Well it’s certainly hot enough for the Summer Flickr!

[andyg0404]

Hello everybody and welcome back to My Weekly Flickr.

Some time ago I was going through the store of family photos that I’ve carried around for more than 40 years and came across a clipping from a TV Guide which turned out to contain a letter to the editor from my eldest brother. I’ve mentioned previously that I have a collection of TV Guides and at the time I was disappointed that the whole TV Guide hadn’t been saved. I put it away after looking at it although as it turns out I didn’t remember where I put it.  Tonight I’m having dinner with that same brother and I thought it would be fun to bring along the TV Guide to show him. But I had to find it in my collection which wasn’t easy. I didn’t remember what year it appeared but I thought I remembered that he had been around 15 or 16 years old. But to be safe I started looking through my collection starting from when he would have been 11 or 12. What made it even more difficult is that the letters to the editor column wasn’t listed in the index and quite often appeared on a different page within the magazine. So I had to thumb through each issue page by page. It took me three days to find it. My original collection started in September 1960 and as a child I had acquired a large number of issues from 1956 to 1960. When EBAY began I started filling in the gaps going back to the first issue in April 1953 and only just recently was able to win the final one to complete my collection. I mistakenly thought that his letter was in one of the ones I won on EBAY so I initially bypassed the rest. When I didn’t find it I started working my way back and including ones from the original collection and finally I found it in a 1956 issue. I  hope he gets a kick out of it. On occasion, when a co-worker had a birthday, I would bring in the TV Guide from the week they were born but as my brother is 10 years older than me I can’t do that. There was no television the week he was born.

I went back to the Met again this week to see two more current exhibits. One was the latest rotation in the drawings corridor which was a particularly nice one. It opens with a number of colorful watercolors by Leon Bakst. He wasn’t someone I was familiar with; this is his brief background from Wikipedia, a Russian painter and scene and costume designer. He was a member of the Sergei Diaghilev circle and the Ballets Russes, for which he designed exotic, richly coloured sets and costumes. On display were costume designs for a number of ballets from the early 20th Century. Such as these which I enjoyed. Be sure to enlarge all of them so as to see the detail.

Costume Study for Vaslav Nijinsky in the Role of Iksender in the Ballet "La Péri" (The Flower of Immortality), first performed in Paris, 1912
https://tinyurl.com/y9jxjlo3

Costume Design for a Eunuch in Scheherazade
https://tinyurl.com/y9xzctk7

Costume Design for the 'Sultan Samarkand' for the Ballet 'Schéhérazade'
https://tinyurl.com/y7vmrqdy

All very colorful and exotic looking.

He also painted portraits.

Mme Ida Rubinstein -  Russian dancer, actress, art patron and Belle Époque figure
https://tinyurl.com/yb7hmv7x

And following down the wall there were a number of Rembrandt etchings which I don’t believe I’ve seen before.

The Blindness of Tobit – As in so many of his etchings there’s a lot to see here, the blind Tobit has knocked over his spinning wheel and his son’s dog is wrapped in his cloak and you can see the fish hanging from the hearth. It’s hard to gauge the expression on Tobit’s face which should be anticipatory in joy but to me looks a little fearful. Or maybe just tearful as this was a very emotional day for him.
https://tinyurl.com/yao8z6q3

The Omval – This is the description from the website: This landscape represents a familiar spot outside Amsterdam that Rembrandt recorded in several drawings. It is a peninsula, known then and now as "De Omval," after a ruin that had once stood there (the Dutch word omvallen means to fall down). On the far bank of the Amstel River sit houses and a mill near the Watergraafsmeer neighborhood’s ring dike, whose waters flow into the river. The distant structures are clearly composed with confident etched lines. In contrast, the large willow tree that dominates the scene and conceals a pair of lovers in its blurred, almost textural shadows dramatically demonstrates the effect of combining etching and drypoint.
Lots of detail contrasted by the enormous tree, I’m not sure I can make out the lovers.
https://tinyurl.com/y7zzaceg

The Fourth Oriental Head – I love this for its absolute simplicity and beauty. I think he really must have captured the essence of his sitter.
https://tinyurl.com/y7rzrrf6

And several etchings from the Bible by Albrecht Durer.

Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse – If ever a picture was said to represent 1,000 words this one certainly does. The horror of the setting and the motion implied is remarkable for something on a flat surface. Even to me who has no depth perception.
https://tinyurl.com/yae88byb

This is a link to all the images in the exhibit, all worth taking a gander at. https://tinyurl.com/ydzdqtbh

The second exhibit I visited was, Orientalist Paintings from the Collection of Kenneth Jay Lane. This consisted of 26 paintings that have been promised or given to The Met by Mr. Lane. This is a link to the Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History which discusses Orientalism from its beginning in the early 19th Century. http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/euor/hd_euor.htm

These paintings are also very colorful and exotic. They can’t be enlarged by clicking on them but you can magnify them by using the mouse wheel and the CTRL key.

