RT @Nuclear_policy: #DOE ends @USEC_Inc lease of uranium enrichment plant at Paducah; company will meet commitments from other sources. htt… 9 hours ago
The Art of Making films show people who overcome the dim and dismal that is so ubiquitous today, and create beautiful things by combining art with science.
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The first shows the making of a flamenco guitar. The 299- hour project Alma Flamenca is condensed into a gorgeous 3-minute film by Dimitris Ladopoulos.
If you are interested in the precise art of carpentry, the second very short film (1 minute 41) features the carpenter, and is also by Dimitris Ladupoulos.
Archaeologists discovered in 2010 a stone stele or free standing stone slab with a carving on one side in an ancient Buddhist monastery in Mes Aynak, Afghanistan, which is approximately 25 miles (40Km) east of Kabul.
Professor Gérard Fussman, a professor at the Collège de France in Paris examined the stele recently and he believes it depicts the young Prince Gautama Siddartha before he abandoned a life of royal wealth and privilege to seek enlightenment. We know of him today as the Buddha, who founded Buddhism.
Standing 11 inches (28 centimeters) high and carved from schist — a stone not found in the area — the stele depicts a prince alongside a monk. Based on a bronze coin found nearby, Fussman estimates the statue dates back at least 1,600 years. Siddhartha lived 25 centuries ago.
The prince is shown sitting on a round wicker stool, his eyes looking down and with his right foot against his left knee. He is “clad in a dhoti (a garment), with a turban, wearing necklaces, earrings and bracelets, sitting under a pipal tree foliage. On the back of the turban, two large rubans [are] flowing from the head to the shoulders,” writes Fussman in his new book. “The turban is decorated by a rich front-ornament, without any human figure in it.”
To see the stele and a photograph of the ruins, go here.
Professor Fussman believes the stele depicts the young prince because of the iconography of the stele and the pipal leaves. He also believes the stele was used by a monastic cult that was dedicated to the worldly prince before he achieved enlightenment. According to their monastic code, they transported the stele in a wagon during a procession.
Professor Fussman has published a book about the stele, The Early Iconography of Avalokitesvara” (Collège de France, 2012).
These images are part of a Smithsonian American Museum of Art set on flickr, with a fair-use statement:
Personal, educational and non-commercial use of digital images from the American Art Museum’s collection is permitted, with attribution to the Smithsonian American Art Museum, for all images unless otherwise noted. http://americanart.si.edu/collections/rights/
The Smithsonian American Art Museum exhibition called Inventing a Better Mousetrap: Patent Models From the Rothschild Collection features thirty-two scale models of inventions submitted for patent in the late 1800s. The models are part of the Alan Rothschild collection, and reflect the exceptional craftsmanship of the time. Building a Better Mousetrap will run through November 3, 2013.
Sofa Bedstead image by americanartmuseum on flickr
Sofa Bedstead, 1877
Abraham Morris (Inventor)
mixed media 8 x 13 x 6 in.
Smithsonian American Art Museum
Gift of Alan and Ann Rothschild
2011.37.10
Fence Fabricating Machine image by americanartmuseum on flickr
Fence Fabricating Machine, 1888
Conrad F. Bartling (Inventor)
mixed media 12 x 17 x 7 in.
Smithsonian American Art Museum
Gift of Alan and Ann Rothschild
2011.37.9
Paper Bag Machine by americanartmuseum on flickr
Paper Bag Making Machine, 1881
Edgar Stocking (Inventor)
mixed media 9 x 17 x 9 in.
Smithsonian American Art Museum
Gift of Alan and Ann Rothschild
2011.37.13
Mousetrap image by americanartmuseum on flickr
Mousetrap, 1870
John O. Kopas (Inventor)
George W. Bauer (Inventor)
mixed media 10 x 8 1/2 x 9 in.
Smithsonian American Art Museum
Gift of Alan and Ann Rothschild
2011.37.15
Loom for Weaving Bonnet Braid image by americanartmuseum on flickr
Loom for Weaving Bonnet Braid, 1865
Jefford L. Weaver (Inventor)
mixed media 14 x 7 1/2 x 5 in.
Smithsonian American Art Museum
Gift of Alan and Ann Rothschild
2011.37.22
Vegetable Slicer image by americanartmuseum on flickr
Vegetable Slicer, 1879
Anthony Iske (Inventor)
mixed media 11 x 10 x 10 in.
Smithsonian American Art Museum
Gift of Alan and Ann Rothschild
2011.37.19
The footage in this video is derived from image sequences from NASA’s Cassini and Voyager missions. I downloaden a large amount of raw images to create the video.
The song is The Cinematic Orchestra -That Home (Instrumental).
(Used under a Creative Commons Non-Commercial Attribution Share Alike license.)
Mr. van den Berg posted this beautiful piece, featuring gas giants Saturn and Jupiter, on Vimeo within the last day, where it amassed a steady stream of very favorable comments before he disabled the comment option (perhaps he is shy?). The artistic piece continues to collect ‘likes.’
