Welcome to Saturday ...

Submitted by smiley7 on Sat, 08/31/2019 - 6:54am

"It was not redundant’ or ‘pretentious’ to stage a play about despair in a place where people were in despair, and where it might offer them a way to feel ‘strengthened and consoled by having their sense of reality affirmed and transfigured by art." ~ Susan Sontag

Coffee's on, bookmarks open, sleepy-head's stirring, avoiding labour days. Enjoy music as today's latest edition is put together,

Susan Sontag was a monster

She took things too seriously. She was difficult and unyielding. That’s why Susan Sontag’s work matters so much even now https://aeon.co/essays/susan-sontag-was-a-monster-of-the-very-best-kind?...

"It is not only that styles belong to a time and a place; and that our perception of the style of a given work of art is always charged with an awareness of the work’s historicity, its place in a chronology … [But] the visibility of styles is itself a product of historical consciousness. Were it not for departures from, or experimentation with, previous artistic norms which are known to us, we could never recognise the profile of a new style."

“My message to him is just to listen to the science.”

Arriving in New York after a 15-day sea journey from the United Kingdom, young climate activist Greta Thunberg shares her message to US President Donald Trump. (The New York Times)

An ancient face is shedding new light on our earliest ancestors. Archaeologists have discovered a 3.8-million-year-old hominin skull in Ethiopia — a rare and remarkably complete specimen that could change what we know about the origins of one of humanity’s most famous ancestors, Lucy. https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-019-02573-w?utm_source=Nature+Bri...

Bobcat Manor, a visual delight and touching article ...

Despite increasing hunting pressure, bobcats have proven themselves to be remarkably resilient in the face of human encroachment—and aren’t above raising their young in rural backyards.https://www.biographic.com/posts/sto/bobcat-manor

Be safe East Coast folks, thinking of you.

Jill tells me about the
show she is making
& I thought it’s like
Flowers. What kind
of flowers am I making.
I think that I met
you at work. I’m home
Now & think what
Kind of flower am
I making. How do we find
the flower, use the
Flower spread it around
I thought summer’s a good
Growing season or is
It. Is summer just hot?
I could bring my flowers
To your flowers, always
Afraid when I show
That maybe I am making
A funeral. Whatever I am
When I show it around.
I love your flowers
A finger tip has so many
hands & you love
Mine. How is it to love
For once and to see it all
Now to be so afraid of loving
And dying. Mounds of
Flowers go to my head.
I love you inside there
Also out, to show, I want to
Bring you so many flowers.
~ Eileen Myles’s

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Submitted by smiley7 on Sat, 08/31/2019 - 8:39am

Good morning,

An eclectic compilation this morning from saved readings, not thematic unless one discovers a weave not yet imagined by this writer.

Going to avoid the heavy traffic of this holiday weekend and the first university football game, if possible.

Good to have peace this morning, been a full week of good news and bad with much done and to do. Gathered in some apples, a few late bearing trees to visit.

Indian Summer with its beautiful light comes soon in color; need to charge the camera batteries and find time to get out more, the wilderness calls.

Todays' WPA: Women in Tenement Flats by California native Milliard Sheets take a break from labour for a chat, 1934 Los Angeles.

Wherever you are, may this day greet and treat you.

Submitted by Wally on Sat, 08/31/2019 - 8:51am

Keep those WPA artworks comin'

I'm always amazed by and in awe of them.

Submitted by smiley7 on Sat, 08/31/2019 - 9:01am

Good morning, Wally,

@Wally

Will do, we desperately need a new WPA. Who better to carry needed messages to people in their communities than artists of all venues.

Hoping you've a wonderful day.

Racing by Gerald Foster

Submitted by Lookout on Sat, 08/31/2019 - 9:23am

Good morning

A beautiful cool clear morning here. Enjoyed my walk around Trade Day this AM. Bought an electric weedeater that uses my drill batteries. Nice and light...hope it works well.

I enjoyed the eclectic OT Smiley. Did you see the boat Greta sailed to the US? It can fly...wild looking curved leeboards. The centerboard contains a hydro-generator and the deck is covered in solar cells. Not built for comfort but speed. I wish there was a commercial option to sail across the pond...especially if you could make the crossing in 2 weeks like Greta did.

As a teen I dreamed of sailing around the world, but life got in the way and other dreams were stronger. Here's hoping your dreams are exceeding expectations.
Summer's end...
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nXbEFTv9zr0]

—

“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

Submitted by smiley7 on Sat, 08/31/2019 - 9:44am

oops, reply's below

@Lookout

Submitted by HenryAWallace on Sat, 08/31/2019 - 9:28am

Another gentle, lovely transition to the weekend.