Western Gentleman in Oriental Costume – An unidentified gentlemen painted by an unidentified artist. Dressing up in exotic clothes was very popular for devotees of this genre.
https://tinyurl.com/y929y433

The Sultan’s Tiger – A painting inspired by Victor Hugo’s 1827 poem “La Douleur du pacha” (The Pasha’s Grief.)
https://tinyurl.com/y9em6amc

Bashi-Bazouk – A mercenary in finery.
https://tinyurl.com/y9owjucy

Street Scene in Cairo – It’s the architecture in this one that appeals to me.
https://tinyurl.com/y8lftlp8

This is a link to all the items in the exhibit. https://tinyurl.com/y885f3z6

Now let’s mosey over to the Flickrs.

Andy G.

IMG_9752.JPG - Dress as You Like Day - Thomas Bell (Fairly apropos considering the schoolboy story)

https://www.flickr.com/photos/125155770%40N06/34467192534/

miaow!2

https://www.flickr.com/photos/132506246%40N03/30228584115/

sissy debbie

https://www.flickr.com/photos/135809499%40N02/33217124674/

Ande-10.31.16

https://www.flickr.com/photos/andreagurl/30676178216/

Today is going to be rather interesting!.....

https://www.flickr.com/photos/136031688%40N06/34569786326/

Jenn050617-09-26-21

https://www.flickr.com/photos/jenashley/34545362681/

Cloud Nine cast filtered

https://www.flickr.com/photos/26186593%40N08/35021296840/

Just dressing for around the office

https://www.flickr.com/photos/143265732%40N06/34505567862/

Ready for master

https://www.flickr.com/photos/150101413%40N05/33598613573/

STA40490

https://www.flickr.com/photos/sallyjj/15419314471/

[andyg0404]

Hello everybody and welcome back to My Weekly Flickr.

I’ve been wanting to treat a friend of mine to a day out for some time but she suffers from chronic Crohn’s disease and every time I’ve picked a day she’s had to cancel due to her system acting up. But finally I was able to take her to the Met this week.  It was a lovely day, the weather cooperated in that it didn’t rain and it wasn’t oppressively hot. Traveling unfortunately was very bad, the traffic into the City was heavy and slow moving through the tunnel. The subway uptown was crowded and there was trouble on numerous lines. I subsequently found out there had been a derailment of an A train at 125th Street which had thrown the subway system into to chaos. We were lucky to get home without too much trouble by avoiding the C train which wasn’t running and instead traveling on the Broadway IRT line down to the Port Authority. The day was like a split double header, we left her home around 10AM and didn’t get back from the museum until about 4:30PM when we each went to our own homes. Then I came back around 6PM and we walked to the diner where I treated her to dinner. I had baked my lemon cake which won high praise from her so we had that for dessert when we got back from the diner.  We did an enormous amount of walking, I broke my daily walking record hoofing it for 11.3 miles. She must have done 5 miles herself and with a little huffing and puffing she managed to survive.
 
Our first stop was the Japanese wing for the current rotation, Japanese Bamboo Art: The Abbey Collection. The exhibit consisted mainly of bamboo flower baskets and sculptures, most of which are contemporary by which I mean the 20th Century. These are beautiful and must require an amazing amount of skill to create. And it must be a very time consuming exercise. While I appreciated them I felt there were far too many for an exhibit of this size. My friend enjoyed them very much but I was more interested in the scrolls, screens and woodblock prints.

This is a link to the Met press release with an image and an overview of the exhibit. http://www.metmuseum.org/press/exhibitions/2016/japanese-bamboo

The Met didn’t post any images on the site which is unusual but this is a link to a separate site showing the collection in place.  https://artssummary.com/2017/06/25/japanese-bamboo-art-the-abbey-collection-at-the-met-fifth-avenue-through-february-4-2018/  One of the nicest items in the exhibit was the large screen showing children playing with a flower cart and an actual flower cart similar to the one painted on the screen in front of it. https://artssummary.files.wordpress.com/2017/06/20170612-ew6a4193.jpg

And this link shows individual items enlarged. http://www.intabe.com/tag/metbamboo

When we exited the exhibit my friend told me she needed to take a pill with a little food. All she wanted was some water and a piece of bread so we went to the museum cafeteria. I bought her a bottle of water and a small, dry dinner roll the size of a golf ball which with the water cost $6. I don’t recommend eating at the cafeteria if you’re hungry.

From the cafeteria we wandered over to the American wing. On our last outing we went to the Montclair museum for a Matisse exhibit but what she enjoyed the most was a visit to the George Inness room. Consequently we spent most of our time with the Hudson river painters. For me it was like visiting old friends. Highlights were:

Three paintings by Frederic Edwin Church who was a pupil of Thomas Cole, the father of the Hudson River painters.

Heart of the Andes - This is an enormous picture, 10’ x 5.5’, be sure to enlarge it.
http://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/10481

The Parthenon
http://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/10482

The Aegean Sea
http://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/10480

A pair by George Inness

Peace and Plenty
http://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/11232

Autumn Oaks
http://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/11227

The Valley of Wyoming by Jasper Cropsey
http://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/10586

And a pair from Thomas Cole

The Titans Goblet
http://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/10499

View on the Catskill—Early Autumn
http://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/10501

Of course there were many others, the Met’s American wing is incomparable for its great works.

My friend said she had a wonderful time and expressed a desire to return to the museum. She especially wants to revisit the weapons exhibits in Arms and Armor which she saw on our first visit some time ago.  Go figure that would be what excited her.

