Culture, The Arts, beautiful things: only.

[Harvey]

And a colour study of my model for the green man painting.

Gordon.jpg

[Cordelia]

^^^ and page 4

Gorgeous work--Thanks Harvey!

[Grizzly]

Nice work Harvey!

[Grizzly]

Chinese satellite captures stunning backside image of the Moon with Earth
https://digitalindiapreview.com/chinese-satellite-captures-stunning-backside-image-of-the-moon-with-earth/

[Harvey]

Thanks Cordelia, Grizzly. I Loved those watercolours by Tapiro, Cordelia. He stands out among his peers (the 'Orientalist' school) for the quiet dignity and tenderness in his work. (And exceptional technical ability.)

[Cordelia]

Thanks Cordelia, Grizzly. I Loved those watercolours by Tapiro, Cordelia. He stands out among his peers (the 'Orientalist' school) for the quiet dignity and tenderness in his work. (And exceptional technical ability.)

You're welcome, Harvey--this brought to mind Julia Margaret Cameron's 19th Century photographs; some of my favorites include her portraits of Tennyson, Virginia Woolf, Ellen Terry, Henry Taylor, and others.........

[Grizzly]

Martin Luther King, speaking at the June 27, 1956 annual meeting of the NAACP:

There are certain words in the technical vocabulary of every academic discipline that tend after a while to become stereotype and cliches, there is a word in modern psychology which is now probably more familiar than any other words in psychology. It is the word the maladjusted; it is the ringing cry of the new child, psychology -- maladjusted.

And as a minister seeing and counseling with people very day concerning their problems and their maladjustment's, I'm certainly concerned with those who are maladjusted, concerned to see everybody as adjusted as possible.

But I want to leave this evening saying to you that there are some things in our social system that I'm proud to be maladjusted to, and I call upon you to be maladjusted to. I never intend to adjust myself to the viciousness of lynch mobs; I never intend to become adjusted to the evils of segregation and discrimination; I never intend to become adjusted to the tragic inequalities of the economic system which will take necessity from the masses to give luxury to the classes; I never intend to become adjusted to the insanity's of militarism, the self-defeating method of physical violence.

There are some things that I never intend to become adjusted to, and I call upon you to continue to be maladjusted.

History still has a choice place for the maladjusted. There is still a call for individuals to be maladjusted.

The salvation of our world lies in the hands of the maladjusted.

I call upon you to be maladjusted, maladjusted as the prophet Amos who in the midst of the tragic inequalities of injustice in his day cried out in words that echoes across the generations: ''Let judgment run down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.''

As maladjusted as Lincoln who confronted a nation divided against itself and had the vision to see that the nation could not exist half free, and half slave.

Maladjusted as the -- hundreds and thousands -- of Negroes, North and South who are determined now to stand up for freedom, willing to face possible violence and possible death, who are willing to stand up and sacrifice and struggle until segregation is a dead reality and until integration is a fact.

Maladjusted as Jefferson who in the midst of an age amazingly adjusted to slavery cried out in words of cosmic proportions: ''All men are created equal; they are endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights. Among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.''

I call upon you to follow this maladjustment. It is through such a maladjustment that we will be able to emerge from the bleak and desolate midnight of man's inhumanity to man to the bright and glittering daybreak of freedom, equality and justice.

[Jerky]

I wasn't really sure whether this belonged in the "Music for 2019" topic, or this one about "Culture The Arts and Beautiful Things Only", but seeing as it's a finely crafted music video and part of a larger piece about Jack Parsons, as performed by Primus frontman Les Claypool... I knew it belonged somewhere at Rigorous Intuition. So here's where I put it!



YOPJerky

[Cordelia]

Black Leopard: My quest to photograph the most elusive cat in Africa

Posted by Will on February 11th, 2019

Since childhood I have been fascinated by stories of black panthers. For me, no animal is shrouded in more mystery, no animal more elusive, and no animal more beautiful. For many years they remained the stuff of dreams and of farfetched stories told around the campfire at night. Nobody I knew had ever seen one in the wild and I never thought that I would either. But that didn’t stop me dreaming…

Then, a couple of years ago, photos started emerging of a black leopard in India. It was a cat that had made its territory in the tourist area of Kabini Forest in Karnataka. The leopard was hard to see but some persistent photographers managed to capture images of it that got my pulse racing.

Then, by chance, I was asked to speak at the Nature in Focus Festival in Bangalore last September. I took this opportunity to spend three days searching Kabini Forest for the famous cat. The festival organisers arranged for me to be guided by Giri Cavale, a photographer whose knack for finding the elusive black panther is legendary.

I didn’t have high hopes of seeing it in such a short period of time but as we explored the forest it was thrilling just to know the cat was out there. Then, on the second day, we managed to spot the black leopard crossing the road in front of us! It was far away but I was enthralled and managed to capture the image below. The lucky encounter ignited my imagination and I dreamed more than ever of finding and photographing one of these stunning cats in Africa.