Thank you, smiley7.

I love Art Deco.

Happy Saturday, everyone.

Submitted by smiley7 on Sat, 08/31/2019 - 9:42am

Good morning, Henry,

@HenryAWallace

A tranquil and lovely weekend to you, sir. I love Art Deco, too.

Submitted by smiley7 on Sat, 08/31/2019 - 9:40am

Good morning, Lookout,

Love Prine's voice, thank you.

The sea dances in young people's dreams, as it should, i suppose.

Yep to a sail on Malizia, imagine that, as you say.

Briefly considered joining the Coast Guard during NAM, but put that idea away quickly upon learning of the deadly PT boat duty up the Mekong.

Enjoy the long weekend, now you've an extra tool to trim along the new fence.

Submitted by Anja Geitz on Sat, 08/31/2019 - 10:50am

Enjoyed the essay about Sontag

I was not very familiar with her writing so I did a little digging. Her thoughts on white civilization struck me as especially relevant when you look at the history of savagery perpetrated by Europe and the U.S. In the name of business and profits.

If America is the culmination of Western white civilization, as everyone from the Left to the Right declares, then there must be something terribly wrong with Western white civilization. This is a painful truth; few of us want to go that far.... The truth is that Mozart, Pascal, Boolean algebra, Shakespeare, parliamentary government, baroque churches, Newton, the emancipation of women, Kant, Marx, Balanchine ballets, et al, don't redeem what this particular civilization has wrought upon the world. The white race is the cancer of human history; it is the white race and it alone—its ideologies and inventions—which eradicates autonomous civilizations wherever it spreads, which has upset the ecological balance of the planet, which now threatens the very existence of life itself.

Apparently Sontag got a lot of pushback and hate mail for her views. She later recanted her use of the word cancer, saying that :

"it slandered cancer patients," but according to Eliot Weinberger, "She came to regret that last phrase, and wrote a whole book against the use of illness as metaphor."

She sounds like the kind of person we could use now to poke through the much about nothing rhetoric of today. Thanks so much for including her work and her voice in your OT.

Have a good Saturday everyone!

—

There is always Music amongst the trees in the Garden, but our hearts must be very quiet to hear it. ~ Minnie Aumonier

Submitted by Raggedy Ann on Sat, 08/31/2019 - 3:06pm

That was a

@Anja Geitz
beautiful comment, Anja. Thank you for opening my mind in this way. I learn everyday. *pleasantry

—

"The “jumpers” reminded us that one day we will all face only one choice and that is how we will die, not how we will live." Chris Hedges on 9/11

Submitted by smiley7 on Sat, 08/31/2019 - 3:08pm

Good afternoon, Anja,

@Anja Geitz

Happy you enjoy Sontag.

Hoping your and critters have a lovely holiday.

Submitted by enhydra lutris on Sat, 08/31/2019 - 12:35pm

Good morning smiley, just back from farmers' market. Very busy,

hectic, and chaotic week now transitioning into yet another - likely to be a full month, but it will be good to get this stuff done. It is raining apples, but they aren't full sized or fully ripened yet. I picked a bunch anyway, to ensure we get at lease some since we'll be off on he road for a few days again soon. Gotta keep running, have a great one.

—

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 --

Submitted by smiley7 on Sat, 08/31/2019 - 12:48pm

Good day, el,

@enhydra lutris
Busy times for sure, glad you made it by. Hoping you've a wonderful holiday.

Submitted by QMS on Sat, 08/31/2019 - 12:58pm

Happy Saturday All

Thanks for the eclectic compilation thread today. Seems to go with the mood. Eclectical rhymes with electrical. Which brings to mind. Just returned from Baltimore. The city provides an entire fleet of electric scooters for people to scoot along painted sidewalk lanes. They seem to be parked randomly all over the place. Just swipe and go. Then leave it for the next one. Very cool way of moving people without cars.

https://www.baltimoremagazine.com/2018/7/3/what-you-need-to-know-about-b...

Seems the Birds are being replaced by the Lime version. Very popular with the young exec types. What was it trump was saying about Charm City?

Anyway, Amtrak-ed up the coast on an Acela train yesterday. They have a coach with a library atmosphere called the 'quiet car' -- no cell phones, music or other distracting noise. Being a bibliophile, it's a quite nice ride.

