Happy Halloween TIME: Clocks by Salvador Dali

These are two works by Salvador Dali, a painter I admire for the techniques he masters, that talks about time.

Time is never enough and one of the reasons for stress.

That is why I did chose time as a theme for this Halloween.

Happy Halloween! The next one is just around the corner and it seems it was yesterday I wrote this post, and this one about last year's Halloween.

Paris Hilton love and hate list

I was concerned that Paris Hilton has never appeared in this blog and, let's face it, a blog that doesn't have a post about this woman is not worth reading.

So here she is! She love presents, pink, chocolate, animals... and puppies and bought many along the years! You can see the beautiful Gucci or Louis Vuitton(?) bag she bought to incarcerate the dog she just bought.

Buying is the verb of this woman an activity she loves and practice very often.

You can notice that all she listed are things and stuffs that are consumable. Friends? Yes, they are supposed to be priceless but some people say that everybody has a price and she said "I love animals better than people." And she like to meet her friends to gossip.

I wonder what happens at a meeting when one of the friends is not there.

She is very sensitive! As you can see she has a great fake crying.

I loved that!

Happy Halloween!

Philadelphia

Great movie and this song by Neil Young touches my soul in a way that I don't have words to express what I feel. The piano is amazing!

Have a great weekend.

Update November, 13

Ken left a comment and reminded that yesterday was Neil Young Birthday.

Happy Birthday Neil Young!

Reminder: The music is not "The streets of Philadelphia" by Bruce Springsteen.

Posters of some unforgettable movies

It's not easy to make a list of movies most people like. I will try.

Hope you like these and name some movies you will never forget.

Thank you!

Humor: At the Art Gallery

The Moulin de la Galette by Renoir and Picasso

This is the moulin de la galette where people went to dance instead of watching dancers like in the moulin rouge.

It was depicted by some impressionists like Renoir, right painting, and also by Picasso, left.

"An artist, under pain of oblivion, must have confidence in himself, and listen only to his real master: Nature."

August Renoir

"Painting is a blind man's profession. He paints not what he sees, but what he feels, what he tells himself about what he has seen."

Pablo Picasso

These quotations explain a little the difference of both painters.

Duck's travels

bottom-left : Flickr By martytdx

bottom-right: Flickr By annkelliott

Ingres and Goya's works that inspired Robert Ballagh

Left: The Turkish Bath, 1862, by Ingres

Right: The Shootings of May Third 1808, 1814, by Francisco Goya

As I promises yesterday these are the paintings by Ingres and Goya that Robert Ballagh celebrates (post below). If you want to know more about Goya you can read this article by Kenneth Clark.

Robert Ballagh dialog with tradition

"Robert Ballagh is an Irish artist born in Dublin. He graduated from the Dublin Institute of Technology. He is both a painter and designer. His painting style was strongly influenced by pop art and his paintings are often playful and didactic. He began with an apprenticeship to the painter Michael Farrell and taught himself the rest."

Left: it is based on an Ingres work

Right: it is based on a Goya.

Still don't know? Tomorrow they will be here.

The Great Odalisque by Jean Dominique Ingres

Left: The Great Odalisque, 1814, by Ingres Right: Detail

Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm

I like this song and, please, take good care of children.

Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm

Crash Test Dummies

Once there was this kid who
Got into an accident and couldn't come to school
But when he finally came back
His hair had turned from black into bright white
He said that it was from when
The car had smashed so hard
 Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm
Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm

Once there was this girl who
Wouldn't go and change with the girls in the change room
But when they finally made her
They saw birthmarks all over her body
She couldn't quite explain it
They'd always just been there
 Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm
Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm

 But both girl and boy were glad
'Cause one kid had it worse than that '
Cause then there was this boy whose
Parents made him come directly home right after school
And when they went to their church
They shook and lurched all over the church floor
 He couldn't quite explain it
They'd always just gone there
 Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm
Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm

Lions all around the world

Left: Picture by Ramat gan in Israel Right: Picture by Per Gunnar Ostby in Botswana

The Black Cat by Edgar Allan Poe: Gothic literature

The Black Cat is one of the most famous of Poe's short stories and you can read, or reread, it here.

At this site you can find the summary and some aspects of the story in a very informal way.

