Well it's definitely cold so I think we'll start the Winter Flickr now

[Angela M...]

Yes Betty, we got up to 24 inches here also. My water heater started leaking Saturday night and the service guy said he would be here on Monday between 1 and 5 PM so of course out I go to shovel the walks and make a path for him to get into my basement. The drifting around the house was 3 to 4 feet deep in some places so the first thing I dug out was my snow blower that I have only used once in three years. I put in some gas, said a prayer and tried to start it. Nothing but a whine. Tried again with same result. Looked back at all the snow and tried again with a curse word or two and low and behold it started.  After letting it idle a bit and regulating the choke, off we went in a cloud of white powder. After three hours I had cleaned five neighbours drives and walks and about a mile of city sidewalk on our block. Then all the drifting snow around my house and the two fire hydrants on our block in case of emergency. The longer I live in Canada the more I hate snow. When I was in my early teens I loved it as I was a skier and figure skater but as I got older I developed a dislike for it. Hope you keep warm Betty and don't have to clear any snow yourself.

[andyg0404]

Hello everybody and welcome back to My Weekly Flickr.

Well, opening with the weather as I generally do, I can report that today is better than yesterday. Of course that’s faint praise as yesterday morning I waited for the bus in six degree weather. Had to break out the down vest to augment my layers of clothing. It was in the 20’s I guess when I went out this morning and it’s in the 30’s now. Some snow flurries but nothing of any note. Another storm is forecast for Sunday evening to Tuesday but it looks like it will not be enormous, a couple of inches along with the wonderful freezing rain. Apparently this could have been much more serious if conditions had been different. But who knows, by tomorrow night conditions might be different and we’ll get our blizzard. But I hope not. Last weekend we got about 7 inches here and Monday morning was ugly. I went out to catch the bus and stood for 45 minutes in freezing rain or sleet, can’t quite see the difference, before I gave up and walked back and worked from home. One bus came during that period and stopped to tell me that I couldn’t get on as there was no room. Which I appreciated as earlier in the season I was waiting for a bus and it just zoomed by me without stopping leaving me cursing. The next day the driver apologized saying that she was packed with no room. I understood but it’s always better to know why you’re left standing in the rain.

There’s nothing currently doing art wise so I walked up to the Metropolitan museum this morning for the exercise and to get out of the house. Wandered through Art of the Arab Lands, galleries I’ve never been in, taking in the objets d’art, ancient tchotchkes of various size and shape. Household goods, religious artifacts, coins, jewelry and other items excavated from the deserts of Arabia. Saw some nice folio paintings from the Shah Jahan but this sort of art isn’t anything I actively seek out much preferring paintings and drawings. Therefore, afterwards, I wandered through the European galleries and revisited Corot, Millett, DeLacroix and Ingres, all brilliant artists with lots of beautiful paintings to admire. It’s great being a member of the Met, I certainly get my money’s worth going as often as I do. No art to speak of next week, I’m going down to the Jersey shore for a visit with my friends. Don’t imagine there will be much beach traffic, I just hope there will be no precipitation of any type. The following week I expect to visit the Morgan Library which I will duly report on later in the day.

I contemplated visiting The Drawing Center way downtown in Manhattan for an exhibit by Tomi Ungerer, a cartoonist and book illustrator, but the gallery doesn’t open until Noon and I like to be heading home for my coffee by that time. I confess that on my walk uptown this morning I was already thinking of my return to have my coffee and toast. Not sure I will go in the future but I think I will definitely want to visit the gallery in April for the next exhibit, “Portraits from the École des Beaux-Arts Paris.” It will consist of 40 drawings described on the website as: “The selection of works is extensive, ranging from never-before-exhibited drawings by seventeenth-century luminaries Jean-Auguste-Dominique Inges, Jacques-Louis David, and Charles Garnier to the work of modern and contemporary masters Henri Matisse and Georg Baselitz to portraits by recent graduates of the Beaux-Arts de Paris.” I was a little confused at first as they talk about hanging four pictures every week from different centuries with different qualities so the viewer can compare them in close juxtaposition. I thought to myself, I have to go back ten times to see the full exhibit? But then I read a little further and the other 36 drawings will also be on display. So at some point I will have to break my routine and stay out a little later.

