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SoCS — Art

Fandango11 Comments

For today’s Stream of Consciousness Saturday prompt, Linda G. Hill has assigned us the smears “art.” Linda instructs us to “talk about something that’s hanging on your wall,” she says. “Add a picture, if you’d like.”

6FE6C3AE-7020-4934-8DDA-CF35759F3E83.jpegOne of my favorite artists is M.C. Escher and one of my favorite works by Escher is Hand with Reflecting Sphere, also known as Self-Portrait in Spherical Mirror. It is a lithograph that was first printed in January 1935. It depicts a hand holding a reflective sphere. In the reflection, most of the room around Escher can be seen, and the hand holding the sphere is revealed to be Escher’s.

I’ve previously posted about my love for Escher’s work in THIS post, where a few other of his lithographs are included.

Another artist whose work I enjoy is René Magritte. He was a Belgian surrealist known for his witty and thought-provoking images. He depicted ordinary objects in an unusual context, challenging observers’ perceptions of reality.  Here are a few of his paintings.

My wife is partial to Erté. Born Romain de Tirtoff, he was a Russian-born French artist and designer known by the pseudonym Erté, from the French pronunciation of his initials. He was one of the most well-known fashion illustrators of the 1920s. His designs included dresses and accessories for women; costumes and sets for opera, ballet, and dramatic productions; and posters and prints. Here are some examples of his work.

JusJoJan — Memento

Fandango17 Comments

Today’s Just Jot It January prompt is the word “memento.”

ed2d3cc8-e1fb-462d-960f-74f907c14063As soon as I saw the prompt, all I could think of was the movie “Memento,” an offbeat thriller released in 2000 and directed by Christopher Nolan, who adapted the film from a short story by his brother Jonathan Nolan.

The protagonist, portrayed by Guy Pearce, is a man who is struggling to put his life back together after the brutal rape and murder of his wife. But having been savagely beaten by the same man who killed his wife, his short-term memory had been destroyed and he was no longer able to retain any new information. Thus, he had to resort to copious note-taking and Polaroid photographs in order to keep track of what happens to him over the course of a day. He even tattooed himself with a few crucial bits of information that he couldn’t get along without. The character is obsessed with taking revenge against the man who has ruined his life, and he sets out to find him, getting help from some questionable characters.

What’s most intriguing about this movie, to me, anyway, is that it progresses backwards in time. The protagonist kills the murderer of his wife in the film’s first scene, and it then moves backward from that point, in roughly five-minute increments, allowing us to see how he tracked the guy down, and then ending with what is, chronologically, the story’s beginning. It sort of blew my mind.

So for today’s Jot it January, I suggest you jot down the name of the movie — “Memento” — and see if you can stream it. I think it’s available on Amazon Prime and on YouTube.

JusJoJan — Enigmatic Nipples

Fandango29 Comments

5e6e0c49-2995-4cfc-85e4-9fd728a59d61You know what I find enigmatic? Man boobs. Well, not so much man boobs per se, but nipples. In particular, man nipples.

Why is it that in western societies, or at least in the United States society, men can walk around in public bare chested with their nipples there for everyone and anyone to see, but women can’t.

Human nipples look pretty much the same, whether they’re on a man’s chest or a woman’s chest. So why is it that when a man’s nipples are exposed in public it’s perfectly acceptable, but when a woman’s nipples are exposed in public it is often deemed to be indecent exposure?

Do you see that picture of a bare-chested man at the top of this post. He can walk around any city or town in America without a shirt on and no one would say boo. Yet his boobs are bigger than those of most women I know.

fe251dc3-21e8-4d3a-af05-f029082f2a84And now look what happens if I show his boobs out-of-context. Oh my God! Bare breasts! A woman caught walking around exposing her bare breasts and nipples like that in Anytown, USA would probably be arrested for indecent exposure.

But those boobs and nipples are on a man’s body. So it’s okay, albeit perhaps not in good taste, for him to show up that way at the beach, at a park, sitting on his front porch, or just about anywhere.

So, can someone please solve this enigma for me? Tell me why it’s okay for a man to walk around in public without a top on and for his nipples to be visible to the, um, naked eye, so to speak, but it’s not okay for a woman?

Written for today’s Just Jot It January prompt from Linda G. Hill. Today’s jot topic is “enigmatic,” which was suggested by blogger Virgobeauty.

SoCS — Rin Tin Tin

Fandango14 Comments

34DE33F6-1316-493E-AC93-6015B1AB2E3AFor this week’s Stream of Consciousness Saturday prompt, Linda G. Hill has asked us to use the word “tin” as a word or to find a word with “tin” in it, and to base our posts on that word.

I immediately recalled one of my favorite TV shows when I was a kid, “The Adventures of Rin Tin Tin.” It was an American television program that ran from 1954 through 1959. The show about a boy, Rusty, who was orphaned in an Indian raid and who was being raised by the soldiers at a U.S. Cavalry post known as Fort Apache. Rin Tin Tin was a German shepherd dog that helped the soldiers establish law and order in the American West.