Labors are finished for a couple of days. Plenty of tomatoes to harvest!

Best wishes.

—

question everything

Submitted by enhydra lutris on Sat, 08/31/2019 - 1:24pm

@QMS Hola, QMS! Baltimore

@QMS Hola, QMS! Baltimore doesn't provide the scooters, Bird does, or maybe soon to be Lime. They have a business model of simply dropping these off all over, and they get paid by those who "rent" them, and they pay free-lance contract "chargers" a pittance per to pick them up and recharge them. They have become controversial in that riders often ignore many laws regarding both traffic and property. So users dump them when they're done, often in somebody's yard, driveway, the middle of the sidewalk or whatever and cities wind up impounding them, as do some private firms in response to calls from property owners. It's a great idea being endangered by a lot of robustly inconsiderate riders.

—

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 --

Submitted by Anja Geitz on Sat, 08/31/2019 - 2:45pm

Riding the Rails

@QMS

I took an overnight train ride once from Avignon to Paris. While I was thinking more along the lines of the "Orient Express experience, what I got instead was a "couchette" car with floor sleeping bunks. Since we embarked on the train at midnight, the couchette was dark, our bunks were on top, and we had to hunt and peck as best we could. Did I also mention the snoring man who must've eaten a lot of garlic sleeping in the bunk below me?

Glad to hear your experience up the coast was better

—

There is always Music amongst the trees in the Garden, but our hearts must be very quiet to hear it. ~ Minnie Aumonier

Submitted by smiley7 on Sat, 08/31/2019 - 3:27pm

good story, smiling here,

@Anja Geitz
A good bottle of booze goes well with those couchettes with the hidden sink.

Submitted by smiley7 on Sat, 08/31/2019 - 3:14pm

love trains, QMS,

@QMS

First memory is of an East Coast trip on the Silver Meteor

The SAL inaugurated the Silver Meteor on February 2, 1939. The name was selected via contest, with 30 people among 76,000 entrants proposing the winning name. It was the first diesel-powered streamliner to Florida, and its introduction prompted its competitor, the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad to introduce its own New York-Florida streamliner, the Champion, in December 1939. The SAL emphasized the train's modernness, referring to it as the "Train of Tomorrow" and having its first trip to Florida begin not from Pennsylvania Station, but from the Long Island Rail Road station at the 1939 New York World's Fair. The train used seven new cars manufactured by the Budd Company. The original schedule took 25 hours.[4][5] The Pennsylvania Railroad carried the train from New York to Washington under a haulage agreement. Between Washington and Richmond it used the Richmond, Fredericksburg and Potomac Railroad, jointly owned by the SAL and five other railroads. From Richmond south SAL's own track was used via Raleigh, North Carolina, Columbia, South Carolina, Savannah, Georgia, Jacksonville, Florida and Ocala, Florida. Until the late 1960s the Silver Meteor split at Wildwood, Florida, with one section continuing to Miami, and the other to St. Petersburg and Sarasota-Venice on Florida's west coast. wiki

Lovely weekend to you.

Submitted by UntimelyRippd on Sat, 08/31/2019 - 1:20pm

I will go sailing later today.

Meanwhile, I'm 10.5 minutes into Carnival Row, and I'm already disappointed by the quality of the acting and direction, despite having immediately lost my heart to the poor wee broken-hearted Fae heroine.

I may have mentioned at the time that several weeks ago, a bobcat insouciantly traversed my rural yard, at 2pm in bright saturday sunlight. It dallied a few minutes atop a woodpile beneath which some woodchucks have made a den. Earlier that day, we had watched the woodchucks out and about on the lawn, and remarked that should a redtail espy them, it would be all she wrote -- they move quickly, but not swiftly.

In the event, the groundhogs declined to present themselves and join the bobcat for a pleasant saturday dejeuner sur l'herbes; the feline surrendered to ennui, wandering off around the house and into the walnuts and oaks.

Both species were apparently practically wiped out in these parts, but have made a recovery, the woodcucks especially. There is a state-sanctioned hunting season on bobcats, but permits are scarce -- a lottery system in which the average wait-time is about 5 years.

—

The earth is a multibillion-year-old sphere.
The Nazis killed millions of Jews.
On 9/11/01 a Boeing 757 (AA77) flew into the Pentagon.
AGCC is happening.
If you cannot accept these facts, I cannot fake an interest in any of your opinions.