I continue to watch a movie every day, usually from TCM, and I’ve been working my way through Fred Astaire’s films with Ginger Rogers, they’re all enjoyable. Recently I watched their first film together, Flying Down to Rio, as well as The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle and the other day I watched Royal Wedding in which Fred dances on the walls and ceilings. You can see that at this link https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CsoYyDlYU8M  IMDB explained how the illusion was created:  The "You're All the World to Me" dance was accomplished by putting a whole room, attached camera and harnessed cameraman inside a 20 ft. diameter rotating "squirrel cage." The dancing on the ceiling number appears to be one long continuous take. However, if you watch closely, there are at least three and possibly four very subtle cuts in this scene.

Some time ago the government released the 1940 census to the general public and I found my maternal Grandma and my Aunts and Uncle, the ancient relatives I’ve referred to for so long. Unfortunately I was unable to find my Mother and Father. At the time it was promised that someday the site would be searchable by name. It now is and I’ve found them. 
It’s very interesting to me, our family name is spelled differently and it gives a different birth year for both of them. I knew very little about my paternal grandma most of which is confirmed here. She remarried after her first husband, my grandfather, died and she owned a boarding house which according to the census had two couples living as lodgers. She was 53 years old at the time, 12 years younger than her husband. I couldn’t find the exact address of the boardinghouse but I probably could if I dive a little deeper into the site. I do know that the boardinghouse was torn down when the Cross Bronx Expressway was built although I have no idea when it left my family’s hands. My grandmother died in the early 40’s, either right before or after my brother was born which was in 1941. It’s unfortunate but there’s no one left alive that I can query about all this. As I’ve mentioned, my brothers and I are now the ancient relatives in the family.  If anyone wants to search the site for their forebears you can do so at this link.    https://familysearch.org/1940census

Now let’s dance over to the Flickrs.

Andy G.

Wymondham High Academy Year 11 Leavers Day 2017

https://www.flickr.com/photos/jasonbrown2013/35594740005/

IMG_FA3013

https://www.flickr.com/photos/36227588@N02/35490134295/

brolita-2013-02-19

https://www.flickr.com/photos/146827757@N06/30009141630/

blueg41

https://www.flickr.com/photos/nancyball1/5316081528/

DSC_0587

https://www.flickr.com/photos/kellyukslut/5039737953/

IMGP1773

https://www.flickr.com/photos/pettisue/6454250345/

Pink sissy

https://www.flickr.com/photos/98488873@N03/9222455395/

Linda at Adam and Eve's Wedding Party

https://www.flickr.com/photos/adamandeve121/5692575209/

JIANG KAYEE, PARIS, 2013

https://www.flickr.com/photos/125915844@N07/27947232456/

_1130591

https://www.flickr.com/photos/crystal_ringring/28216810402/

[Angela M...]

As usual Andy I love your posts about your adventures into the city and the Art you share here. Glad you and your friend had a wonderful day.

[andyg0404]

Hi Angela,

Glad to hear from you again, I was wondering how your were doing. Sorry about the hay fever and dentistry. I had horrible allergies as a child, 20 minute sneezing jags and spontaneous nose bleeds but I grew out of them in my late teens and they haven't recurred. I hope they don't.

I'm pleased you enjoyed our visit to the Met.

Andy G.

[Angela M...]

Hi Andy,
I have been lucky to not have any allergies up to now but with all the health issues going on with me in the last few years it was bound to happen like my Shingles attacks twice in two years and now sneezing and watery eyes etc. I have had sensitive teeth the last few years but recently the pain was off the charts and I was sure I had a cavity or cracked tooth but after several x-rays showing nothing wrong they didn't know what else to do but give me pain meds and special numbing Gel. The following day my mouth and face were swollen badly so it was back again for another check and antibiotics. After a little over a week it is getting better and I can eat normal food again. I guess I should be thankful that I have all my own teeth at 67 as several of my co-workers either have none or many missing teeth or they are deceased. None of us needs huge dental bills at our age. Glad you are enjoying your retirement and can explore the city to your hearts content, even if the transit slows you down some. I still need to drive most places as most of my doctors appointments are out of town and the word is my family doctor I have had for years is thinking retirement soon also. Unless he sells his practice to a new doctor, I will need walk in clinics like most others my age since there are fewer doctors around. We have many refugees coming here with some very qualified people but they need to meet our governments requirements and some cannot afford the schooling upgrades. I am not sure why because the government here gives refugees almost twice the money our pensioners are getting and rent allowances also. As a senior in Canada to live well you need to have saved a small fortune or be a refugee or end up in Jail where prisoners get $42,000.00 dollars worth of care and perks like health and dental coverages. God forbid the prisoner had any grounds to sue for mistreatment so make them as comfortable as possible. Anyway that's my rant for now, and I hope you have a great weekend and Fourth of July holiday.

[andyg0404]

Hello everybody and welcome back to My Weekly Flickr.

