Poor guy. He was just hanging out on my backlog of Though of Day bioBLOGS minding his own business, being all cool and painterly. Then the spammers found him and flooded my in box like some hundred years flood sweeping through the Hudson River Valley. This week there seems to be a plethora of Dumpster For Hire individuals who are interested in 19th Century art. God bless them. I’m not sure if my favorite is the one that claims the blog “is pretty worth enough for me.” Or the one who lets me know that “ontinuously i used to read smaller articles or reviews that as well clear their motive, and that is also happening with this paragraph which I am reading at this time.” [Has a kind of “In vain I have tried” feel to it, but not.] I’ll be taking down ‘ole Tom’s blog and re-posting it in a nice, clean (hopefully) spam-free post later today. Just thought you should know. Cheers, Rita
RitaDOESlovetoWRITE just not today
Dear Reader,
I’ve had an achingly busy day.
One of my passions our local high school theatre and I volunteered to do the program for their musical (with a wonderful student director as my side kick/cohort in crime.) And today is THE DAY when it all hits the fan. It is also the day that my regular freelance gig happened to hit (it was delayed).
So instead of writing about Jadwiga of Poland — who was not only a 14th century Queen, but a KING, and not only a KING but a SAINT! — I am putting the finishing touches on this little booklet.
Kind of reminds me of the VeggieTales song… you know… the one that never ends. UGHHH must get away from this computer!!!!
Anyway hopefully I’ll be back soon.
Portrait of Queen Jadwiga of Poland. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
How awesome is she???
Red Barber 2.17.13 Thought of the Day
“Baseball is dull only to dull minds.”–Red Barber
Red Barber, sportscaster (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Walter Lanier “Red Barber was born on this day in Columbus, Mississippi , USA in 1908. today is the 105th anniversary of his birth.
When he was ten his family moved from Mississippi to Sanford, Florida. At 21 he entered the University of Florida where he made ends meet by working part-time as a janitor. His broadcasting career started by accident. Barber was cleaning at the college’s radio station when the featured guest, an agriculture professor, failed to show. The station’s manager grabbed Red and had him fill the air time by reading the professor’s paper on “Certain Aspects of Bovine Obstetrics.” He was hooked — on broadcasting, not animal husbandry, and he changed his major. He became the Voice of Florida Football the next fall.
In 1934 Barber broadcast the first Major League Baseball game he ever saw, calling play-by-plays for the Cinicatti Reds against the Cubs. (The Cubs won in a 6-0 shut out.) Gor 33 years from the mid 30s to the 1960s Barber worked as a play-by-play announcer for the Reds, the Brooklyn Dodgers and the New York Yankees. He sprinkled his broadcasts with colloquialisms called BARBARisms like “sitting in the cat bird seat” “OH Doctor” “tearin’ up the Pea Patch” “Walkin in tall cotton” and “Tighter than a new pair of shoes on a rainy day.”
He learned about Branch Rickey’s decision to integrate the Dodgers before the manager offered Jackie Robinson a contract and became one of Robinson’s biggest supporters.
In 1954 he switched to the Yankees and called games for the Bronx Bombers for another decade before retiring as a Major League Baseball announcer. But in 1981 he came out of retirement to hold a weekly “conversation” with NPR’s Bob Edwards on Morning Edition. They talked about Sports, Florida, Barber’s cats and the state of camellias in his garden.
Barber died in 1992 in Tallahassee.
Secondary Character Saturday Aragorn
- “I am Aragorn son of Arathorn, and am called Elessar, the Elfstone, Dúnadain, the heir of Isildur Elendil’s son of Gondor. Here is the sword that was broken and is forged again! Will you aid me or thwart me? Choose swiftly!” [The Two Towers]
Viggio Morgenson as Aragorn in the Peter Jackson Lord of the Rings: Return of the King. [Image courtesy: Wikia.com]
- Who: AragornFrom: The Lord of the RingsWritten by: JRR Tolkien
Date Published: July 21, 1954
Last week I profiled Samwise, this week it is Aragorn’s turn. Aragorn is the star of his story arc, but he’s not the main character of TLOTRs. That said, his story arc is a lovely one. Left to the protection of the Elves of Rivendell as a child when his father is killed by Orcs he lives a secret life. As an adult he goes from being a Ranger ( some one generally considered to be a dangerous and unsavory character) to King.