There have been art stories in the news of interest. The Times had an article on Marina Picasso, Pablo’s granddaughter. Like many great artists Picasso was not a nice man. In a word he was a bastard who made life difficult for his lovers, wives, children and grandchildren. He treated Marina’s father very badly and she says she has no fond memories of her grandfather. She was left a trove of his art in his will which came as a total surprise. She said she had no photographs of her grandfather taken with her and had none of his works until the inheritance and recalled that Pablo would fashion flowers out of paper for her but, she was never allowed to keep them. I thought this the saddest thing in the article. For a grandfather to give his granddaughter something to amuse her and then to take it back when she went home. That’s very cold. You can read the article here.  http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/05/arts/design/picassos-granddaughter-plans-to-sell-art-worrying-the-market.html

Then there was the Gauguin that the Qatari’s paid $300 million dollars for. I told my brother that this was really incomprehensible to me, that much money for a painting. But he pointed out that the market for anything is what people are willing to pay for it. The buyer has to hope that it isn’t a bubble that will burst leaving him with a nice painting that isn’t worth what he paid for it. But that doesn’t appear to be anything for rich people to worry about any time soon. And the Qatari’s certainly have more than enough money to fill their museum. The notion in art is that anything you purchase can only appreciate in value but I see that this doesn’t always hold true. Two weeks ago I wrote about the Sotheby’s auction and they announced the results the following week. It was very successful and I see that the Clara Peeters still life, which I wrote about as being very beautiful, sold for $605,000. When I was at the website I was very surprised when I checked the provenance to discover that it had last been sold at auction at Christie's in December 2001 for $715,258. A rare case of the value depreciating. Can’t say why either, it’s a magnificent painting. You can read about the Gauguin sale here. http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/06/arts/design/gauguin-painting-is-said-to-fetch-nearly-300-million.html 

On the other hand, another item in the auction was an oil sketch by John Constable, a study of Salisbury Cathedral that went for $5.2 million. My brother had said that he expected it to be a big draw as any number of museums would have loved to own it. The best part though is that it was auctioned off 18 months ago and the current owner bought it for about $5,000 because it was thought not to be original. After the current owner received it, he/she had it restored and it was determined to be authentic. So it went for a thousand times as much this time. You can read about that here.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2931834/Lost-Constable-sells-auction-3-5million-1-000-TIMES-went-just-18-months-ago-experts-thought-work-copycat.html

Well that’s enough art appreciation for today. Let’s see what’s at the Flickrs.

Andy G.

Today it's my birthday, I am 23 years old :p

https://www.flickr.com/photos/lauracdgirl/16246536175

candygirls 118-65

https://www.flickr.com/photos/127811589%40N02/16056659480

Posing sissy

https://www.flickr.com/photos/65791846%40N07/16253039701

I was lucky enough to be invited to homes and photograph crossdressers with their families. This family revealed everything. There are other images in this series where we strategically hid a partners face. At that point I wasn't that aware of what a huge

https://www.flickr.com/photos/bambigallery/16238966711

Crossdresser Boy

https://www.flickr.com/photos/harald-haefker/15618300193

45 Summer

https://www.flickr.com/photos/129600691%40N03/16047156398

Its Nikki Nicole!

https://www.flickr.com/photos/51647347%40N05/16254447721

transvestite

https://www.flickr.com/photos/111227158%40N03/11356120684

Transvestites and children

https://www.flickr.com/photos/yger/2696210739

Taking brother to dentist

https://www.flickr.com/photos/130476042%40N07/16023066530 

4693222760_5dd179714a_o Karen Marie is wearing his beautiful wedding gown for the last time. As Karen Marie is being sealed forever. As a beautiful bride & girl forever too.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/129730530%40N06/16275673025 

Trendy

https://www.flickr.com/photos/57172609%40N04/15653749994 

[Angela M...]

Thanks again to you andy g for posting about your visits to the galleries. I appreciate your links and commentary as these days I don't get much opportunity to visit any exhibits.  I have not travelled much in the last few years and that was usually when I could take in a gallery or museum or two.  I am waiting to see the new British movie about the artist William Turner who is one of my favourites. I picked up two wonderful prints of his at an exhibit at the British Museum back in the 70's and they have been on my office wall ever since. I should check to see if they are worth more than I paid for them as I just discovered that four posters I bought of the Montreal Olympics are now worth more than $100.00 each and I have kept them in perfect condition. I have always tried to put good art on my walls when I could afford it and some of my purchases over the years are now worth quite a lot of money for my retirement fund. Anyway thanks again for your posts, they contribute greatly to this board.