This week I visited the Morgan Library to see their current exhibit, Henry James and American Painting. This was a splendid show filled with paintings and watercolors by John Singer Sargent among others. A number of the portraits had also been in the enormous Sargent portraits of friends exhibit at the Met which I’ve previously written about. This is a link to the Morgan website where there’s a 4 minute video narrated by the author Colm Toibin, who co-curated the exhibit, in which he explains the premise of the show which explores James’ friendship with artists and how one in particular, Frank Duveneck and his wife Lizzie Boot, influence three of his most famous novels. http://www.themorgan.org/exhibitions/henry-james In his early life James studied art and considered becoming an artist but decided he was better suited to writing.

The first thing you see upon entering the gallery is Sargent’s portrait of Henry James.  It was commissioned by his friends to honor him. Flanking it are two letters, one that was sent out soliciting the funds to pay Sargent to paint the portrait which ultimately led to 269 subscribers, and a second letter, after it had been painted, sent to all the successful subscribers with a photo of the painting. There was also a card with explanatory text showing the painting as damaged. When it was initially hung for viewing a suffragist attacked it with a tomahawk badly slashing the canvas. It was a remarkable restoration as I could see no remnant trace of the cuts.

http://www.themorgan.org/sites/default/files/images/exhibitions/galleries/1-Sargent-Henry-James.jpg

James McNeill Whistler was a friend and is represented by his Arrangement in Black and Brown: The Fur Jacket, a portrait of Maud Franklin his mistress and model who bore him a daughter in 1879.
http://www.themorgan.org/sites/default/files/images/exhibitions/galleries/6-Whistler-Arrangement-in-Black-and-Brown.jpg

Here we have Frank Duveneck’s portrait of Lizzie’s father, Francis Boott. Boott opposed the marriage as he came from society and Duveneck led a bohemian lifestyle, consequently it took many years before he finally acquiesced and allowed the marriage. Sadly she died of pneumonia just a few years after the marriage and after giving birth to a son.
http://www.themorgan.org/sites/default/files/images/exhibitions/galleries/18-Duveneck-Francis-Boott.jpg

This is a portrait of Lizzie by Duveneck. In the NY Times review below you can see an image of the bronze tomb effigy of Lizzie which appears in the exhibit below the paintings of Lizzie and her Father.
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/43/Elizabeth_Boott_Duveneck00.jpg

Here are two lovely Sargent watercolors

In a Medici Villa
https://ia802605.us.archive.org/34/items/brooklynmuseum-o20378-in-a-medici-villa/brooklynmuseum-o20378i000-09.826_transp132.jpg
Santa Maria della Salute
https://www.wikiart.org/en/john-singer-sargent/santa-maria-della-salute-1904

A wonderful charcoal sketch of James by Cecilia Beaux.
http://npg.si.edu/object/npg_NPG.87.248

These are reviews by the NY Times and the Wall Street Journal, both with illustrations.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/06/arts/design/henry-james-a-poohbah-who-painted-with-words.html?_r=0

https://www.wsj.com/articles/henry-james-and-american-painting-review-finding-the-writers-gaze-1497559957

This is a link to site which shows the installation as you view it, wall by wall.
https://artssummary.com/2017/06/20/henry-james-and-american-painting-at-the-morgan-library-museum-june-9-september-10-2017/

I very much enjoyed this exhibit as I’m a great admirer of Henry James and John Singer Sargent is one of my favorite artists. It embarrasses me that I’ve read pretty much all of James most important works and have so little memory of them. At some point I’ll have to go back and reread some of them but it’s difficult as I always have books on my table that I want to read.

There were other interesting exhibits on view as well.

This Ever New Self: Thoreau and His Journal – An exhibit of his journals and letters.
http://www.themorgan.org/exhibitions/thoreau

In this exhibit I was surprised to find a lithograph by another favorite artist of mine, Fitz Henry Lane, an American artist of the 19th Century who specialized in painting maritime scenes.  This though has no boats in it though and is very unlike any of his other works that I’ve come across. View of the Battleground at Concord, Mass.

http://www.mfa.org/collections/object/view-of-the-battleground-at-concord-mass-259172

And finally, a very nice drawing exhibit, Poussin, Claude, and French Drawing in the Classical Age.  Of the drawings in this show I especially enjoyed the Claude’s (Claude Gellée, called Claude Lorrain), the 17th Century French landscape artist. You can see an overview of the show as well as a number of illustrations at the Morgan website. One in particular is a drawing that was a sketch for his Sermon on the Mount which is in the Frick collection. Simon Vouet’s Portrait of Louis XIII was another highlight.

http://www.themorgan.org/exhibitions/french-drawing

Here is the Frick press release with more information and illustrations.

http://www.themorgan.org/sites/default/files/pdf/press/PoussinClaudePressRelease.pdf

Now let’s see what’s doing at the Flickrs.

Andy G.

Delta Zeta Womenless Beauty Pageant Raising Money for the Local Women's Shelter

https://www.flickr.com/photos/sciatfsu/35207148950/

Another contender...

https://www.flickr.com/photos/145833875@N05/32310749840/

Red Halloween Bridal gown at Magic Theatre

https://www.flickr.com/photos/tanyadawnhughes/31791431095/

almost a happy face

https://www.flickr.com/photos/52912530@N04/34117693181/

day241-06 White Wedding Dress (1)

https://www.flickr.com/photos/yumiko_misaki/8730822476/

Jackie and Melissa's wedding in Vegas

https://www.flickr.com/photos/melissa11520/27234117360/

The legendary Bigwood twins

https://www.flickr.com/photos/trannilicious2011/26699196192/

Cursty

https://www.flickr.com/photos/jamiegpa/35144706846/

The legendary Cooky & Caline

https://www.flickr.com/photos/trannilicious2011/11401793876/

Before and After (male to Xdressing [22 y/o])

https://www.flickr.com/photos/144640902@N04/33868316056/

[andyg0404]

Hello everybody and welcome back to My Weekly Flickr.

