that I went back and watched the scenes with just Bill and Sookie. Wow. What is with the attractiveness of the undead?

Home on the Range

I met Randy Polumbo and Shari Elf at the Good Folk Fest in 2006. There were freakishly attractive and amazingly tan. This is an article in the NY Times about Randy's Trash House in Joshua Tree, CA.

La Santa Muerte

I saw La Santa Muerte this past weekend. It is a documentary that mostly focuses on the devotees who visit the town of Tepito and its rather large alter of the Most Holy Death. She brings hope to the poor, the sick, and those rejected by society. Magazines like Time would have you believe only folks involved in drugs, kidnappings, and homicides worship her. That is not the message I got from this movie. Gael Garcia Bernal narrates.

Talbot Street Art Fair and INDIEana Handicraft Exchange

Saturday was the day one of Hector del Campo's Experimental Drawing class.

I was able to catch the Talbot Street Art Fair and the INDIEana Handicraft Exchange summer show at Harrison Center for the Arts. As always, parking looked like it was not going to happen, but just when I'm ready to give up (I believe I did at least 5 laps around the block), someone pulls out.

I bought a necklace at Talbot and a small mixed media piece at IHE.

Talbot Street and Indieana and First day of class

Yesterday was day one for Hector del Campo's Experimental drawing class.

I was able to get to the Talbot Street Art Fair and the INDIEana Handicraft Exchange

Forrest Goya

Last weekend I saw Goya's Ghost. Stellan Skarsgard as Goya and Javier Boredem as Brother Larenzo, a member of the waning Spanish Inquisition team. Times are changing, just not soon enough. Goya ends up being a bit Forrest Gumpish in that he's at key moments in history and mostly likely doesn't realize it. Brother Larenzo is having his picture painted by Goya, which requires several visits to the studio. When the SI gang try to claim that Goya is distributing damaging caricatures of the church; Brother Larenzo defends him. When the SI gang go on to claim that Goya is painting whores as angels in his church ceiling work; Larzeno convinces them that the church's mission should be to help those very whores. When the SI gang claims that a young daughter of a fairly wealthy merchant, who also had her portrait painted by Goya, is a heretic because she is seen turning her nose up at pork, Larenzo is powerless to help.

There are a few scenes of Goya sketching in his moleskine that are really cool.

Javier made this movie right before No Country for Old Men and I really prefer to see him in this kind of role. He appears to have just walked off of a canvas and onto the movie set.

Finally made it to First Friday!

I had to take time off of work, but it was worth it. I bought a Mike Altman painting on vintage vinyl from AV Framing Gallery. I'm getting it framed at MultiMedia art supply in Broad Ripple.