I'm not sure if this is an amusement park pre-dating POP in Santa Monica. This postcard was from the LAPL photo collection. Whatever it is, it's pretty impressive.
Tuesday, March 27, 2007
Dragon Gorge, Ocean Park
I'm not sure if this is an amusement park pre-dating POP in Santa Monica. This postcard was from the LAPL photo collection. Whatever it is, it's pretty impressive.
Monday, March 26, 2007
Two great sites
The Rare Book Room:
Over the last ten years, a company called "Octavo" embarked on digitally photographing some of the world ’s great books from some of the greatest libraries. These books were photographed at very high resolution (in some cases at over 200 megabytes per page).
This site contains all of the books (about 400) that have been digitized to date. These range over a wide variety of topics and rarity. The books are presented so that the viewer can examine all the pages in medium to medium-high resolution.
Caveat: the images can be looked at, but they're for sale so they won't download. www.rarebookroom.org/
The Stingy Scholar: This is the site that discovers sites like the Rare Book Room. Incredible links and resources.
www.stingyscholar.blogspot.com
Friday, March 23, 2007
Harry Houdini
I don't know much about Harry Houdini (Erich Weiss) but he's in the news today. His grand-nephew wants to exhume his body from its tomb in Queens to see if he was poisoned by spiritualist enemies in 1926. He spent a lot of time debunking the spiritualists and they hated him.
Thursday, March 22, 2007
Beverly Park Kiddieland
I used to visit this amusement park as a child. It's now the Beverly Center.
This description is from a site about rollercoasters: http://www.rcdb.com/ph1093.htm
The following list of attractions is thanks to Abraham M. Rudy who visited the park countless times from the late 1950s to the closing of the park.
* Train - that more or less circled a portion of the Park (individual "locomotive" type yellow and black cars that sat 2 to 3). The train ride had a "pay off" (a short and mild roller coaster-ish type ending that had you nearly running down a mannequin dressed as a engineer that swung out of harms way at the last minute).
* Autopia - Mini cars in bright colors that took a winding course around a portion of the Park but without any real control.
* Carousel - Parker Carousel #316.
* Boat ride - A very narrow boat ride that wound through a simple FantasyLand that was available for birthday parties. The area remained open for Birthdays through park's closing, but the boat ride ceased operating some years before.
* Pony Rides - A stable of sorts was West of the Park, same side of the street, sharing the parking lot to the West, around where the Hard Rock Café is today. The Pony Rides (nearly identical to those offered at the Griffith Park pony rides today) were open on the weekends, offered fast, medium and slow horses that would do two laps around a track of sorts (white wooden fences separated the concentric circles of track . . . innermost for slow, middle for medium, and the outside track for the fast horses). They gave you a short whip or crop for fast. (Editor's note: Ponyland was adjacent to Beverly Park, but was not owned by David Bradley.)
* Ferris Wheel - There was a Ferris Wheel right next to the ticket booth, with its back to LaCienega and circling E to W or W to E (depending on the direction). The cars was not enclosed, a simple bench seat with a rail in front of you.
* Fun House - A "Fun House" (mobile as opposed to walk through .. . 2 riders in a car, side by side) that came with it's own legend (or urban legend) -- this may actually have been confirmed -- about a famous dead body being used as one of the props. The old Long Beach Pike fun house may share this story . . . I'm no sure which, if any, is actually the proud owner of the corpse.
* Carousel - A small kiddie carousel with roundish fishes that 1 or 2 very small children could sit in. I don't recall if the fish went up and down or simply around.
* Food - A Hot Dog stand and the best roasted peanuts in red and white stripped I can ever recall tasting. Popcorn and cotton candy.
* Goldfish - At one time, goldfish in the little cement canal that carried the small boat. Whether for the taking or not, they were often taken.
* Grounds - The ground of the Park and of the parking lot was made up of gravel atop earth. Always clean, always raked, always light gray to off-white. And a chain link fence surrounding.
To see the entire pictured article: http://whimsicalwill.tripod.com/BeverlyPark1.html/
Wednesday, March 21, 2007
Electric Fountain, Santa Monica Blvd., Beverly Hills
When I was a kid, we drove past this fountain on the way home from my aunt's. At night the water lights up with different colors. I loved the Indian statue at the top. This fountain is still there.
The Heart of the Rose (1889)
By Edward Burne-Jones. I don't know anything about the theme of the painting. I suppose it's based on some difficult Victorian epic poem. It's so romantic and evocative. I love walled-in gardens, especially from medieval paintings of the Virgin and Child or courtly romance.
Tuesday, March 20, 2007
Tonga Room in the Fairmont Hotel, San Francisco
I've been to this bar which looks exactly the same today, at least I hope it does. This comes from a faboo site with vintage postcards of California.
http://www.alamedainfo.com
True Crime - Phil Spector
Believe it or not, I'm into all the latest celebrity trials and scandals. Phil Spector seems like an incredibly strange psychopath and I'm interested in his behavior during this trial.
