Welcome to Saturday ...
Submitted by smiley7 on Sat, 11/30/2019 - 5:02am
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"Oh hell, it's Saturday and i've nothing prepared, no saved music, poetry, art; nada."
The feast of citizens in a forest ~ Niko Pirosmani
"When teaching skiing, the best experiences come from guiding students in discoveries; may it be so this morning, unearth something in gentle conversation."
Thank you for being here: I'll be away today.
Comments
Good morning, everyone,
Rain has arrived earlier than forecast putting my plans for today in limbo. Depends upon the choices my clients make, so I'm Waiting for Godot.
Hoping the day greets you all in good vibes and cheer.
and may Godot...
be good to you (and to your health). ; )
awesome and epically bold painting; a twist on chiaroscuro, no? i'd never met Niko Pirosmani before, thanks for the introduction.
Good morning
Trade day was mighty thin this AM, but enjoyed the stroll and visiting around.
I miss seeing the recently departed judge there. One of my favorite stories about him...Kid comes up with a misdemeanor marijuana possession charge.
"How do you plead?"
"Guilty your Honor"
"That plea is unacceptable in this court. How do you plead?"
"Uh,.. not guilty?"
"Case dismissed"
To the prosecutor, "I told you not to bring me another misdemeanor marijuana case and I mean it!"
Another story about him. Case after DUI case.
"How many beers did you have?"
"A couple your Honor"
"Next person that tells me they had a couple of beers is going straight to jail!"
Next case, "How many beers did you have"
"Somewhere between one and three your Honor"
Judge said it was all he could do not to fall off the bench laughing.
One last story...in a murder case -
"Did you render assistance after you shot him?"
"No your Honor, I'm scared of dead people"
He was a good one that helped working people. We all miss him.
Round we go on the wheel of life. Make the best of it. Hope your trip is a good one!
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
Love the judge stories. Thank you.
Glad you liked them
Fond memories of a good man. Take care and be well.
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
Like Granma above
I really enjoyed those 'Judge' stories. People such as that are so fantastic, they give me hope. So sorry he is no longer with us but it sounds as if he made a wonderful, positive impact in his community.
Pancreatic cancer
It takes them quickly. Glad to have the memories. Thanks for the condolences.
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
Good morning all,
The snow, wind and rain have stopped so think I will venture out and go to a yoga class. Spent yesterday doing deep clean on condo as I prepare to make the journey to my place outside Austin. Watching the weather and hope for clear roads! Smiley, hope you have a good day with Godot or your clients!
Life is what you make it, so make it something worthwhile.
This ain't no dress rehearsal!
Hola smiley. Three citizens and 4 bottles, things are looking up
in the forest already. Of course, possibly they have all day ahead of them. So, today's theme is, I take it, Godot in limbo? There is absolutely no way in hell I could ever do the limbo these days, so I guess I'll have to zig instead of sag, how 'bout Orfeu and Eurydice?
Have a great one, enjoy the rain and think good thoughts, or none at all. Rain scheduled for today here, and farmer's market, so I'm just hoping that the latter arrives before the former. I have a turkey carcass, the neck and all like that, and need a boatload of veggies to meet my agenda. I make a huge pot of turkey stock and freeze 1/2 in empty yogurt containers, and make turkey veggie soup with the rest. Alternate that with a tetrazzini, also cooked ahead, and my cooking for next week is done so that I can attend to travel prep for our mini trip a week from tomorrow.
Still dealing with falling redbud, apricot, and apple leaves, which is a pita in the rain, and still have plenty of apples to pick too, and gutters to clean said leaves out of, I guess that means it is still autumn, and 7;30 so I'd better pick up the tempo and get getting
Have a great one.
edit: fixed typo toady's was supposed to be today's
That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --
Wow
I didn't even notice that you noticed the # of bottles of wine on that table....and I even read your comment!! Wonder if I'm getting Alzheimers. Possibly just a case of in one ear and out the other or in one eye and out the other, oh well. Enjoyed the music clips, nice.
good morning smiley
Hope Godot showed up. And some snow or at least your clients. I am in Austin now and it's been gently raining for days. Sweet. Warm. Not like the Arctic chills we have been having in SCruz and on the left coast. Radically different having nothing to do for a couple of days. Love the Russian (did I just say !Russian! omg) painting. My first response to myself was - that must be Russian. Cool. They look like they are having a great time and what is that fellow with the stick doing on the right? Parting the water? Hope you day is full and enjoyable. Be well...
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You're just
up the road from me, and you are right, we have been getting sweet warm rain. It has been very nice. Last night it was a bit chilly (for me anyway) and we were eating some soup for dinner looking out onto a foggy, spooky, landscape, it looked a bit like that Russian picture.
