put down your phone

Has to be one of the best commercials of the year:

what richard ate

More news on Richard III, whose remains were discovered beneath a Leichester parking lot in England.

It is now known that Shakespeare's controversial protagonist dined frequently (in real life) on freshwater fish - as well as "exotic" birds like swan, crane and heron.  Analysis of his remains also show that Richard consumed copious amounts of wine and suffered from advanced tooth decay.  Video report here.

*Photo Credit/Via the Guardian, "Digging Up Richard III Will Not Bury Old Arguments."  And, "A painting of Richard III by an unknown artist from the 16th century: the idea of Richard as villain began almost as soon as his reign came to an end. Photograph: Neil Hall/Reuters"

americana

Amy LaVere and Will Sexton in Last Rock N Roll Boy To Dance. ..

in the shop

Arion Press celebrates its 100th book and 40th anniversary with Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass.

big yellow

A new book by Swiss photographer Catherine Leutenegger, Kodak City, "chronicles the decline of Kodak and Rochester, NY, the city built by Big Yellow." 

Also see these motel photographs.

raju

Elephants can weep - really weep.  This "gone viral" animal rescue story makes me think about how we go looking for intelligent life in other galaxies when the "E.T.s," so to speak, live as remarkably right beside us here on this planet. 

We have so much to learn from these magnificent beings.

An update on Raju who currently has a girlfriend.

camden, new jersey

Tenacious gardeners.   Via @SocialMediaMo.

othello

Attended opening night for the GreenStage Shakespeare in the Park summer production of Othello.  Now in its 25th season, Othello marks a "tremendous achievement" for this highly spirited theatrical troupe, making GreenStage one of the few theatre companies in the world to "present the complete canon of plays attributed, all or in part, to William Shakespeare."  

Photo above, via GreenStage, Othello and Desdemona shown in love with one another, while Iago lurks menacingly in the background.

This summer, the company is also putting on Love's Labour's Lost, The Comedy of Errors, and All's Well That Ends Well throughout the lovely, outdoors Puget Sound area.  If you're around, you must see a show (or all of them) one midsummer night's eve (or afternoon).  This is a "happening," so bring a picnic basket, the camping chairs, the extra sweater for the temperature drop, the blankets - to spread out on the greenery to enjoy and appreciate William's work in a way (I fully intuit) William would have fully approved.

Going to these shows is as much an experience in Shakespeare as it is in the process of artistic creation - the actors will involve you - and the audience does too - as Seattleites can be a participatory, responsive crowd - evoking a bawdy, irreverent spirit that must have similarly prevailed during Elizabethan times, and which seems to be the intent of this welcoming, inclusive troupe.  (Though, for this significant Othello opening, Seattleites did seem unusually subdued.)  Otherwise, people may cheer, stomp, call back to actors, laugh or intently scowl during the ongoing scenes.  You mingle with performers putting on their costumes and make-up before the show.  I myself washed my hands with one member at adjoining toilet sinks in the public restrooms they most democratically share with the audience before and during.  Necessity is the Mother of Invention, we are told.  These guys want you to know that you are part of the production, and it works.

You know, I love the park time, too, right before the show begins:  the outdoor air of anticipation, the low appreciative murmur of conversation about the lawn .. lovers lie entangled on their blankets in the dipping sunlight, one or another person reads a program guide, a woman in a lovely white summer dress applies a wedge of red lipstick before daintily arranging her flounce on a small carpet and then, places grapes, one by one, in her mouth.  Another hops cross-legged in camping gear onto a towel, pulls out her Iphone and checks last minute emails before .. turning it off.  Chardonnays sit in buckets of ice, one fellow takes a quick picture for a group, adults of assorted ages and attire hungrily lean over dinner plates passed out, children roll wide-eyed chewing summer picnic fruit, shoes kick off feet, beach chairs fold backwards, chocolate bar concessionaires call out ... then .. more magic ..  we fully hop the rabbit hole ...  the troupe leaps light-footed like antelope across the greenery -- but wait -- it's the movies - there's a preview of coming attractions  .. then ... more actors stride on stage .. the play in question begins.

Yeah, Shakespeare meant this for everyone.