The Fairy Feller's Master Stroke
By Richard Dadd, painted 1855-1864. At the Tate Gallery, London.
From www.tate.org.uk/:
Dadd painted this work in the Bethlem Hospital where he was sent after murdering his father and being declared insane. The scene was drawn from his imagination. It shows the ‘fairy-feller’ poised to split a large chestnut which will be used to construct Queen Mab’s new fairy carriage. The subject, shifting scale and style of the painting all contribute to a sense of the fantastic that fits Herbert Read’s idea of an imaginative tradition that runs through to Surrealism. The work might also have fitted the Surrealists’ interest in the art of the insane.
From wikipedia:
The Fairy Feller's Master-Stroke is a Richard Dadd painting. It was commissioned by George Henry Hayden, who was head steward at Bethlem Royal Hospital at the time. He was impressed by Dadd's artistic efforts and asked for a fairy painting of his own. Dadd worked on the painting for nine years - paying microscopic attention to detail, as well as a layering technique producing near-3D results - and it is generally regarded as his most important work. However, Dadd himself considered the painting to be unfinished, and as such added the suffix of "Quasi" to its title.
Gustave Doré (1832-1883)
When I was a teenager, my parents gave me a book of Doré illustrations. I loved it and looked at it hundreds of times. Well, I had good taste because (a) I still have the book; and (b) it holds up as beautiful, fantastic art. What a storyteller, what an illustrator!
http://dore.artpassions.net
Nikolai Gogol (1809-1852)
From site http://realc.emory.edu/russian/DOSTOEVSKY/writers.html
A short-story writer and novelist of Ukranian origin, Gogol worked as a clerk in St. Petersburg while writing his first works. This experience influenced seminal works such as The Overcoat. Dead Souls, his final work offers caricatures human folly and sin. A realistic but fantastic writer, Gogol believed strongly in the unique power of the Orthodox Church to save Russia from impending doom.
They didn't mention that he wrote some famous plays. And I didn't know there were any photographs of him! Gogol's Dead Souls, The Nose and Diary of a Madman, are some of the best works ever written by anyone! They are witty and bizarre. He was, after all, crazy.
Arnold Böcklin
From site artmagick.com:
Arnold Böcklin, 1829-1901. Regarded at the end of the nineteenth century as the leading Germanic painter of his time, Böcklin was deeply influenced by ancient Italian art and painted mainly mythological compositions, filled with gods, centaurs, tritons and sirens, whose predominant themes are the cycles of nature and life, war, and death. Böcklin was also inspired by the secretive, mythological landscapes of the Nazarene painter Heinrich Franz Dreher.
Böcklin, along with Anselm Feuerbach and Hans von Marées, were categorized as the 'German Romantics' and were opposed to the popular Salon art of the day. A contemporary historian spoke of Böcklin as the founder "of a sort of strangely symbolic neo-Romanticism."
Böcklin disliked giving titles to his pictures and declared that he painted in order to make people dream:
"Just as it is poetry's task to express feelings, painting must provoke them too. A picture must give the spectator as much food for thought as a poem and must make the same kind of impression as a piece of music."
And these mermaids are nutty, so I love them.
Excited by new blog I found
A flickr user, Annabelle13, has the most surreal and haunting group of collages. She also has two blogs that are quite beautiful. Check them out.
underneathasugarywatermelonmoon.blogspot.com
pastoraldreams.blogspot.com
Monday, March 19, 2007
From the Orient
This site seems to be selling beautiful Oriental pieces of art. It's in Chinese type. These are such intricate pieces, one could look at them for a long time.
http://www.my.cnd.org
Jade
Today I had lunch at a Japanese restaurant. The waitress wore a beautiful jade pendant. Here is some jade and jadeite. The creamy colors of jade are so lovely.
http://www.culinarycultures.com
Vintage jewelry
This auction house had photos of some vintage jewelry that caught my eye. I love the fanciful, anthropomorphic ornamentation of this jewelry.
http://www.ragoarts.com
Wednesday, March 14, 2007
Great recording
I heard this recording on the radio and had to buy it. It is gorgeous, magical. The voices are all perfect and the orchestra is sublime. Best version of this opera I've ever heard. It's available very cheaply (used) from Amazon. And yes, the CD cover is just awful!
Conductor: Jeffrey Tate
Performers: Barbara Bonney, Barbara Hendricks, Eva Lind, Andreas Schmidt, Anne Sofie von Otter, et al.
Orchestra: Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, Bayerischen Rundfunkorchester
Audio CD (October 15, 1990). Angel Records.
National Library, Vienna Austria
Some people on flickr have photographs of this rococo masterpiece. I never knew about it.
Friday, March 09, 2007
A young pianist
This is Serg van Gennip. From his website:
Born in Kazan, Russia, in 1985. Serg van Gennip lived in St. Petersburg until the age of five. During this tender age, he always felt a certain attraction to the musical part of life, watching many great artists at work in theatres and concert halls. How can someone be attracted to this art so early? The answer could lie in the genes. Serg van Gennip is a far relative of Sergei Rachmaninov.