Here are a few comments:
STAR PATH 1 day ago
this is more of a “love” than a “like”
and
i q 10 hours ago
This is utterly amazing. I am literally dumbstruck by how beautifully you have managed to capture the fabric of reality, outside of our own modern, ruined human vision. Spectacular.
and
Don Hendricks 18 hours ago
Only a true artist could take these components and produce the end results. Absolutely beautiful work! Thank you for sharing.
These images are part of a set from the Smithsonian American Art Museum. The images are posted under Creative Commons on flicker, with this statement:
Personal, educational and non-commercial use of digital images from the American Art Museum’s collection is permitted, with attribution to the Smithsonian American Art Museum, for all images unless otherwise noted. http://americanart.si.edu/collections/rights/
Marion Post Wolcott: Child in Doorway of Shack of Migrant Pickers and Packing House Workers, near Belle Glade, Florida, 1939
Marion Post Wolcott
Born: Montclair, New Jersey 1910
Died: Santa Barbara, California 1990
silver print on paper
sheet: 11 x 14 in. (27.9 x 35.6 cm.)
Smithsonian American Art Museum
Gift of Dr. John H. and Jann Arrington Wolcott
Marion Post Wolcott: Migrant family from Missouri camping out in cane brush. One woman said, “We ain’t never lived like hogs before, but we sure does now.” Canal Point, Florida, 1939
Marion Post Wolcott: Negro men and women working in a field. Bayou Bourbeaux Plantation. Natchitoches, Louisiana, 1940
27-0637a
Millard Sheets: Tenement Flats, 1934
Tenement Flats, 1934
Millard Sheets, Born: Pomona, California 1907 Died: Gualala, California 1989
oil on canvas 40 1/4 x 50 1/4 in. (102.1 x 127.6 cm.)
Smithsonian American Art Museum
Transfer from the U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service 1965.18.48
Marion Post Wolcott: Farmers Sleeping in a “white” camp room in a warehouse. They often must remain several days before their tobacco is sold. Durham, North Carolina, 1939
note: This post was inspired by my mother, who lived through the depression. She was born on a farm in Missouri in 1924, and left home at age 12 to pursue an education and teach. I am hoping to work with her, in the months to come, and share some of her amazing story here.
For information about a new release book titled This Side of my Struggle, that has three Frog Gravy essays in it, go here.
Frog Gravy is a nonfiction incarceration account.
Frog Gravy has graphic language.
This post is not comprehensive. One could probably write an entire book on prison inventions, slang and situations, particularly if the setting is in the South, where colloquialisms are priceless.
Jail and prison terms, divided into categories and used in sentences, followed by explanations:
Cigarettes
Pheening, jonesing, popping the socket, striker, squares, break ‘em down, smokin’ the bible, phone card, posting up, who’s on the camera
Inmate 1: Bitch. These Camel Menthol Wides. You can break ‘em down and get thirty for twenty squares, and get an extra phone card. I’m pheening for a cigarette right now.
Inmate 2: You ain’t alone. I been jonesing all day for one. Loan me your striker so we can pop the socket and get this done.
Inmate 1: While you’re rolling the bible I’ll post up and watch the hallway. Who’s on camera.?
Inmate 2. It don’t make no damn difference. Ain’t no cameras in the cell.
Two inmates crave a cigarette. They plan to remove the tobacco from a Camel Menthol ‘Wide’ cigarette and roll it into a page from the bible. They also plan to sell some of the rest of the harvested tobacco for phone time. One inmate will stand watch, because cigarettes and smoking are not allowed. A striker is a paper clip, that is placed across the prongs of the TV plug-in to create a spark so that the inmates can light the cigarette.
Conflict resolution statement
bitches got me fucked up, got me bent, skanky, clitty litter, ho, clock out, beat the breaks off her, you feel me, set her face apart
Inmate 1: These bitches got me fucked up with somebody else. Motherfuckers got me bent. Let another bitch call me a skanky clitty litter ho. I’ll clock out and beat the breaks off her. I’ll set that bitch’s face apart.
Inmate 2: I know that’s right.
Inmate 1: You feel me?
Inmate 2: Slap the taste right out that bitch’s dicksucker!
Inmate 1: Bitch ain’t got no mutherfuckin’ teeth. Taste is all she got left to slap out. I got this.
Inmate 2: Peace up. A-town down.
Inmate 1: I know that’s right.
Someone has insulted inmate 1 by commenting on her body odor and calling her a whore. Inmate 1 tells inmate 2 that the person delivering the insult must have mixed her up with somebody who will not fight back, and that if it happens again, Inmate 1 will physically beat up the offending inmate. Inmate 1 solicits agreement from Inmate 2. Inmate 2 agrees and they part ways. A-town is an endearing slang term for Atlanta, a city that some consider to be a pretty cool place. ‘Dicksucker’ is a common prison/jail slang term for mouth.
Random colloquialisms
1.
My public pretender is about as useless as a cat with side pockets .He ain’t got sense enough to pound sand down a rat hole.