It’s been a fairly steamy week here in Northern New Jersey, weather wise that is. I don’t mind the hot weather but I will say that I’ve been coming back from my walks soaked in sweat. It was so humid that the money in pocket turned soppy. I wouldn’t want to hang it on a line outside but I guess I can iron it. Of course when compared to the weather in Arizona where my friend tells me it’s been over 100 degrees every day for the last two or three weeks it doesn’t seem quite so bad. I remember visiting Epcot in Florida many years ago. It was August and remarkably warm. We had spent a lot of time in the airport waiting for the flight and then more time on the plane, all in an air condition controlled environment which was chilly to say the least. And we were dressed in tee shirts and shorts so there wasn’t much you could do against the relentless cold. We disembarked from the airplane and walked through the terminal until we reached the sliding glass doors that opened to the street. As they opened and we crossed the threshold the heat hit us like a wave. I imagined it felt like when you’re cooking the turkey and you open the oven door; you can understand what the turkey is feeling.

This week I returned the Metropolitan Museum of Art and finally caught the Chinese exhibit before it closes tomorrow. Age of Empires: Chinese Art of the Qin and Han Dynasties (221 B.C.–A.D. 220) is a large exhibit filled with items recovered from excavations in China. I’ll use the word I always use when discussing an exhibit which falls out of my usual realm of enjoyment, which is hanging art, and say I found it interesting. The big attraction was the Terracotta warriors which like all the other items were created to fill the tomb of the emperor when he moved off the material plane. I confess to wondering about the ethics involved in digging up the remains of ancient peoples who must have felt secure that they would be left in peace for eternity. Weighing against that is the educational value of the excavation, that is, learning about how those peoples lived. And there is also the aesthetic pleasure in viewing these finely crafted items. Also there has always been a question of authenticity, in China the government has cracked down on the many sites and individuals who created ersatz items and exhibited them as being genuine, although there has also been speculation that the Chinese Government has played a little fast and loose with the facts when it came to displaying age old items.

This is a link to the Met website with a video discussing the exhibit. Go to full screen for the video.
https://tinyurl.com/y7gq2tsj
And this is a link to the website showing most of the items in the exhibit.
http://www.metmuseum.org/exhibitions/objects?exhibitionId=5ff35777-f859-45c9-83f6-b029566c47a3

These are some of the more interesting items I saw.

Jade Burial Suit –  This is a link to a discussion of the exhibit that begins with a discussion of the burial suit, created for Han Dynasty princess Dou Wan. There are lots of illustrations in this article.
https://hyperallergic.com/374312/from-a-jade-burial-suit-to-terracotta-warriors-a-blockbuster-display-of-chinas-ancient-treasures/
This is an enlarged view of the suit.
https://pbs.twimg.com/card_img/882809858097115136/ZufPZ6dl?format=jpg&name=600x314

Dog – There were many animals, small and large, included in the burials and I especially enjoyed this dog depicted in an animated position as if created from life.
https://tinyurl.com/y8vp72mw

Cowry Container with Scene of Sacrifice – I thought this a fascinating piece, here’s the description from the website.
“Thirty-five sculpted figures create a dense composition on this container’s cover. Escorted by two mounted horsemen and flanked by servants, a gilded female sits on a palanquin. The gilding may indicate a higher status. One kneeling female, possibly a servant, holds a parasol, while another female and two males wield a shovel and sowing tools; the group may signal an agricultural ritual. The remaining figures, scattered around the rim, comprise what appears to be a market scene. The figures were likely cast separately and then soldered to the cover.”
https://tinyurl.com/y9gvux36 - And here’s a link showing an enlargement in which you can see more of the detail as discussed above.
https://pbs.twimg.com/card_img/882642774549553154/1xZt3VSc?format=jpg&name=600x314

Lamp with Sixteen Branches – There were a number of elaborate lamps with ornate figures and this is a good representative.
https://tinyurl.com/ybtlwjgv

Hanging Lamp in the Shape of a Foreigner – A different style lamp with a rather ingenious method for use, the hollow body served as the fuel chamber, and a small aperture in his chest allowed fuel to flow into the circular tray.
https://tinyurl.com/y94n2yz6

This is a link to the Met website with their press release which offers an overview of the exhibit.
http://www.metmuseum.org/press/exhibitions/2016/age-of-empires

This is a link to the NY Times review of the exhibit.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/30/arts/design/review-age-of-empires-chinese-art-the-met-museum.html?_r=0

This is a link to a site that shows you the entire exhibit room by room and will give you some idea of the vastness of the collection.
https://tinyurl.com/ydc554bd

Excellent exhibit and very popular if you can judge by the number of people at the site when I visited. I almost missed it and I’m glad I didn’t.

In deference to the heat let’s slowly walk over to the Flickrs now.

Andy G.