It sounds as if you are enjoying your stay in Austin, so glad you are getting some down time.
Since we have such things against our outside door, I'm
going to guess walking stick. Sure helps with stability as we get more rickity.
Hope everyone had a very nice, warm and comfortable weekend.
Here's some warm greetings in Nez Perce [video:https://youtu.be/e0uaCDyipPw]
A society grows great when old men plant trees in whose shade they know they shall never sit. Allegedly Greek, but more possibly fairly modern quote.
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Good morning all.
I know nothing about Philip Glass' operas but do know the Metropolitan opera is staging 'Akhnaten' this season. I will see the simulcast in the movie theatre....and am looking forward to that.
Here is a bit:
I saw the premier of that opera
To say it is unique is an understatement. The crowd stayed for the last act out of curiosity more than anything.
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
I'm learning
that this opera is part of a trilogy. Some people rave about it and some think it is horrific. Glass is sometimes compared to Bach because of the repetition and slight variations that go on and on.
I will see.
You sound
like a good teacher smiley, "guiding students in discoveries" what fun.
That Niko Pirosmani picture is interesting. Did you notice those three guys had 4 bottles of wine between them? I'm glad they're not driving home, I fear they may be too tipsy and get lost in that dark forest on the way home though.
I spent a week in Russia.
The guides went out of there way to say that the impression of the people as vodka saturated drunks is wrong, I did see this one guy, staggering around in the road, cars dodging him, as he walked down the block and rounded the corner. He spent lots of time walking backwards and sideways, but he did safely make it. The guide said nothing, but gave me a knowing glance.
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
I never did get the point
of drinking straight vodka. It has no flavor to me. But then what do I know, and I don't live in such a brutally cold place, perhaps the whole purpose of it is to make you forget you're cold.
All I know of Russia is what I have read in Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, etc. etc. and Dostoevsky made life there sound so grim that a large intake of vodka may simply be essential.
We had a vodka tasting.
We also had some competition akin to musical chairs where vodka shots were the beginning of the race. My team won, and we all drank more shots than the competition.
I recall being surprised at the difference in taste, and even more surprised that it was really good.
The unsung hero that defeated the Germans trying to take Moscow in WWII was General January.
It seems they pickle everything, given that for 4 months, absolutely nothing grows.
It is an interesting country. We started in Moscow, a very interesting city, very nationalistic. We ended in St. Petersburg, as gorgeous as any city anywhere, with a population that identifies as European, not particularly Russian. I freely admit that the stops we made along the Volga between the two cities were not interesting.
It was worth it just to see the cannons the Russian army took from Napoleon when he got his frozen ass handed to him at Waterloo. They decorate the military museum wall in Red Square.
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
I saw a film version
of War and Peace and one part that stuck in my memory was the part where Napoleon got his ass handed to him. The attempt to march inward in Russia in the dead of winter was his big mistake, replicated by the Germans in WWll with the same results. The Russians were tough as hell both times and faced starvation over surrender.
The seige of St. Petersburg was just horrific.
The way the guide handled the delicate subject was to tell the group that the details might be more than they could take. She turned off her mike, said anyone wanting to hear it should come close. Those that didn't have the stomach for it were given the choice to stand away out of hearing range.
There is a recipe book from the siege that listed 700 recipes featuring human dung.
Cats would kill a bird, the family would share the food with the cats. Cats were heroes, too.
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
Amazing story,
I kind of wish your guide would tell it like it is. The Russian victory over the Germans in WWll is something Americans have forgotten. It was at huge cost and merciless sacrifice of the people. Yet it helped procure the American victory.
Your travels in Russia sound wonderful, I know there are different grades of vodka (given the range of prices) but how nice to learn about it amongst the people who really know. Food and drink, being one of the great pleasures of life and intricately interwoven in the local culture seems to be even more rewarding when shared in said culture. I would have loved to have been on that trip, although I doubt I would have been nimble enough for that drinking game.
Visiting Russia,
We visited Russia during the presidency of George Bush Sr. One of the funny moments was when our friend Alexander told me he wanted me to fix George Bush's thighs! Seems the United States had sent some chicken to Russia for some reason and friend had gotten some and asked me to fix fried chicken. Did my best.
Alexander worked at the Hermitage and we were able to visit the exhibit when the Faberge eggs from the Romanov's were on display as well as other things from their time period. His wife Julia worked at another of the museums restoring paintings. We went out there one evening and you could see where the bullet holes were still in evidence in this part of the building. They liked to drink pepper vodka with cheese and sometimes caviar.