Inmate comments that her court-appointed attorney is not doing any meaningful work in her case.
2.
Inmate 1: Earlier at work in the kitchen I was sweatin’ like a whore in church, but now it’s colder than a well-digger’s ass and a banker’s heart. Can we tell the guard to put the heat on?
Inmate 2: That guard couldn’t pour piss out of a boot if the directions were written on the heel.
Inmate 1: Heh. Yeah. Plus, she’s uglier than the east end of a horse headed west. She’s so ugly you’d have to hang a pork chop around her neck to get a dog to play with her.
Two inmates return to the cell from work in the kitchen and find the cell to be cold. They decide that it is unlikely that the guard, who is very unattractive, will put the heat on in the cell.
Request for transfer to another cell
off the chain, drop a note, vet, crazy slip
Inmate 1: This cell is off the chain. I’m gonna drop a note to the vet for a suicide cell.
Inmate 2: The vet won’t do nuthin.’ Better drop a crazy slip.
Inmate 1 tells Inmate 2 that she wants to transfer to an isolation suicide watch cell because of the chaotic atmosphere in the current cell. She wants to submit a request to the medical department. Inmate 2 tells Inmate 1 to submit a request to the mental health department because the medical department will ignore the request.
How to make paint and makeup in a jail that bans everything except certain types of religious materials
Joyce Meyers magazines are the most versatile for manufacturing jailhouse makeup for court appearances and for adding color to pictures that inmates draw for their families.
-Find the color you want.
-Rub a tissue onto stick deodorant, and then rub the magazine color. The ink will transfer to the tissue.
-Use less ink for subtle makeup, and more ink for pictures.
-Canteen Fireballs make cheek color when nothing else is available if you are really pale from never having recreation in the outdoor cage. Substitute red M and Ms if you do not have Fireballs.
- No-shank pen ink on a toothbrush can is sometimes used for mascara.
-No-shank pen ink cut with water is sometimes used for eyeliner.
-Menstrual pads are sometimes used for earplugs, eye coverings, and for the manufacture of tampons, which are not allowed in jail.
-Toothpaste is the most versatile substance in the cell, and it is most commonly used to affix photographs to the wall.
-paper scraps and toilet paper scraps mixed with water can be used to make dice, dominoes and chess pieces.
-’Homemade’ tampons can be used (Remember: I’m just the messenger here) for hair rollers.
-Jail-issue underpants, wrapped just right, look like a do-rag.
-Elastic threads from socks make hair ties.
Ways to communicate with the cell next door
-Pick up the phone and tap on the wall. Some inmates tap codes on the wall.
-Talking under the door is common.
-Some report that you can flush the water out of the plumbing pipes, and talk through the pipes or tap on the plumbing.
-’Fish’ things back and forth by running a cable cord with something attached under the door.
Being paraded into court on a chain gang
Here in McCracken County, when you are in jail and you have a court appearance, you are handcuffed and chained to other inmates. The chain gang is paraded across the street and into the courtroom like an orange outlaw centipede, and this goes for people who have not been convicted of anything.
Once in court, you are all seated together, and the court-appointed lawyer says something like, “Your Honor, my client, Mr. He-Sure-Looks-Like-A-Guilty-Criminal is here today, on the line.” The lawyer won’t turn to face you or look you in the eye. he simply waves his thumb in your general direction. Anybody in the passing public can swing by and see what you look like, on a chain gang.
McCracken bends over backward to be insensitive about who you are chained to. A friend of mine in jail was chained up with the man who beat her toddler son to death while she was at work one day.
How to make paint in a jail that has colored pencils
-Shave some of the lead and crush it.
-Put the lead into a bottle cap with a drop of water.
-Microwave 30 seconds.
-Stir in a couple of drops of shampoo with an empty lip gloss applicator, and apply the paint with the applicator.
Image by richardcjones under creative commons on flickr.
The Rainbow
‘The Rainbow’ – the 1991 artwork by Icelandic artist Rúrí at Keflavík Airport in Iceland.
The Rainbow
The artwork by Icelandic artist Rúrí is situated in front of the air terminal a short distance to the north. It reaches 24 metres into the sky, made of stainless steel and stained glass. “The natural rainbow materializes out of the blue, lasts for a few moments and disappears just as suddenly as it appeared. Nobody can grasp it, nor even get close to it, yet it holds a very special value for most people”. Rainbow vas installed in 1991.
Image by shell belle under creative commons on flickr.
This painted glass sculpture is located in the Narita Airport in Tokyo, but I cannot find the name of the artist or a site on the sculpture.
Image by dcmaster under creative commons on flickr.
Terminal 3 is a large, majestic space at BCIA, Beijing International Airport.
Envision a majestic space, two miles long, shaped like a dragon. Above, a flurry of reds and yellows color a dizzying mesh ceiling, backlit by the sun, and below, 50 million people pass each year. This building, one of the world’s largest, is no palace or museum—it’s Terminal 3 at Beijing International Airport.