A girl with roses

https://www.flickr.com/photos/nongu/33786323506/

Too Much?

https://www.flickr.com/photos/60741642@N06/35611996761/

34810662554_c041f77984_k

https://www.flickr.com/photos/siobhanhapgood/35456243540/

Cool Kantai Collection Crossplay

https://www.flickr.com/photos/bluezhift/34771532996/

Hearty Curtsey

https://www.flickr.com/photos/fairyboyprincess/33508499233/

DSC06446

https://www.flickr.com/photos/117560929@N03/30853256401/

Autumn/Fall 2015

https://www.flickr.com/photos/lucyhamilton/22204297753/

pink gingham dress with pinafore and sewn in petticoat.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/sissy_mhari/14839256401/

New Outfit

https://www.flickr.com/photos/129285689@N02/33250922796/

P1060751

https://www.flickr.com/photos/9520605@N07/34190560691/

[Betty]

Of course when compared to the weather in Arizona where my friend tells me it’s been over 100 degrees every day for the last two or three weeks it doesn’t seem quite so bad.

Been on & off there. Triple digits for almost a week, 80s or 90s for almost a week, then back up to the triple digits again. And those triple digits are for the peak of the day. In that open dry desert air, once the sun gets a little low it starts to cool down, getting pretty cool a night to after dawn.

But right now as I type this, they're having one of their hottest days... it's 107F in Phoenix. But it will be around 86F overnight & at dawn. Tomorrow will be better at 101F there. No triple digits there Mon.-Thur., then triple digits for a whole week again (except at nights), but not as hot as today.

We sweat to cool off, as the water evaporates it carries heat away from the body. In the dry Arizona heat that works rather well because moisture easily & quickly evaporates in the dry, low humidity air... as long as you remember to consume enough fluids to replace what you lose.

But we live in a damp climate, where it typically rains several times a week, are near bodies of water (lakes, rivers, ocean, swamps), & damp ground. That pumps a lot of humidity in the air making it feel like a damp, sticky tropical swamp or forest when it gets warm. The moisture (sweat) doesn't evaporate off our bodies well in high humidity. So we can get wet, sticky, gooey, & overheat in humid weather.

That's why we hear about people suffering heat stroke up here more often than in Arizona. I feel much more comfortable & cooler on a 90F day where the humidity is 55% or lower, than on a 78F day with the humidity at 75% or more. And all the rain may cool down the area during the storm, with wind, but shortly after the storm is over it's more sticky, steamy & humid than before.

All that dampness & humidity also air produces more pollen & mold growth outside which produces more mold spores in the air. Even if you're immune to that stuff & have no allergies, it's like breathing in dusty dirty air. Warm humid air contains less oxygen per cubic foot than cool dry air too. All that stuff contributes to you feeling even more uncomfortable, stressed, & hot.

Off course, we're more used to cooler weather where it only frequently gets above 80F 2-3 months out of the year, but might snow anywhere from late October to mid-April, so our bodies can't cope with hot weather as well. Place a person from Arizona outside in a heavy winter coat on 45F day & they will shiver like crazy while we'll be fine in a light jacket or sweatshirt. But we may be in danger of risking a heat stroke above 85F, where 95F is easy for them.

At one of the entertainment complexes I worked at a few years ago, one of the restaurants there had a huge, but shadeless outdoor patio. During lunchtime on a 90F day, everybody was packed into the air conditioned restaurant because the patio was unbearably hot. On a windless sunny day surrounded by walls of other buildings on each side that blocked any breeze, it can bake to over 100F out there on a 90F day.

Normally no customers would go out there on a hot day... it's like an oven. But on that day, a half dozen people who were together were sitting out there having lunch, bouncing around, having a good time, & NOT sweating. Standing inside at the window totally surprised, I marveled that they must be from Arizona because they're not even sweating. The poor waitress who had to serve them was soaked, dripping in sweat. Later I found out from her, they were indeed from Arizona.

[Betty]

As usual Andy I love your posts about your adventures into the city and the Art you share here. Glad you and your friend had a wonderful day.

It's great to hear from you again. At our age, we worry about people we don't hear about in a while.

Sorry I've been "away" (more or less) & not posting much... getting sidetracked with other stuff, projects, & work.

I started out with sort of a planned vacation mode, that I was hoping would start on my June 30th birthday & last until July 4th. Even though I can't afford to travel anywhere, & my COPD is rarely good enough to walk a half a block, I tried to have a little vacation as best I could. Somebody even sent over vodka & beer for my birthday... and this time I even drank some of it... instead of making it last months.

Well, vacation mode didn't last as long as I hoped.

For one thing, as soon as there's a big international or USA holiday, or it's vacation season, even hacker, cracker, & spammer in the world amps up to high gear to attack anything they can. Their logic is if it's a holiday, weekend, or vacation time, or even late at night, it's the most likely time server & site owners or managers are away & not paying attention. Even security updates are not likely to be released on weekends, holidays, or nights. So it's the best time that their attacks have a chance of being successful.

Since late June we, along with most servers & sites have been under escalated attacks from all over the world (but mostly Russia & China hidden behind other proxies). I haven't announced anything about, or limited access, or restricted sites members only yet though. So far, we've been able to deal with it without any problems or overloads. None of our sites & servers have been cracked, broken, compromised, or overloaded by them. But to achieve that, I'm had to spend a lot more time on the servers, & security, including regularly writing my own security updates to keep those nasty buggers out.