Staged with tasteful, even conceptualist artistry, arranged against the backdrop of green parks and urban landscapes, actors suddenly appearing from the audience, sound effects carefully planned (it is clear) from one location to the other - again - you can be drawn in, so much so, that, as the play opens, I am ready to say something back to Othello when he commands someone to turn off that blasted bell.

Hey, I was already in a heightened state of revery, General, I was at the Henry there, for a moment.  (Maybe with James T. in the Arizona light.)  What do you mean, turn it off?

But that was the last word I got on the subject.

Othello, himself, played by Johnny Patchamatla with (what I found to be) much humility and respect for this towering stage character - takes us into Shakespeare's story of an otherwise admirable man's step-by-step descent into jealousy and paranoia, and ultimately, the destruction of his relationship with his beloved and beautiful wife - Desdemona - and all, at the hands of arch villain Iago, played despicably well by Martyn G. Krouse.  (I mean, to be honest, I really didn't like the guy, as he kept telling us - the audience - how he felt... )

Photo above, courtesy of GreenStage, Iago messes with Othello's head.

Really, modern audiences get it all in this Seattle production, grappling with racism, sexism and misogyny, spousal abuse, psychological intrigue and deceit, (what might be called) Elizabethan office politics, unabashed lewdness, raucous humor, philosophical alpinism, and finally, tragic acts of brutality and murder, personal reconciliations as to the truths about people the characters know or thought they knew and loved (if they're still alive to do so).  This Othello will leave you with further insight into the Galileo-like aspects of William himself, who must have been a deeply observant 16th century man, way ahead of his times, and truly a Renaissance type of human.

The Elizabethans, too, had a lot more going on than we might think, William reminds us.  The women, for one, are very important in this play.  Only three characters, they include the brave and loving Desdemona, played by Libby Barnard - who elopes against her father's wishes with "the Moor";  Ashley Flannegan Russell, a plucky and reflective Emilia, unhappily married - and the only one who seems to know the truth about "honest Iago," though not yet willing to face the truth as to how far this villain will actually go.  Emily Feliciano plays Bianca, Cassio's lover.

Well, that's just for starters.  More on the cast here.  Now go and see for yourself.  Directed by Teresa Thurman, performances are free, though donations are heartily welcomed, and  you can congratulate and chat with the actors mingling and passing the hats afterwards.  Please give something, if you can.  Free Shakespeare in the park is a wonderful experience, a life blood coursing through the veins of healthy urban environments.  Way to go, Seattleites.  Way to go, GreenStage.  Keep it up.

*Quotation via GreenStage program guide, via director Teresa Thurman.

oldest known music

Guess that rhythm.  It was written 3,400 years ago on clay tablets in the ancient Syrian city of Ugarit using cuneiform signs in the hurrian language.   

Via Open Culture - listen here.

ladies of the world

Ironical, funny retro take with a bigger message.  From Flight of the Condor's 4.21.08 album;  you tell 'em, lads.

precision landing

or, punklandung,

when you're with me, i can fly ..

"Eclectic adventurist" Raul Midón in Sunshine at Joe's Pub.  Via @Joshua_Zer0.

 

the land of peace and bliss

From TeamLabNet:

americana

Photography by James Brodribb.

in the gallery

Once again, visionary American folk artist Leon Kennedy;  this time, at Uptown Gallery.

street fashion

At ease in baseball caps.

spring nyc

Couldn't resist this little charmer for NYC's Louie and Chan's at 303 Broome Street between Forsyth & Elizabeth in Chinatown/ Lower East Side.  Great menu selections, too.

vending machines

Around the world with 26 of the weird and wonderful.

And coming to a lobby near someone soon...

This isn't that modern, incidentally. 

According to wiki, a first century engineer and mathematician, Hero of Alexandria, invented a device that accepted a coin and dispensed holy water.  (The deposited coin fell on a pan attached to a lever;  the lever then opened a valve which let water flow out.)  Also, in the early 1600s, English taverns already contained vending machines that dispensed tobacco.

As for banned goods of the "weirder yet," an 1800s English bookseller named Richard Carlile devised a vending machine that distributed forbidden literature.  Mr. Carlile was an important champion for freedom of the press;  he was jailed in England for his writing, and prosecuted for publishing Thomas Paine's Common Sense, The Rights of Man and the Age of Reason.