[andyg0404]

Hi Angela,

Thanks, I love to see great art and also to talk about it so I'm pleased that I'm not talking to myself every week. This probably won't be a problem for you but my brother told me that when he watched the trailer for the Turner film he realized that if he was going to view it he would need to have subtitles.

Andy G.

[Angela M...]

Hey andyg I have seen the trailer and can see where you would need sub titles if you are not too familiar with British dialects. Like in China, each district has it's own twists. There are also slang names for things and I would always get asked by people at work who watched the British soap opera "Coronation Street" what certain things meant, like "apples & pears = stairs, make a brew=tea, etc. Many of these terms come from the streets of Victorian England and have just passed down and then there is the true Kings English where terms for things are ages old.
I had seen a BBC special some years ago about the Life of Turner played by an English actor whose name I have forgotten and was a real true to life account and very well portrayed. I wish I could find it on DVD as I have a collection of BBC specials like Nicholas Nickleby, Oliver Twist, Great Expectations and Bleak House and other Victorian shows the British are famous for. It will be interesting to see how Timothy Spall portrays Turner after seeing the original show and knowing his style from the Harry Potter movies.   

[andyg0404]

Hi Angela,

I don't know if you ever read Mad Magazine. I have the first 190 issues before I stopped collecting it and I have always remembered a bit of doggerel they printed in one of their satirical pieces on foreign movies. It was a British crime drama and it had one of the characters saying, "It's crackers to slip a rozzer the dropsy in snide." with the translation being, "It's crazy to pay off a cop in phony money."

Amazing the things that stay in your head or clog up your memory depending on how you look at it.

Andy G.

[Angela M...]

Yes andy g, I did read Mad magazine sometimes but never kept any of them, I don't know why as they were good. Probably my mother cleaning my room and throwing things out before I got home from school. She was our resident censor, a real old fashioned dyed in the wool Catholic. Lost many a Playboy from under my mattress as well as some cute panties and tights. Never could find a hiding place in my house that she could not sniff out. Even my car magazines didn't survive and yet when I cleaned out her house after she passed away it was full of things from the past 40 years or more. Her things that is.

[Angela M...]

andy g, do you remember all the British Carry On movies, they were full of east end slang and inuendos. I rent them once in awhile for a good laugh. I also found the older British version of St. Trinians School DVD. There were several of them made in the 50's with Terry Thomas and Alister Sym the only real good Scrooge in my humble opinion. The remake had Russel Brand and Rupert Everett but was not as funny. My other favourites were the Benny Hill shows.

[andyg0404]

Hi Angela,

Yes, I remember all that, a friend of mine who I've known for 40 years came over from England when he was 16 and every year on Xmas he would only watch the Alastair Sim version. And I loved Benny Hill, Monty Python, The Good Neighbors and oh so many of the other Britcoms, as well as the Carry On films. Don't watch television nowadays but when I retire I will start up again and I know there are a bunch of current UK series that I might enjoy. Always liked the UK mystery writers as well, Michael Gilbert was a particular favorite and it was that same British friend that turned me on to him.

Andy G.

[Betty]

I love Britcoms, & a lot of the older stuff from the UK. Some of my friends & family don't get British humor. To me there's something mentally wrong with someone who won't even crack a smile during a very popular Britcom, but will roll around laughing to MTV's Beavis & Butthead.

By giving up cable & satellite, I'm no longer limited by what they & the airwaves will deliver. Once I got used getting my programming from the internet more, it's like having a million channel international TV. I got hooked on British comedy & mystery though, because I live so close to Canada, & they used to broadcast a lot of British stuff that I was able to pick up. In general they'll broadcast more stuff from Europe than USA stations do. We get BBC-A (BBC America) in the USA, but they just broadcast a few old things, some losers, & Star Trek all day. They skip all the good stuff in the UK.

Even when I tune in AM or FM radio, it's on a Canadian station most of the time because they offer more variety, & less commercialized programming. They also run less commercials, & the ones they do run aren't as annoying, stupid, & misleading.