But when it rains, it pours. Although we've has some nice days, every time there's any lightning around me, or north of me... sometimes as far away as Toronto, my DSL goes out. A single lightning bolt anywhere in between there & me causes my internet to be down for 5-10 minutes. If it's a storm or several, I may not be getting online for a few hours or most of the day. As near as I can figure, my connection is routed to Lockport up north. From there it may go to a satellite link, or cables toward NYC, or a shoreline microwave relay tower that sends my connection across Lake Ontario to a Verizon hub in Toronto. Lightning anywhere in between causes connection problems.

When downloading or uploading backups, security, codes, & updates, even brief reception problems can cause data corruption. Install corrupted updates, security, codes, or backups, & I can wreck the entire server or site. So even if a storm subsides, or my intermittent connection is good enough to surf the net, I can't use it for data & mission critical projects until I'm certain I have a solid & steady connection for a few hours.

Then to my surprise, a few people decided while going on vacation, it would be a good time to drop off their computers for me to work on, fix, or upgrade because they won't be using them during their vacation. That kept me busy a while too. Vacation mode only lasted me about 30 hours instead of 5 days.

So I've been having a few headaches, setbacks, projects, & work to deal with recently. But I've never been really away. Just busy on the servers & sites dealing with them with very little time in between left to post much. You may have noticed I made a few upgrades here, & added a few new handy services here.

I made a news feed/site. Then yesterday I made it a little more moblie friendly. It was mobile friendly before, but people with really small phones were complaining, so I fixed it a little for small phones. I still don't recommend visiting any of our sites vertically with screens under 7" though. Visit them horizontally like normal people do on laptops & desktops.

Last week I was in a group that was complaining about the horrible changes in the new Google News feed page. One fool who actually liked it (probably worked for google) said if I don't like it, I should try to make something better. So I said, Yeah, OK. How hard can it be? It turns out pretty hard for 1 old guy, with no funding working alone on it. But I did it. Google has hundreds of thousands working for them, & billions in funds.

We've also started getting a remarkably extra large number of people visiting us on portables, like small phones. This includes a lot on small 320x400 pixel screens. Maybe with vacation time, their phone is their only way to visit because they're away from home. I've been doing a lot more recently to make our sites as easy to use as possible for them. Betty's has always been somewhat mobile-friendly on a decent portable device, where most people on phones & small tablets are automatically sent a separate version of Betty's that I made just for those portable devices. But depending on what browser they use & their settings, they may not always automatically get the mobile version, so I've been trying to make all versions more mobile friendly.

Google & Alexa scans & tests of all versions of Betty's, claim Betty's is very mobile friendly... even our included multimedia. No other sissy or ABDL site, or even Yahoo can claim to be as mobile friendly. That's probably why we get a larger percentage visiting on phones than they do.

However, for reasons to long to get into anymore, Betty's, many other sites, & most file sharing sites do not support Windows 10, Explorer, or Edge browsers, & do not intend to in the future. But if you have them set up properly, they should work good enough here anyway. But some features may not work, work well, or may not be visible with that stuff though.

Things have changed a little bit online for me outside the realm of Betty's recently too.

In the recent past, all the ads I run on other sites, & our Youtube channels make about $18 to a little over $30 a year. The past few months though, suddenly our PSK/UngleGadget Youtube channel has been earning a little over $30 a month. On my very tight budget, an extra $30 a month is a lot of money to me & comes in damn handy.

So I've been working hard recently to at least keep that $30/mo. coming in every month, & hopefully increase that figure.

It's odd though to see what is actually earning the most there. While I spent hours or days making major productions of pretty, cool videos, the ones making the money are stupid things, & not what I would expect.

The biggest money maker was an old public domain movie that I cleaned up & enhanced a little. It was probably the worse Japanese monster movie ever made. The next big money came from a very short road rage clip of a car running down some bikers. The next big money came from a clip of our president being rude at NATO. And finally as the fourth biggest money maker was a pretty space slideshow I made put to music. So good taste comes in at number four.

Meanwhile, our Betty's Youtube channel hasn't made a single penny yet, even though it's been around longer. So you can see why I haven't been adding much to that channel lately.

I've been trying to throw a lot at our PSK channel to see if I can improve that $30/mo. figure. It's very time consuming. Like the fireworks movies there was a huge project, & there's still more I have in production. The short but profitable clips were rather easy to put together. The hard part was getting copyright permission for them, or somehow legally get around them with the right loopholes.

Indeed, even right now I'm going through a couple copyright battles about the music in 2 fireworks videos. And I just won a copyright battle with another one last week. In May, I lost a battle & got a copyright strike against me. I went on a month-long battle to fight the strike. I finally got the strike against me removed just a couple weeks ago.

Let me tell you something about the jungle of youtube. If you record yourself burping, & put it on Youtube, somebody will try to nail you for copyright infringement claiming they own something in the audio, or something in the picture. They may claim your burp sounds too close to their video's burp, so is an infringement (Seriously!). Most of those video stay up, because along with their copyright claim, they say they give you permission to keep it up as long as they get all the google ad revenue it generates.