Pros: Brave, skilled, humble, kind to those who are weaker than he is. He’s good with horses. He’s handsome, and he can sing.
Cons: A reluctant hero he hesitates when it comes to taking on responsibility and the burden of leadership.
Shining moments:
- Aragorn puts aside his fear and grief and finally takes control of the Fellowship after Gandalf’s fall in the mines of Moria. By the sheer force of his will he gets them out and to the safety of Lothlórien, It is a huge turning point for him. He’s spent his entire life avoiding leadership, and staying safely hidden among the elves or anonymously hidden in the trees. But now he has takes the lead in a life and death situation.
- He braved the paths of the dead in Dwimerberg and took charge of the ghost army in Return of the King. He used the grim army to defeat the Orcs at the Battle of the Pelennor Fields. He had promised to release them from their curse at the end of the battle. He could have kept the ghost army under his power and forced them to fight for him at the gate of Mordor, but he honorably kept to his promise and let them go.
- Of course Aragorn unites the Northern and Southern kingdoms and… gets the girl.
Least shining moment: He spent much of his life shirking his duties as king. “He didn’t want to step into that position, which is understandable… but still, when the world is crumbling around you … you have step up”. — Dave
Coat of arms from J. R. R. Tolkien’s Middle-earth. Español: Escudo de Gondor, reino de la Tierra Media de J. R. R. Tolkien. Français : Blason du Gondor, royaume de la Terre du Milieu de J. R. R. Tolkien. Italiano: Stemma di Gondor, reame della Terra di Mezzo creata da J. R. R. Tolkien. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
- Thanks to Bill, Maggie, Dave and John for contributing to their thoughts to this Blog Post.
- ———————
- On a lighter side Bill adds to Aragorn’s Cons that…He smoked and that he was too cheap to buy his own sword so he has to make the elves put a broken one together for him.
-
Strider, aka Aragorn (Photo credit: Dunechaser)
Related articles
- J.R.R. Tolkien: The Lord of the Rings (ingvar.blog.redpill-linpro.com)
- Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings Trilogy: Rich with Christian Symbols (xirlleelang.wordpress.com)
Ernest Shackleton 2.15.13 Thought of the Day
“Difficulties are just things to overcome, after all.” — Ernest Shackleton
Sir Ernest Shackleton (Photo credit: Marxchivist)
Gentleman and adventurer…
Captain, March 1917, Cover of the popular English magazine with Ernest Shackleton back from his epic expedition South This picture is the copyright of the Lordprice Collection and is reproduced on Wikipedia with their permission Source URL http://www.lordprice.co.uk/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=CTGY&Category_Code=Antarctic (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Ernest Henry Shackleton was born on this day in Kilkea, County Kildare, Ireland in 1874. Today is the 139th anniversary of his birth.
Ernest was the second of ten children born to Henry and Henrietta Shackleton. His father was a land owner, but he gave up farming for medicine shortly after Ernest’s birth. When the boy was six the family moved to Sydenham, London, England. He joined the merchant navy at 16.
Shackleton went on his first polar journey in 1901. He was chosen to join Robert Scott on an expedition to the South Pole. He, Scott and one other companion “trekked towards the South Pole in extremely difficult conditions, getting closer to the Pole than anyone had come” [BBC History] before turning back.
He returned to Antarctica as the head of expedition in 1908 aboard the Nimrod. “He was knighted on his return to Britain.” [Ibid] But it was his third journey to the South Pole that is one of legend.
Endurance final sinking in Antarctica (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
In 1914 Shackleton and the crew of the Endurance headed south determined to cross the Antarctic continent via the South Pole. The ship was trapped in the ice of the Weddell Sea in 1915 and was crushed in October.
Shackleton’s crew had already abandoned the ship to live on the floating ice. In April 1916, they set off in three small boats, eventually reaching Elephant Island. Taking five crew members, Shackleton went to find help. In a small boat, the six men spent 16 days crossing 1,300 km of ocean to reach South Georgia and then trekked across the island to a whaling station. [Ibid]
The men on Elephant Island were rescued in August, and, amazingly, no one in the crew died.