This is the text about it's Gothic characteristics:

The Black Cat as Gothic Literature

by Caleb Guard

"One of Edgar Allan Poe's most famously read and celebrated stories is "The Black Cat." Like most of his other stories, "The Black Cat" follows the Gothic convention of literature, a style that explores humanity's fear and fascination with the unknown. Although it originated in Germany, it was revived in the 1700's. Gothic literature investigates man's emotions, particularly fear, in the face of forces we cannot comprehend. Typical motifs of this type include darkness, horrid figures, grotesque imagery, illusion, and spaces. Stories of this sort strip us of our understanding, and sensationalize us, giving us a thrilling sense of terror that we enjoy.

Although Perverseness is the theme of Poe's story, he uses the feeling of guilt as a kind of fear. By detailing the decline in the main character's mental state throughout the story, Poe demonstrates the loss of control over one's own behavior and the horrifying effects, touching on the fear of one's own self as fear of the unknown. The narrator beings the tail claiming to be perfectly sane, but over time his account shows that he indeed has a spirit of perverseness that surprises even himself. Through a series of violent acts, he brings about his own destruction. The elements of horror in this tale are very apparent.

One primary element of gothic literature is the superstitious blurring of the line between the normal and the fantastic. Poe accomplishes this in a number of ways. The narrator, for example, is unreliable, being insane. In his account, he claims that the exact shape of a cat hanging on a noose was imprinted on a wall in the ruins of his old home. Although he tries to explain it naturally, it seems that there may be supernatural elements at work. The changing shape of the gallows on the new cat's white spot have similar effects. The narrator's wife even had a suspicion of black cats.

Revenants and haunts from the dead are often prevalent in Gothic literature. In the story, the second cat the narrator happens upon is a double of the first, and represents a revenant or ghost of the first-the one he killed. When the narrator kills his wife and walls her up, he attributes the scream from inside to the cat, although he describes it as sounding very human, as if his wife's ghost had screamed.

Gothic architecture plays with open spaces and depicts the decay and gnarling of human creations. Likewise, Poe explores a lot of psychological space in his story, and takes the reader on an emotional tour through the mind of a madman until reaching his final emotional breakdown and mental defeat. Poe's narrator is so perverse that his mind eventually becomes so twisted it is inhumane. The narrator could almost be described as a Byronic hero, being a flawed and tragic protagonist who is a danger to himself and others. Such a character is again typical of the old Gothic romances.

As Gothic movement was in part a rejection of neoclassical rationalism, so does Poe defy all logical explanation of the events in his story, his narrator being completely vexed by his own uncontrollable actions. The destruction of his house, and the eerie basement of his new one are representatives of usual structural motifs of Gothic variety. He explores perverseness as a thematic gateway to inner, inexplicable terror. "Terror is not of Germany," Poe once said, "but of the soul." Thus he revitalized in Victorian America a genre that had all but lost popularity until his time."

The four dogs

I just found it at a blog I didn't took note and couldn't help sharing.

Update:

I took this picture from Mariane's anthing goes :)

Cezanne's studio in Aix en Provence

This is Cezanne's, "the father of modern art", studio in Aix en Provence where he spent most of his time. " A long shelf is hung on the western wall... A table, a drawer, a short ladder, a high easel, a potbellied store, a sofa, a few chairs, the items that posed for his "still life", are basically the only furniture present in the closed world of Cézanne. a few locally decorated vases, a ginger jar and an olive pot, a fruit bowl, a plate, a glass, a bottle of rum, three skulls, a little "plaster cupid" by Francois Dusquenoy are still today the famous models of the painter." You can find more here.

I won the Prolific Blog Award - Prolific? Me? I don't understand why anybody would think of me as prolific because I do my best, all I can not to talk

I wonder why the title has a certain amount of characters that we can not exceed. What if we want to give a synopses of what is in the post? The title would be more... I will write a post about it.

Now I want to thank Herrad for this award. Almost all awards I have came from her and this is an extra bonus because she is quite a woman.

I will come back after lunch to pass my list.

Thank you Herrad.

I think of these awards as something that unite bloggers and an opportunity of telling others that we appreciate them.

This is the first list:

Balqis at Part and Parcel of Life

Mariane at Anthing goes :)

Shoaib at Smaleque's Blog

Steve at El Blog de Steve

Tommaso at Emgrammi

Zezebel at Princess Zezebel Lair

Stephanie at Stephanie's Confession.

Bellestina at Elegy of the Euphoric .