I'm listening to his playing and it's fantastic! And many pieces are available for free download. He supposedly has a podcast but it doesn't work. However there are pieces on his site that can be downloaded as MP3s.
http://www.serg.vangennip.com/www/home.html
Max Ernst
From MOMA website:
Max Ernst. (French, born Germany. 1891-1976). Two Children Are Threatened by a Nightingale. 1924.
Gallery label text
Dada, June 18–September 11, 2006
Made in 1924, the year of Surrealism’s founding, Ernst described this work as "the last consequence of his [sic] early collages—and a kind of farewell to a technique..." He later gave two possible autobiographical references for the nightingale: the death of his sister in 1897, and a fevered hallucination he recalled in which the wood grain of a panel near his bed took on "successively the aspect of an eye, a nose, a bird’s head, a menacing nightingale, a spinning top, and so on."
http://moma.org
Thursday, March 08, 2007
Chrysler building
Bottom: Fairchild Aerial Surveys, Inc. The Mount Everest of Manhattan: The Silvered Peak of the Chrysler Building. 1930. Gelatin silver print, 8 3/4 x 6 13/16" (22.3 x 17.3 cm). The New York Times Collection. http://moma.org
Top: Probably a famous photograph, I don't have the credits.
This building is a concrete manifestation of fantasy. Does it represent the power and masculinity of modern USA in the 1920s? I don't know. It's amazing that such an art deco masterpiece got made and is still there.
http://moma.org
Saturday, March 03, 2007
Charles Altamont Doyle
The artist Charles Altamont Doyle was the father of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. He was institutionalized in mental hospitals from middle age onward, although by today's standards he was not insane. Nor did he think he was insane, and tried to prove with his art that he wasn't. It didn't work. Basically, he was an alcoholic and depressed. He was a trained artist and his works are poignant and delicate. There's an interesting book called The Doyle Diary by Michael Baker (1978) that reproduces Charles Doyle's journal sketches from his time in Sunnyside mental institution in Scotland. If you think these works are strange, his brother Richard "Dicky" Doyle was a famous Victorian artist well known for his fairy illustrations. Years later, Arthur Conan Doyle publicized "fairy photographs" which he believed were real. By today's standards, these photographs are pretty fake looking. Even back then, they were debunked. My point being that the entire family (not just the one who was institutionalized) had a "thing" for fairies.
St. Giles His Bells (unknown location).
Meditation, Self Portrait (V&A Museum, London). This watercolour comes from one of the sketchbooks used by the artist during his stay in the Royal Montrose Lunatic Asylum in Scotland. His son, the writer Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, organised an exhibition of the artist's work in London in 1924. http://www.vam.ac.uk/images/image/16458-popup.html
Monday, February 19, 2007
Michelangelo Buonarotti
Michelangelo was so passionate and emotional. I love the mannerist style. The reaching of the two hands toward each other is a pinnacle of humanist iconograhy. This gorgeous photo was blogged from flickr.
Sunday, February 18, 2007
La Belle et la Bete
This movie has put me to sleep in the past, but not today. I finally appreciated its magic, romance, and enchantment. It is very beautiful, very simple.
Monday, February 12, 2007
Submarine Lagoon
It was a blast from the past to see this on flickr. I used to go on this ride and thought it was really under the ocean!
Friday, February 09, 2007
Psychiatry podcast
Welcome to the Intitute of Psychiatry audio feeds. We aim to bring to you all public lectures and events at the Institute of Psychiatry, this includes, the popular Maudsley Debates series. These are entertaining, interesting podcasts. The British speakers are so articulate and witty. Plus I'm interested in the subject.
http://www.iop.kcl.ac.uk/podcast/default.aspx?type=items
Lewis Chessman, British Museum
The Lewis Chessmen in the British Museum were probably made in Norway, about AD 1150-1200
Found on the Isle of Lewis, Outer Hebrides, Scotland
The chess pieces consist of elaborately worked walrus ivory and whales' teeth in the forms of seated kings and queens, mitred bishops, knights on their mounts, standing warders and pawns in the shape of obelisks.
(Written by RobRoyAus on Flickr)
Wednesday, February 07, 2007
Tuesday, February 06, 2007
Marilyn Horne
I downloaded a podcast from Premier Opera Podcast featuring the mezzo-soprano, Marilyn Horne. She is a showstopper! I absolutely adored her renditions of You're a Grand Old Flag and God Bless America. But the podcast mainly featured her coloratura work. Thanks, Marilyn!
Thursday, January 04, 2007
Ivan Bilibin (2)
DOBRYNIA NIKITICH FREES ZABAVA PUTIATICHNA FROM GORYNYCH THE DRAGON. Illustration to "The Tale of the Capital City of Kiev and of the Russian Bogatyrs" by N. Vodovozov. 1941. http://www.auburn.edu/academic/liberal_arts/foreign/russian/art
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