Launch of the James Caird from the shore of Elephant Island. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
His memoir of the journey was published in “Endurance” in 1919. (If he had any luck on the journey it was in taking along Photographer Frank Hurley who took stunning still and motion pictures of the Endurance and her crew.)
Shackleton made a finale trip south in 1922, this time bent on circumnavigating Antarctic. He made it to South Georgia Island. On January 5, he had a heart attack and died.
![Glimpse of the Ship ['Endurance'] through Humm...](https://i0.wp.com/farm3.static.flickr.com/2450/3535447612_086eaf5459.jpg "Glimpse of the Ship ['Endurance'] through Humm...")
Glimpse of the Ship [‘Endurance’] through Hummocks, 1915 / photographed by Frank Hurley (Photo credit: State Library of New South Wales collection)
More reading:
South: The Story of Shackleton’s Last Expedition (1914-1917) by Sir Ernest Shackleton
Endurance: Shackleton’s Incredible Voyage by Alfred Lansing
And watch:
Shackleton – The Greatest Survival Story of All Time (3-Disc Collector’s Edition) Starring Kenneth Branagh
South Starring Ernest Shackleton, Frank Worsley, J. Stenhouse, et al. (The original silent movie by Frank Hurley)
Frederick Douglas 2.14.13 Thought of the Day
It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men.
Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey was born on this day in Talbot County, Maryland, USA in 1818. Today is the 195th anniversary of his birth.
The exact day and year of his birth is unknown, but he decided on February 14th, 1818. He never met his father, a white man, and almost never saw his mother. He lived with his grandparents in their cabin west of the Tuckahoe Creek. In his first autobiography he wrote:
“I do not recollect ever seeing my mother by the light of day. … She would lie down with me, and get me to sleep, but long before I waked she was gone.” [Narrative of the life of Frederick Douglass, an American slave. Written by himself. (1851)
At seven he was sent to Wye House plantation near Easton, in Talbot County, Maryland. Soon he was sent to Hugh Auld a Baltimore carpenter. Auld’s wife, Sophia, taught him to read until the master (her husband) stopped her. Hugh Auld thought teaching slaves lead to rebellious slaves. Frederick practiced reading and writing in secret. When he was in Baltimore he heard about Abolition for the first time, and in 1831 he read an article “on John Quincy Adams’s antislavery petitions in Congress” [Frederick Douglass Timeline]
At 13 he was sent to the shipping town of St. Michael’s, Maryland to work for Thomas Auld. When Auld discovered that Frederick was teaching other slaves to read he rented him out to a brutal slavebreaker, Edward Covey.”The treatment he received was indeed brutal. Whipped daily and barely fed, Douglass was “broken in body, soul, and spirit.” “ [PBS.org]
In 1838 he was back in Baltimore hired out to work as a caulker in a shipyard. He made his escape to freedom by…
Travelling by train, then steamboat, then train, he arrived in New York City the following day. Several weeks later he had settled in New Bedford, Massachusetts, living with his newlywed bride (whom he met in Baltimore and married in New York) under his new name, Frederick Douglass. [Ibid]
Douglass became active in the Abolitionist movement. He became a “licensed preacher for the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church.” [Frederick Douglass Timeline] In 1841 he spoke at an antislavery meeting in New Bedford about his life in Maryland. The Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society hired him as a speaker.
English: Portrait of Frederick Douglass as a younger man (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Some people didn’t believe that a former slave could speak so eloquently and assumed Douglass was a fraud. In response to that criticism he wrote Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass. In 1845 he toured England and Ireland to raise money to buy his freedom. (Auld manumitted him for $711.66.) Douglass used the remaining money from the Great Britain tour to buy a printing press and began to publish the North Star, a weekly Abolitionist paper. The paper later became the Frederick Douglass’ Paper and is joined in 1859 by the Douglass’ Monthy.
In 1855 he published his second autobiography, My Bondage and My Freedom. During the American Civil War Douglass was a recruiter for the all African-American 54th Massachusetts Infantry.
After the ratification of the 13th Amendment to the Constitution (which outlaws slavery) Douglass continued to fight for civil rights and woman’s rights. A fringe political party, The Equal Rights Party nominated Douglass as its vice-presidential Nominee in 1872.
The title page of the 1845 edition of Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
In 1881 he published his final autobiography, The Life and Times of Frederick Douglass.