He also took us to one of Peter the Great's palaces. Seems Peter the Great enjoyed pranks and many of the fountains around the palace would suddenly come to life and spray anyone standing there with water.
It was a magical trip and am not sure where the photos from this visit. We had traveled to Russia via the Trans-Siberian railroad from Beijing to Irkutsk and flew to Moscow and the overnight train to St. Petersburg. I was teaching world history at the time so had a lot to share with my students.
Life is what you make it, so make it something worthwhile.
This ain't no dress rehearsal!
What a great opportunity!
I got to see those things, but there was virtually no interaction with the locals, other than shopkeepers.
One guide was former military, and he had spent 6 or 7 years in California at a military base, learning English, likely teaching Russian.
He loved his time there, was very appreciative that a group of Americans had come to his country.
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
Love those piano/violin duos
You've posted them before and I can't get enough. Thanks.
Got down to 27°f last night here in Vancouver, Wa. Glad I covered the fall lettuce, it survived ok.
Storm system coming in will warm things up.
Neither Russia nor China is our enemy.
Neither Iran nor Venezuela are threatening America.
Cuba is a dead horse, stop beating it.
When Greens first elected to German parliaments looked like this
Back in the mid 1980s, it was the Greens who were the ragtag bunch of misfits and the despised newcomers in German politics.
Hi smiley, and greetings everyone.
I was so captivated by the painting I spent an hour this morning looking at Pirosmani’s work and reading about his life. He’s Georgian, and not unlike Van Gogh a self-taught artist of poor and humble means. He achieved very little attention during his lifetime and died of malnutrition at age 55. He was also quite a romantic. The story goes, that he spent everything he had laying flowers in the path of a beautiful woman he saw only once, performing on stage as a dancer and singer. She was a guest performer in Tbilisi where Pirosmani lived and worked, but left on the arm of a wealthy man.
Oddly enough, my daughter and her husband are in Tbilisi at this very moment. I’ll soon find out if they encountered any of his paintings in the cafes and restaurants they may have eaten in. Pirosmani did much painting of walls in restaurants in exchange for food.
If anyone else is interested, here are some links to the artist.
https://www.tretyakovgallerymagazine.com/articles/1-2009-22/niko-pirosma...
http://poulwebb.blogspot.com/2013/04/niko-pirosmani.html
https://www.fondation-vincentvangogh-arles.org/en/expositions/niko-piros...
https://www.theartstory.org/artist/pirosmani-niko/life-and-legacy/
https://www.itinari.com/niko-pirosmani-a-great-georgian-painter-28r4
Georgian dance
[video:https://youtu.be/_kTL-dtbeUs]
peacocks are less self aware
than this cluster..
what is it that gives these the impression
their movements are attractive?
Must be the choreography.
Holding heads up and supporting their crowns.
It's like ballet without lifting two feet.
Maybe, otherwise a beautiful thought.
Thought is the wind, knowledge the sail, and mankind the vessel.
-- August Hare
"It's like ballet without lifting two feet."
That's partly what I found interesting about it. It sort of reminded me of the old music boxes with a ballerina on top, going round and round stuck to the base. I also found the meeting of East and West interesting, even in its formality.
Exactly!
Winding up the music box.
Watching the make believe
spin round and round.
For the pleasure of the cranks.
Thought is the wind, knowledge the sail, and mankind the vessel.
-- August Hare
Damn,
Do you have to make me laugh at something I enjoyed as a little girl. I'm trying to celebrate my russian influence ; ).
Not to trying make jokes
The eastern european culture is rich
with americanized segues
of which some make sense.
Thought is the wind, knowledge the sail, and mankind the vessel.
-- August Hare
I know, QMS
I responded with laughter to what seemed like satire to me in its imagery and political associations.
I hope I didn't offend you.
You're kidding right
I take no offense.
Your ways are subtle
never unkind.
Thought is the wind, knowledge the sail, and mankind the vessel.
-- August Hare
...
One too many namaste's
...
I got a keen sense growing up of the more serious and slightly rigid russian nature of my paternal grandparents compared to the more gypsy-like nature of my maternal east european grandparents.
Same here
Whenever I mention the concept of 'gypsy' to most euros
many shrink and fade away. Since recognizing we have become one,
trying to grapple what is scary about being a free spirit to others?
Wind-up the music box and twirl.
Thought is the wind, knowledge the sail, and mankind the vessel.
-- August Hare
The tragic and the comic,
the one and the other. Thank you for being your funny and profound self.
I enjoyed this conversation.
I hope your daughter and her husband
enjoy their trip! The art museum was closed during the time I was there, dog gone it.