So it's a scam. People who don't know better leave their video up, while some crooked scammer or Russian mob is earning all the ad money off of it because they (illegally) claimed ownership of part of it.

Last year I got a copyright claim against a public domain 1950s horror movie there by a rap artist. How could a 1950s movie possibly have stolen material from his 2014 CD? It turns out his absolutely shitty rap song stole a few seconds of the sound effects off the movie, & are now claiming copyrights to anyone running the movie. So although the song sucks, they're making lots of copyright revenue with their illegal claims to the movie.

Unbelievably, it took me a couple months to fight & win that one. You'd think that one would just make simple sense & be easy... a 1950s movie couldn't steal a portion of a 2014 song without a time machine.

[andyg0404]

Hello everybody and welcome back to My Weekly Flickr.

Well, here we are in the dead of Summer and art is becoming increasingly difficult to find. New art shows that is, art is always around us, at least for those of us in the New York Metropolitan area. But new shows opening are, and will be, few and far between until we get into the Fall. Not that I’m for rushing the season, or my life for that matter. The Met’s financial troubles don’t help as it has caused them to cut back on their exhibits. I’ve seen all the current exhibits including one that just opened which I’ll discuss momentarily. My brother just commented that the art world currently is a desert but he also reminded me that there will be a few new shows opening at the Met in what’s left of July and August. I also haven’t done an intensive search of the galleries in New York City so there may be some promising things there. And I find I’m reluctant to travel a few hours for something that doesn’t look to be a blockbuster although I’m trying to convince a friend that we should go to New Haven just to visit the two art museums there. I’ve been there once or twice and they both have excellent permanent collections which I certainly wouldn’t mind revisiting. But that’s for another time.

This week I again went back to the Met for another of their small exhibits consisting mostly of items from their collection, Frederic Remington at The Met. Remington was an American painter, illustrator, sculptor, and writer who specialized in depictions of the Old American West, painting at the end of the 19th Century into the very early 20th Century.

This is a link to a brief article on the exhibit with illustrations of two of his striking bronze sculptures. They were purchased by the Met directly from the artist. Also shown are the front cover of a Colliers Magazine and one of his vivid oil paintings, On the Southern Plains.
https://www.apollo-magazine.com/art-diary/frederic-remington-at-the-met/?map=active

These are two more of his bronzes, The Savage and The Sergeant. They are exhibited together as they are pendants meant to complement each other. The Savage, which depicts an American Indian, by its title unfortunately brings to the fore the unenlightened attitudes of the time concerning native Americans.
https://tinyurl.com/y99q33a3
https://tinyurl.com/y9pgm38c

This is something I don’t see very often, a black and white oil painting, Standing Off Indians. It depicts what must have been a tense encounter which could have ended in bloodshed but didn’t.  https://tinyurl.com/y7d5l22d

This is an article about one of the loans in the exhibit, the watercolor Lin McLean. Click on the image to enlarge it. It’s a painting of a cowboy commissioned as an illustration to a story by Owen Wister in Harpers Monthly.  It comes from the Rockwell Museum, a venue I hope to visit someday although it’s more or less in the middle of nowhere and to get to it I would more than likely have to drive, something I’m not keen to do. https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2017/06/14/famous-rockwell-museum-painting-goes-big-apple/395873001/#

This is a link to the Met press release for the exhibit. http://www.metmuseum.org/press/exhibitions/2017/frederic-remington

This is a link to all the objects in the exhibit. http://www.metmuseum.org/exhibitions/objects?exhibitionId=17ee9efe-3c56-420f-9295-00d4f46a5f8a#!?perPage=50&offset=0

Very enjoyable little exhibit.

TCM spotlighted Alfred Hitchcock this month and I watched a bunch of his films including a number of his earliest efforts. One of them was silent, The Manxman, and another was his first talkie, Blackmail. They were interesting curios although not especially good films. Blackmail was initially started as a silent film and then changed to talkie when the technology suddenly became available. The opening sequence is silent. The female lead is played by the actress Anny Ondra but her voice is completely dubbed by the actress Joan Barry as Ondra’s natural speaking voice was a thick Czech accent which wasn’t suitable for the character she played. A remarkably young Cyril Ritchard plays the villain. The movies I enjoyed the most were two I had seen previously, The Lady Vanishes and The Thirty Nine Steps, both thrillers involving enemy agents and innocent individuals caught up in their nefarious schemes, classic Hitchcock scenarios. They were both thoroughly entertaining. North By Northwest was also on but I chose not to watch it again as years ago I was lucky enough to catch it in a movie theater at a revival and it’s definitely a film that loses something when translated to a small screen.

Let’s leave the projection room now and walk on over to the Flickrs.

Andy G.

Emma crossplay

https://www.flickr.com/photos/156778244@N04/35940131955/

Just spiking the lawn !!! lol. 13th September 2015

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37,000 views.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/saralegs/476542689/

Verena Nova

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Kerry (Keri) Allen

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27th August (5)

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Hello, world!

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122H1L

https://www.flickr.com/photos/klarissakrass/35074285255/

Swiss Miss

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Mistress says I have to pose in front of the window.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/sissyplaything/34358207085/