He was appointed to the post of US Marshal of the District of Columbia and the Recorder of Deed of the District of Columbia before becoming Minister Resident and Consul General to the Republic of Haiti in 1889.
Frederick Douglass (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Frederick Douglass died on February 20th, 1895 of heart failure.
Related articles
- How Frederick Douglass’s first speech got him noticed (constitutioncenter.org)
- D.C.’s Frederick Douglas statue to move to U.S. Capitol Building (wjla.com)
Grant Wood 2.13.13 Thought of the Day
“All the good ideas I ever had came to me while I was milking a cow” –Grant Wood
![Self Portrait [Image courtesy: Wikipedia]](https://ritalovestowrite.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/grant_wood.jpg)
Self Portrait [Image courtesy: Wikipedia]
Grant DeVolson Wood was born on this day outside Anamosa, Iowa, USA in 1891. today is the 122nd anniversary of his birth.
Growing up on a farm Grant helped with the chores and raised his own goats and poultry. He liked to draw from a young age and used home-made charcoal sticks made of burnt wood from his mother’s stove.
![Near Sundown Wood [Image courtesy: Wikipedia]](https://ritalovestowrite.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/nearsundown_wood.jpg)
Near Sundown Wood [Image courtesy: Wikipedia]
After he graduated in 1910, Grant did a lot of different things. He took art classes, taught art, made jewelry, learned carpentry, decorated people’s houses and cared for his mother and his sister Nan….He loved gadgets and making things, and he worked slowly and carefully at all of his crafts. He was even able to use his artistic talent when he joined the army during World War 1. His job was to paint camouflage on tanks and cannons. [Grant Wood Art Gallery]
After the war he traveled to Europe to study the 19th Century French Impressionist. Upon returning to the States he set off on his own style of painting, American Regionalism.
![Appraisal [Image courtesy: Wikipedia]](https://ritalovestowrite.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/grant_wood_appraisal.jpg)
Appraisal [Image courtesy: Wikipedia]
Going back to Iowa, for Grant Wood, was the formative experience in his artistic life. It was the return to his home state that prompted his painting to take a distinctive turn–towards regionalism, towards American subjects, towards the nineteenth century, towards an affectionate and yet ironic vision of his country and its history…[Virginia.edu]
He hit the peak of his popularity during the great depression.
His vision of the American heartland seemed to touch a troubled country deeply; his paintings offered a land that responded to cultivation lusciously rather than blowing away in the tornadoes of the dustbowl, as well as farmers and their families who offered a bounty with round and blushing cheeks. [Ibid]
He started the Stone City Art Colony and Art School with Adrian Dornbush and Edward Rowan in 1932. With the help of the Public Works of Art Project and the Civil Works Administration Grant employed many of the artist who lived at the Colony to produce murals in public buildings like court houses and post offices.
English: This is one of the digitized images of the original painting American Gothic that Grant DeVolson Wood, a master artist of the twentieth century, created in 1930 and sold to the Art Institute of Chicago in November of the same year. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
He taught painting at University of Iowa from 1934 -1941.
Wood died of pancreatic cancer on February 12 in 1942.
![Daughters of the Revolution [Image courtesy: Wikipedia]](https://ritalovestowrite.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/450px-grant_woods_daughters_of_revolution.jpg)
Daughters of the Revolution [Image courtesy: Wikipedia]
Grant used his sister Nan and their family dentist as subjects for his famous painting, American Gothic. The image has been updated and satired endlessly. Here are a few examples…
from soldiers and airline workers
Soldiers
Airline employees
to celebrates…
Paris and Nicole
Amy and Sheldon (From the Big Bang Theory)
to politicians…
Sarah Palin and John McCain
Michelle and Barack Obama
to just plain weird stuff…
security cameras
And you know if there’s a lego version out there… I’m gonna put it in.
Abraham Lincoln 2.12.13 Thoughts of the Day
Abraham Lincoln was born on this day near Hodgenville, Harden Co., Kentucky in 1809. Today is the 204th anniversary of his birth.
I’m going to assume that you are all familiar with the 16th President of United States — the man who grew up in a log cabin, was a simple country lawyer and went on to become president during this country’s darkest days. [For more information on his life might I suggest the White House.gov biography, Lincoln’s write-up on Biography.com , or the article on History.com ] Frankly, there is little I can bring to the table that you don’t already know or couldn’t read about on more lofty websites… so instead I thought I’d bring you my favorite Lincoln quotes.
- Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak out and remove all doubt.
- Sir, my concern is not whether God is on our side; my greatest concern is to be on God’s side, for God is always right.
- You can fool all the people some of the time, and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time.
- In the end, it’s not the years in your life that count. It’s the life in your years.
- Character is like a tree and reputation like a shadow. The shadow is what we think of it; the tree is the real thing.
- Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe.
- Whatever you are, be a good one.
- Be sure you put your feet in the right place, then stand firm.
- The things I want to know are in books; my best friend is the man who’ll get me a book I ain’t read.
- No man has a good enough memory to be a successful liar.
- I destroy my enemies when I make them my friends.
- My great concern is not whether you have failed, but whether you are content with your failure.
- It has been my experience that folks who have no vices have very few virtues.
- If I were two-faced, would I be wearing this one?
- I want it said of me by those who knew me best, that I always plucked a thistle and planted a flower where I thought a flower would grow.
- The time comes upon every public man when it is best for him to keep his lips closed.
Abraham Lincoln (Photo credit: George Eastman House)
Lastly if you haven’t had a chance to see the Steven Spielberg film LINCOLN with Daniel Day-Lewis as the President, I recommend it. Why not Celebrate Lincoln’s birthday watching this tribute to the man’s indomitable spirit?
——————-
UPDATE: Daniel Day Lewis won the Oscar last night for his amazing portrayal of Lincoln. Well deserved!
Daniel Day Lewis embodied Lincoln in last year’s Oscar nominated the Steven Speilberg movie.
Daniel Day Lewis won the BEST ACTOR OSCAR for his performance of Lincoln.
Daniel Day Lewis embodied Lincoln in last year’s Oscar nominated the Steven Speilberg movie.
Artist Roy De Forest 2.11.13 Thought of the Day
![De Forest with his dog [Image courtesy: UC Davis]](https://ritalovestowrite.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/roydeforest_w-uc-davis.jpg)
De Forest with his dog [Image courtesy: UC Davis]
He grew up in Nebraska and Yakima, Washington. He studied math and humanities at Yakima Junior College, receiving his associate degree in 1950. Later he went to the California School of Fine Art in San Francisco to study art. After graduation he joined the Army. After serving in the Army he earned his master’s degree at San Francisco State University.
By 1955 he had his first show. He was a “founding father” of the UC Davis Art Department. He started at the University in 1965 and worked there until he retired in 1992.
![Young General George (1976) [Image Courtesy: ]](https://ritalovestowrite.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/young-general-george-1976.jpg)
Young General George (1976) [Image Courtesy: Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts]
His artworks are populated with a menagerie of creatures – some identifiably of this world, others inhabitants of some purely imaginary land, all living narrative lives in some unbounded territory between reality and magic. In addition to the wonder and joy of his imagery, Roy was known as an artist’s artist. He constantly found new ways to apply paint/pigment/mark to paper/canvas/wood. [University of California memorial]
Today Roy De Forest’s canvases can be found at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art the Hirshorn Museum in Washington, D.C. The Boston Museum of Fine Arts, and The Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris (and more).
A “Roy De Forest Retrospective Exhibition” originated in 1974 at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and traveled to the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City the following year. [Ibid]
The artist died at the age of 77 in May of 2007.
![Canis Prospectus (1986) [Image Courtesy: Preview Art]](https://ritalovestowrite.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/canis-prospectus-1986.jpg)
Canis Prospectus (1986) [Image Courtesy: Preview Art]
![Dogs were an important subject in De Forest's work. [Image courtesy SFMOMA]](https://ritalovestowrite.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/73-32_01_d02.jpg)
Dogs were an important subject in De Forest’s work. [Image courtesy SFMOMA]
Trouble with Bovine Quarters (Image courtesy: George Adams Gallery )
![Goat Daze [Image Courtesy: George Adams Gallery.]](https://ritalovestowrite.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/goat-daze.jpg)
Goat Daze [Image Courtesy: George Adams Gallery.]
I kept this bioBLOG intentionally brief because a) I couldn’t find out a lot about DeForest and B) I wanted to spend more time showing you his awesome art than talking about him.
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