I also hope they get to a local winery and get a taste of Georgian wine!
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
The wine and food
will have definitely been a significant feature of their visit. Nice that you have had the opportunity to visit the region. My paternal grandparents were from Russia and Lithuania, but sadly I've never been there. I hope to enjoy some of it vicariously through my daughter and the relating of yours and others experiences. Thanks!
The way they make wine there
is unlike anywhere else in the world, and it has a very distinct flavor that comes from the clay pots that contains the mashed grapes they bury in the ground for 6 months during fermentation. I seldom drink wine, and do not have a sophisticated palate, and even I could taste something wonderful and unique about that wine!
And food. Good grief, it comes in waves. Meals last a couple of hours. Course after course, and a bread you will not see anywhere else.
I hope that you will one day visit both Russia and Lithuania.
Lithuania was so interesting, although their recent history under the Soviets is tragic.
I did some crazy but fun trip that went from Estonia/Latvia/Lithuania/Poland. Although that sounds like a lot of bus travel, the first 3 countries are small, and it wasn't until Poland that we had some in country flights to see the highlights. The good thing is all these places, including Georgia and Armenia, are inexpensive. Food, drinks, accommodations, public transportation, are very affordable and can be accomplished on a very tight budget.
And Lithuania has some unique history with the Crusaders.
The people are sweet, honest, and you came from good stock, Janis!
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
Cheers, on the cusp!
The only message I've received so far is that their first experience, being driven from the airport to the b&b, was exactly that. The driver was sweet, helpful and welcoming. I know the people are very poor and tourism is critical. It makes me feel happy and sad at the same time.
Your reference to Lithuania and the crusaders reminded me of a favourite book - Gentlemen of the Road, by Michael Chabon.
The knights taught them the value of taking baths.
There are thermal baths there, and newborns are cleansed there, as are about to be weds, etc...
Very interesting.
Some of my tour group booked a thermal bath in Georgia, and some baths were located right beside our rather fancy hotel!
It's "a thing"!
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
The Spa theory
Cool information, thanks.
Have you ever heard of
the 'Rattle Snake Shake' ?
Listened to this the other day and thought of you...
Hope your bite has healed.
[video:https://youtu.be/ob5Q_daCOB8]
Thought is the wind, knowledge the sail, and mankind the vessel.
-- August Hare
Well, I had not heard of it, but stared at my feet
while I really grooved on it!
If you want to prevent swelling in your feet, any doctor would recommend compression socks.
If I want to prevent swelling in my afflicted foot, I must avoid all compression, including socks.
Shoes are still a problem, finding ones that do not put pressure on my arch. Of the 40 or so shoes I have, I am wearing about 4 pairs at this point. There is little or no pain involved, but there is swelling if I wear the wrong shoes.
I wouldn't give a shit, except I work in public, and am the last damn profession with a dress code. Doctors can wear shorts to surgery, I have to get permission to wear flip flops, and will not be allowed in any court in jeans.
I still apply ice packs on my foot from time to time.
Damn snakes!
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
Lachesis
https://www.britishhomeopathic.org/charity/how-we-can-help/articles/home...
I thank you for that
and will give it a try!
It is likely that if you leave home, travel elsewhere, you will return home with a greater appreciation of home.
When I travel, I return home with greater and greater skepticism about home. The basis for comparison between the USA and everywhere else from first hand experience has made a profound difference in my life.
I really needed these travels to unhook myself from the chains of propaganda.
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
Please let me know if you've tried the remedy
and if you felt it was at all effective.
You have me thinking/dreaming
of one day before long meeting my daughter in Tbilisi, if she'd like to return. I think it could be the perfect place for a rendezvous.
I recall walking around in a park, enjoying the
stream, sitting on the park benches, admiring the beautiful flowers.
The capital is within fairly easy reach of the Stalin Museum. I forget the specific spelling... Gorki, or something like that.
You just have to see it to believe it. It shows the house and bedroom where he was born. It is NOT at all any museum to his greatness. It is a museum to show his development from a guy going to school to be a Monk who became, well, a monster. I was simply gob smacked. He could have been a singer. He could have been a religious leader.
JUST GO!
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
JUST GO!
That is so, JUST NOT ME, at this point in life.
But maybe it could be, and Tbilisi would be just the catalyst for it!
Thanks for the encouragement.
Thank you smiley,
for the inspiration, expansion, and enjoyment your welcoming provides - even when it's a simple post of an image and a musical accompaniment.
All the best to you.
Dang, i missed a good conversation yesterday.
Thanks to all for making it so and a pleasant read to return to after a long day.
Cheers.