*Photo credit, via Wikipedia, Minnesota Historical Society, "This vending machine was made by National Vendors, Inc., of 50555 Natural Bridge, St. Louis 15, Missouri, circa 1952, though there appear to be patent dates on the machine as late as 1960."

orange moon

Yes, that's what I am .. from Erykah Badu ..

the eclipse

Photos of last night's total lunar eclipse at the Weather Channel.

The eclipse was the first of four consecutive total lunar eclipses, known as a "tetrad," between April 2014 and September 2015.

That's not all:

Astronomer Bob Berman, who hosted a live lunar eclipse webcast for the Slooh community telescope using views from Arizona's Prescott Observatory, said event was also one for the record books because of another bright object in the predawn sky.

"It was the most special one, I would say, of our lives," Berman said during the Slooh webcast. "What made it particularly extraordinary was that it happened on the same night as the closest approach of Mars to Earth in years."

Mars made its closest approach to Earth since 2008 on Monday night (April 14), coming within 57.4 million miles (92.4 million km) of our planet.

The star Spica was near too.

If you didn't stay up late - or it was too cloudy - join star gazers on youtube for what was a twelve and a half hour all-nighter in Los Angeles, or citizen scientists with the Gloria Project transmitting from Saksaywaman on the outskirts of Cusco, Peru, the former capital of the Inca Empire.

Hmmm.   More here on why yesterday night's event is called "a blood moon."

*Photo credit, via Dusty Diary,  poem by Ypsilanti poet-farmer William Lambie about the November 15, 1891 lunar eclipse, published in the November 20, 1891 "Ypsilanti Commercial."

scotland

Photograph by Martin Parr.  He says, "I don't record just pure natural beauty.  That's not what I'm into."  

More.

in the subway

Jilly Ballistic afoot in NYC's underground. 

street fashion

Milan men's shawl.

marthe de florian

A 1940s Paris time capsule discovered in the apartment of one Madame de Florian, whose grandmother was the actress Marthe de Florian, and a muse of painter Giovanni Boldini (1884-1931), born in Italy, died in France, known as "Master of Swish."  One of his love letters to the actress (along with the painting shown left) was discovered in a Right Bank apartment the granddaughter fled during the second World War.  The apartment was never reentered until after her death in southern France in 2010.

Via Michelle Gable, Madame de Florian's grandmother was also a demimondaines, one of a group of very wealthy courtesans during the Parisian Gilded Age or Belle Époque (1871-1914) - known for drinking, gambling, drug use, and excessive spending on clothing.  They lived extravagant lifestyles provided by wealthy, well known lovers, one of whom, in this case, was the famous painter Giovanni Boldini, as well as the 72nd prime minister of France, George Clemenceau, a statesman known as "Père la Victoire" (Father Victory) or "Le Tigre" (The Tiger) who led France into the first World War and was one of the principal architects of the heavily punitive Treaty of Versailles.  When war first broke out, happy go lucky Parisians danced to initial news in the streets, unaware of the cataclysmic events also about to bring their Marthe de Florian Gilded Age to a grinding halt.  A George Clémenceau portrait was painted by Édouard Manet in 1879-1880, and Ferdinand Roybet painted a portrait of his wife, American born Mary (Plummer) Clémenceau .  The Clemenceaus had three children together, and although George had many lovers, including the captivating Marthe de Florian, when Mary Plummer decided to have her own affair with the children's tutor, he had her arrested, jailed for 2 weeks, stripped of her French nationality, and, then sent back to the U.S. on a third class steamer while taking custody of all the children.  On the other hand, another report has a separated (but never divorced) Mary Plummer becoming a magazine writer and tour guide, while raising a daughter Madeline who becomes a famous journalist, public speaker, and Red Cross nurse.  While Paris is under siege, Madeline's mother refuses Clémenceau's offer of evacuation and remains in France.

The first painting, shown above, of Madame de Florian's grandmother Marthe, discovered in this time  capsuled Parisian apartment in 2010, ultimately sold for €2.1 million.  The second painting, shown above, of Le Tigre's scarlet lettered Mary Plummer is reported by Wikipedia as unknown in its present whereabouts.

*Photo credit/top, via Wikipedia, Portrait of the actress Marthe de Florian aged 24 in 1898, by the artist Giovanni Boldini/second, via Wikipedia, portrait of Mary (Plummer) Clémenceau, by the artist Ferdinand Roybet - date of painting unreported, location of painting reported unknown.