I know that some bloggers don't like putting awards at their sites but I'm choosing some of them to show I like them. They understand.

The English Language in 24 accents

Truseneye92 | 18 de setembro de 2010

"Me attempting to do 24 different accents from my own country and from other countries around the world. Hopefully I got most of them right but I may have made mistakes and I can do some better than others. However, I made this video for my friends because I promised them I would do an accent video. I mean no offence to anyone and please don't be upset if I have not included your specific accent or got it wrong."

This boy is really talented! I'm sure you will like it. He also do French, Italian, Russian, Chinese, Japanese and other accents. Funny and witty!

Cézanne's still-life inspiring Gauguin and Maurice Denis

Compotier with Glass, 1879-1822 by Cézanne

As I pointed in Toulouse-Lautrec's Van Gogh portrait impressionists used to homage their friends by depicting oeuvres of each other.

"Compotier with glass" is at the background of "Portrait of a woman with Cezanne's Still Life" by Gauguin who owned the painting for a period of time, and also at Maurice Denis's "Homage to Cézanne".

In Gauguin's work the painting is part of the structure of the picture, it is the background of the scene but it treated in such a space that it doesn't lose importance.

Maurice Denis put Cezanne's work exposed in an art gallery surrounded by friends and critics.

If you write "still-life" in a search engineering it's almost certain that Cézanne will be on top because his influence is still present in our times.

Paul Gauguin

Right: When will you marry?, 1892

Left: The day of the God, 1894

"I shut my eyes in order to see."

"It is the eye of ignorance that assigns a fixed and unchangeable color to every object; beware of this stumbling block."

"Art requires philosophy, just as philosophy requires art. Otherwise, what would become of beauty?"

Paul Gauguin

February 15, 2003 - Iraq Anti-invasion Protest Day and Malachi Ritscher self-immolation as a protest

Left: Anti-war protesters demonstrate near the United Nations headquarters - AP

Right: Thousands gathered at the centre of Amsterdam's -AFP

February 15, 2003 protests against Iraq invasion put millions of people around the world at the streets. People don't want war, governments do.

It's amazing that for no reason other than profiting Iraq war is still killing innocents of both sides. Seven years of war.

Anti-war movements are still organizing protests but they are not being reported. People are more active than mainstream media want us to believe.

February 15, 2003!

Photo: VOA Photo - N. Colombant 20 March 2010

Protesters carried symbolic coffins to mark their opposition to U.S. military action.

Malachi Ritscher, a familiar face at antiwar protests... In November, 3, 2006:

Chicago Indymedia has learned that on Friday, November 3 local music and art afficianado and peace advocate Malachi Ritscher burned himself to death on the side of the Kennedy Expressway near downtown Chicago during the morning rush hour. Near Malachi's remains, police found a camcorder with videotape inside and a homemade sign that read "Thou Shalt Not Kill.* "

Source: Chicago Independent Media Center.

You can read more here.

* link to Malachi Ritscher suicide note.

Matisse's portrait by Derain and Banfield

Derain started working with Matisse in 1904 and following the master his palette became more vivid. The light of Collioure, south of France, has also affected the painter but his design is still schematic. In 1905 he painted Matisse's portrait which was turned into a stained-glass in 1993 by Tony Banfield. It is amazing how Banfield reproduces the same colors of Derain's painting. It must be interesting to see how the colors of the glasses change according to the light. during the day.

Humor: Camus's Sisyphus

Click on the images below to see the differentia specifica between both entities.

Once again Sisyphus myth is here. I found this amazing blog that unfortunately is not being updated for one year. Please, click at "Hell" and "Heaven". It is really good.

There is an excerpt of Sisyphus myth by Camus here.

Mimetism: imitating to survive

Left: Flounder in Italy (picture by tropposnello)

Right: Flounder in Brazil (by MLyra)

Mimetism is the way some animals avoid predators by imitating natural elements like the color of the environment they live.

Flounders have stains in their bodies that mimic the soil they live.

Two examples of how precise they are.

There are other forms of camouflages like "playing dead".

Click to enlarge the pictures. It took me a while to understand the left picture.

Alex Noriega enchanting world and strange ideas

"Alex Noriega is a 29 years old cartoonist from Barcelona who draws naked."

This is what he says in his profile and show at one of his cartoons. I just found Stuff no-one told me and as many who visited his blog I'm enchanted by Noriega's work.

Have a great weekend!