Most episodes involved overcoming bad guys, often American Indians or white desperados. Whenever Rusty needed assistance from his trusty dog, he’d call out “Yo Rinty,” and Rin Tin Tin would run after and leap on the bad guy, pinning him down until the cavalrymen could arrive.

3F9DE41C-AF18-4D7A-A6E6-E8EAC6A378A2A contemporary of Rin Tin Tin, but a more popular TV show with a dog as its star, was “Lassie,” a “smart and fearless” collie. The show aired from 1954 through 1971. It followed Lassie’s adventures in a small farming community. Each week the dog’s young owner would find himself in some sort of trouble. Lassie would then run off and get help or rush in to save her master’s life herself. After being reunited with family, the boy would received a light lecture on why he should not have done what he had done.

I preferred Rin Tin Tin because I thought the whole Lassie thing was kind of lame. Rin Tin Tin, on the other hand, was a military dog apprehending bad guys, which to me was much more exciting than watching a dog save a kid who fell into a deep well at least once a month. Stupid kid.

Impmas Questions

Fandango9 Comments

5EB8E068-E6FB-49BF-B117-455131B91C9AFor some reasons, some posts that usually show up in my Reader aren’t showing up lately. And one such post that didn’t show up was THIS one from Rory (aka, A Guy Named Bloke). So, since Rory always asks the weirdest of questions, I guess it’s better late than never for me to post my weirdest of answers.

1. Do you believe in the big guy in the red suit, long bushy white beard, and overhanging belly and reckons he can flit between chimneys like he’s Superman or summit?

Seriously? I don’t believe that God exists and you’re asking me if I believe that Santa Claus exists?

Oh wait. Are you asking about that big guy in the red suit with the long, bushy white beard and overhanging belly who I saw taking a leak on a tree in the park yesterday? Yeah, I do believe he exists. And he really smells bad, too.

2. How many times have you been bad this year, as in pranking, joking around, losing your temper and getting up to no good?

A better question would be how many times have I not been bad this year.

3. Are you always polite and squeaky clean? Dot your i’s and cross your T’s? Or like me don’t get bovvered with all that malarkey?

I don’t know how to answer this question because I have never heard of the word “bovvered” and I have no idea what it means to get bovvered about something.

But as to i’s and t’s, I am very persnickety when it comes to that malarkey. I always cross my eyes and dot my tease.

4. Are you a right ol’ whiner and moaner? I like a bit of wine meself if honest!

Are you asking if I whine or moan during sex? I’m sorry, but that’s none of your business. But according to my wife, I am a snorer.

Oh no. You’re asking about my consumption of alcoholic beverages, aren’t you? Well, I’m a bit of a teetotaler when it comes to alcohol. On the other hand, don’t ask me about pot-infused edibles. I don’t want to have to lie to you.

5. What’s the nicest thing you’ve done all this year? However mine is, what’s the sneakiest thing you have done?

I’m confused. Nicest or sneakiest? I’m a nice guy who does nice things all year long. And I’m not at all sneaky. (Hey, you’re not asking for character references, are you?)

6. How many people have you not upset this year with your sneakies and nortyness?

Nobody. Everybody. Hey, you can’t please all of the people all of the time, you know.

7. The other day Glubby turned up at the door an’ he wos wearing the most hideous cape and unmatching hat I had ever seen! EVER, now l told him that it was not just ugly but right Fugly! He was not best pleased. How would you ‘andle it, be truthful, lie or summit else?

I cannot tell a lie. I’d shoot him to put him and his fugly cape and hat out of my misery.

8. Whilst walkin’ in the street, you come across a fifty [of your currency] lying on the ground, whaddya do wif it?

I pick it up and then walk to the local liquor store and buy $50 worth of Powerball tickets.

9. Do you always do the best that you can for yourself? [Didn’t expect that question did ya?]

I do my best to do my best.

10. When you wos young and at that fing called school, how many detentions or stay behind after class did you end up with per week?

Me? Detention? No way. I just told you that I do my best to do my best. I was a scholar and a gentleman. The operative word being “was.”

11. You’re at the shop and the person in front of the till is 9 cents/pence short of their bill being paid, whaddya do …?

I hand him a dime and say, “Keep the change.”

12. A friend of yours after eating dinner or grub, has got a right ‘orrible stain on his/her shirt and hasn’t seen it and ‘as to go out to an important date, do you tell ’em?

I say something snide, like “Hey pal, you are what you eat, ya know what I mean?”

13. Are you a right proper prankster? Tell me your best Norty prank for 2018.

I told my wife I voted for Trump in 2016. The divorce should be final any day now.

14. Finally, do you cuss/curse/swear a lot?

Only when I see, hear, or read about that goddam fucking, shithead, sonovabitch, cocksucking asshole, Donald Trump, pardon my French.