At Last It’s The Spring Flickr!

[Betty]

Here just a few hundred miles west of you, they're not predicting anything in the 80s or 90s (27C to 33C) over the next 10 days, but for the first time in 2017, they're not predicting overnight lows in the 40s & 50s (5C to 10C) for a week.

Tonight is the first warm night we had this year at 74F (23C). But there was a few daytime highs in March of 80F when there would normally be snow. We got no snow in the city in April & May, but a few areas just a few dozen miles from my town did get night time snows those months. Our hottest days in the predictable future will be today & Thursday where they expect it to get up to 79F (26C). Saturday it got up to 76F (23C) at 4pm & 7pm.

This weekend we have the Allentown Art Festival. For those who missed it, it's the largest art festival in the world with 110,000 to 350,000 people attending for the weekend. Weather cooperated nicely as most of the festival is outdoors in a 1/2 mile by 1/4 mile area.

Air pressure was low (like being on a high mountain) making my breathing very difficult, so I did not attend. But even on a good day, I wouldn't have been able to walk more than 1/4 to a half a block without turning back out of breath. I miss the festival. I used to attend, & even participate in many of the events there. Then in evenings & night I would DJ, VJ, or run sound for bands for celebrations after the festival. With thousands of people from all over the world here for 2-4 days, they needed to be entertained in the evening & night.

Breathing is better at home as long as I keep the air well filtered, on the cool side, & the humidity below 60%.

Because I got my current kitties after my COPD got bad, they're used to things cool & dry all their life, so don't like heat & humidity at all. We just celebrated their 5th anniversary with me last week... 6 weeks after their 5th birthday.

Below, 2-week forecast for NYC. Of course, those long-range forecasts tend to be way off.

[andyg0404]

Hello everybody and welcome back to My Weekly Flickr

Earlier this week I was in the City and planned on visiting the Met to view the Irving Penn exhibit which I did but not on the first day I thought about it. On that day I stopped at the Frick museum first intending to view their modest Rembrandt exhibit which I assumed I would go through quickly and then continue up to the Met. But when I got to the Frick I realized there was another exhibit in the two basement rooms and I wound up spending a fair amount of time there.  The exhibit was “The Pursuit of Immortality: Masterpieces from the Scher Collection of Portrait Medals.” It was a very large selection of medals starting with the earliest from Renaissance Italy in the 15th Century through the 19th Century. The medals are fascinating and very beautiful, miniature pieces of artwork either cast in metal or struck. This is all explained if you click on the Frick press release at this link   http://www.frick.org/press/pursuit_immortality_masterpieces_scher_collection_portrait_medals It took a long time to go through the exhibit as there are a large number of medals and they’re mounted so you can view both sides. Unlike coins which we refer to as having heads and tails these medals are referred to as the front or obverse which bears a person’s likeness, usually in profile, while the back or reverse presents biographical imagery, such as a coat of arms or personal allegory. This is a good example of the amount of detail depicted in these medals, in this case both front and back. Click on the image to enlarge it, then there’s a button at the bottom which allows you to flip over to view the other side. http://www.frick.org/exhibitions/scher/62   This is a link to all the objects in the exhibit.  http://www.frick.org/exhibitions/scher/all

The other exhibit is, “Divine Encounter: Rembrandt’s Abraham and the Angels.” This consists of one small oil painting of which the title is the subject. In a coincidence I just read a dystopic science fiction book, Hyperion by Dan Simmons, in which Abraham’s almost sacrifice of his son Isaac at God’s behest is part of the plot. I wish I could say how much I enjoyed the book but in truth I found it a slog. Anyway the painting is beautiful and it was surrounded by nine of Rembrandt’s drawings and etchings. You can click on this press release with background information on the painting and Rembrandt’s interest in depicting scenes from the Bible at this link. http://www.frick.org/press/divine_encounter_rembrandt%E2%80%99s_abraham_and_angels_0  This is a link to all ten images in the exhibit. Again, be sure to click on the images to enlarge them. http://www.frick.org/exhibitions/divine_encounter/all

Subsequently I did get to the Met for the Penn exhibit, “Irving Penn Centennial.”   Irving Penn was a fashion photographer for 70 years, working for Vogue Magazine photographing fashion models and celebrities for the covers and interior pages. He was prolific and the exhibit is enormous with more than 200 photographs that encompass all the different topics he shot filling room after room.  There are photos of Lisa Fonssagrives-Penn, a fashion model he married as well as still lifes of flowers, portraits of indigenous peoples in Peru, Morocco, Dahomey and other foreign lands. Working men and women in the United States and overseas, female nude studies and cultural figures such as Richard Burton, Marlene Dietrich, a very young Truman Capote and a rather dissolute older Truman Capote. These portraits were the best of the bunch for me. He also photographed street scrap, especially cigarette butts which sounds odd and was definitely received as being odd at the time they were released.

I love this image of Joe Louis, his feet look like boats.
https://tinyurl.com/ybs2dr59

And this one of the Dusek brothers, four professional wrestlers.
https://tinyurl.com/yafc5aud

And the two Capotes I reference above.
https://tinyurl.com/yc4jfhws
https://tinyurl.com/ybgqzj23

And Picasso who pretended not to be home when Penn and his assistant rang his bell. After Penn’s assistant climbed over the locked gate, Picasso granted the photographer ten minutes. Covering his sweat-shirt with a Spanish cape, Picasso tried to playfully deflect him.
https://tinyurl.com/ya2vb85s

And Audrey Hepburn who was so impossibly young and beautiful and charming.
https://tinyurl.com/y7zutw47

And Marlene Dietrich glancing back at us with a slightly alarmed expression on her face.
https://tinyurl.com/y7djrsna

And a very young, pre Liz, pre excessive drinking Richard Burton looking rather solemn.
http://images.metmuseum.org/CRDImages/ph/web-large/IP_130.jpg

This is a link to all the images in the exhibit.  http://www.metmuseum.org/exhibitions/listings/2017/irving-penn-centennial

This is a link to the NY Times review of the exhibit. https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/20/arts/design/the-met-celebrates-irving-penn-revolutionary-photographer.html?_r=0

This was a fun show to visit and it’s definitely a crowd pleaser if you go by the number of people visiting it along with me.

And now the Flickrs.

Andy G.

Being a sissy is a walk in the park

https://www.flickr.com/photos/22704178@N07/15488152338/

0cf31ff9_o

https://www.flickr.com/photos/18580392@N02/9478979048/

Pink Disney Princess

https://www.flickr.com/photos/41459979@N06/3817551967/

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

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

20170501_121557

https://www.flickr.com/photos/26164114@N08/33995476900/

IMG_3466

https://www.flickr.com/photos/60660709@N04/6024899632/

5d

https://www.flickr.com/photos/147118884@N03/34133438520/

Steph n Cynthia

https://www.flickr.com/photos/stephsdressingservice/34533838175/

Sissy Slut Marilyn

https://www.flickr.com/photos/147604689@N04/33650676674/

Little Red Riding Hood

https://www.flickr.com/photos/107544285@N05/34149626460/