I have never seen a high-quality image of a wild black leopard come out of Africa, even though stories of them being seen are sometimes told… “a friend of a friend saw a black leopard crossing the road early one morning”. By chance, around the time of my India trip, my friends James and Abigail from Ker & Downey told me one such story… that a black leopard had been seen up at Laikipia Wilderness Camp in Kenya. My ears pricked up and I contacted the owners Steve and Annabelle Carey to find out more. Steve confirmed that it was true and he had seen several black leopards over the years. That was enough for me and I decided to invest some time in checking it out.

On arrival in Laikipia, Steve took me to meet Luisa Ancilotto who lives close to the camp and had seen a black leopard recently. She told us as much as she knew about the leopard’s habits and territory. Then Steve managed to pick up some fresh leopard tracks nearby and followed them to a path that leopards seemed to be using. I deployed a plethora of camera traps each consisting of a Camtraptions wireless motion sensor, a high-quality DSLR camera and two or three flashes. I had high hopes of photographing a leopard, but would it be black?

The next day I eagerly checked the cameras but had no images of leopards. I was disheartened and suddenly felt the enormity of what I was trying to achieve. Surely I was not going to be lucky enough to actually photograph a melanistic African leopard?!

I left the cameras for several more nights. On returning, I checked them and by the time I got to the last camera, all I had seen were pictures of hyenas but no leopards. I had a quick look at the last trap, not expecting to find much. As I scrolled through the images on the back of the camera, I paused and peered at the photograph below in incomprehension… a pair of eyes surrounded by inky darkness… a black leopard! I couldn’t believe it and it took a few days before it sank in that I had achieved my dream.

http://blog.burrard-lucas.com/2019/02/b ... c80ff9be35

Will Burrard-Lucas

[Cordelia]

Gorgeous 1999 film from 'experimental' Chilean director Raoúl Ruiz, who settled in France post Pinochet. Time Regained is Ruiz’s depiction of Marcel Proust’s ‘remembrances’ while dying; growing up, re-viewing his life and culture, the decadence of the upper class & aristocracy, beautiful women, handsome men...multi-media carousel for the senses and kaleidoscope of images. Features John Malkovich, being John Malkovich speaking in French as sadomasochistic Baron de Charlus (a memorable scene takes place in a male brothel).





https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b7SDy6Jxm2s








Raoúl Ruiz

(I tried to watch his biopic on Klimt a few years ago but couldn’t get w/Malkovich in the title role.)

[Cordelia]

A film so beautiful, it’s almost unviewable.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gCEYXnDNcrg

I almost didn't watch this because I thought, oh another WW2/Nazi mega melodrama. And it's three hours. I watched it over three nights, (w/the exception of one 5 minute kitschy scene w/60’s pop music—wtf was that about?) I found it well worth the time. imho, the film captures the sacredness of individual truth & memory and how the mind can unfold, in time, traumatic events to reveal themselves

Also, a equally beautiful soundtrack by brilliant composer Max Richter https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oNLDJp83YAQ.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xm9oaTJgJxY




I generally don’t like to read much, if anything, about a film (or literature) before viewing because I want to experience it unbiased & untainted. So( I’m glad) I didn’t see a New Yorker piece https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2019 ... ed-in-film until now to learn how the film's real life subject felt abused and angry by the filmmaker’s treatment of his life experiences. That’s sad, but not really surprising, given the need a creative artist has to take source material and make his/her own.

[Iamwhomiam]

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.



A large collection of rare Goya's etchings, 80, I believe the largest grouping ever of these works, has been on exhibit at the Hyde Collection, a small museum about 60 miles north of me in Glens Falls that I have been anxious to see. Well, the closed the joint down. Fear and precaution. I visited the Albany Institute of History and Art instead, one of the oldest museums in the US, to see what they were exhibiting. Maybe 100 or so paintings where on semi-permanent display from their large collection of Hudson River School artists, I love the work produced by these artists. Other art works were also being exhibited by Walter Launt Palmer and included the recycled and refashioned art of Ruby Silvious, and works by Otto Plaug, who concentrated on capturing images of the American Southwest.

Hyde Collection To Feature Exhibition Of Rare Etchings By Spanish Master Goya (page appears blank - scroll down)

On Exhibit: At The Hyde in Glens Falls, the worlds of Goya, Thrash

[Harvey]

^ Definitely worth trying again another day if you're up for it, his etchings as a whole are among his finest work in my opinion (relatively rare among painters.)

[Iamwhomiam]

Oh, I agree with you about his etchings importance to his entire body of work across various media. However, I imagine they will need to be returned before more normal times return to allow reopening. The exhibit opened in January and had been scheduled to end late next month. My procrastination is only to blame for my not visiting sooner, and it cost me the loss of great enjoyment this time. Damn!

[Harvey]

I didn't realise they cancelled the show. If it were me, I'd be on the phone to the gallery asking them if they think a museum is less necessary than a supermarket, and if so, why aren't the supermarkets closed? Hopefully they're just worried about their staff, which would be admirable, in which case I wonder if they asked them what they think?

Speaking of supermarkets, they've had a second Christmas while the banks themselves just took another shot of trillions straight in the vein. Business as usual.

Beautiful things only.

Ernst Klimt (brother of the more famous Gustav who added a few bits to this, which is why it's often credited to him) entitled, Theatrical Buffoon on a Makeshift Stage.