Submitted by smiley7 on Sat, 08/31/2019 - 3:19pm

Bobcats grow to huge sizes here, UR,

@UntimelyRippd

sad when i encounter local's making trophies of them. Smart chippers you have there.

May the wind be with you this weekend.

Submitted by Raggedy Ann on Sat, 08/31/2019 - 4:28pm

Hi ~ smiley ~~

A little late today - my daughter is visiting. Lively music and interesting things to read. Many thanks for the interesting topics you bring.

Enjoy your day!

—

"The “jumpers” reminded us that one day we will all face only one choice and that is how we will die, not how we will live." Chris Hedges on 9/11

Submitted by smiley7 on Sat, 08/31/2019 - 6:19pm

Hi RA,

@Raggedy Ann

Happy holiday to you and family.

Submitted by mhagle on Sat, 08/31/2019 - 5:29pm

Arthritis Piano

I am so enjoying this piano playlist as I read.

In my old age, this is the sort of piano music I play. Not quite this elegant. But, I just make it up. And I include more physical workouts, for the sake of arthritis. Wonderfully fun.

I still need to follow all your links.

On a garden note, we finally got 2 1/2 inches of rain today. Basically no rain for two months so this was fabulous.

—

Marilyn

"Make dirt, not war." eyo

Submitted by smiley7 on Sat, 08/31/2019 - 6:25pm

Hi Marilyn,

@mhagle

Curse of arthritis, we share the affliction; but must play on while we hear the music.

Know you must be busy putting up goodies from the garden and taking care of second plantings.

Last weekend for my produce-truck man who gives me deals, miss him when he's gone.

Have a wonderful holiday; sending you some virtual cornbread to share with everyone, secret recipe, you know.

Submitted by magiamma on Sat, 08/31/2019 - 6:18pm

late afternoon 'ello, smiley

Eclectic but lovely. I remember seeing Waiting of Gedot in the city (west coast, the city) at ACT a number of years ago. Same set. Wonderful and depressing at the same time. And isn't it amazing that they are trying to figure out who was who only 4 million years ago. Trippy. My cat (caterpillar) is growing by leaps and bounds. And pooping abundantly. FIFO. heh. I was told once they are ready to pupate they can travel far. Worrisome. Found another tiny one, about 3/8" long. It is also eating and growing. Will keep on the lookout for more. Looks like they get picked off and eaten by something so I need to bring them inside. In other news there is an owl again in the reserve and the crows were going at it. I went out there and made big sounds and finally the crows left. Just needs to survive until night time, I think. Dry here now that el niño has flown the coop. Not so good. Thanks for the ot. Have a good evening...

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3-NpQIhS6JI]

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gmAQYmwhjqI]
couldn't decide which one... lol

—

Stop Climate Change Silence - Start the Conversation

Hot Air Website, Twitter, Facebook

Submitted by smiley7 on Sat, 08/31/2019 - 6:42pm

Hi magi,

@magiamma
Samuel Beckett would know who's who four million years ago. Lived around the corner from Geary theatre. Those were the days. How rich and far Beckett's talents reach.

Love both music pieces; as to the crows, maybe send them text messages on clotheslines.

Happy Trippy has a mate, keep us informed of the metamorphosis.

Great holiday to you.

Submitted by Unabashed Liberal on Sat, 08/31/2019 - 7:21pm

Hola, Smiley, and Saturday OT'ers! Hope you're making

good progress (medically), Smiley. Have had my hands full (and couldn't log in), but, thought I saw that your Docs got clearance for the Part B (?) RX you've needed--wonderful! It's great to hear that there are fair and reasonable Medicare ALJ's, as well.

Things are getting crazy, lately. Closing on place (selling), and, on a residence (purchasing) in a Retirement Community. We're already quite familiar with the Community (within 100 miles of us), since, quite a few years ago, we regularly attended *DFA meetings, there. (Howard Dean's *Democracy For America) Plus, I've supported their Animal Shelter for several years, for various reasons. We're still hoping to spend several months outside of CONUS, yearly (Mexico or SA). It's a bit more complicated than we first thought, though, if one plans to keep a US residence.

Thank you for today's OT. Everyone have a nice and safe holiday weekend!

BTW, sending positive karma to any and all who may be in the path of the approaching hurricane. Haven't had a chance to keep abreast of the weather forecast, but, last I heard, Florida may not suffer a direct hit, after all. At any rate, those of you who expect to be in the path of Dorian--take good care.

Mollie

“Dogs have given us their absolute all. We are the center of their universe. We are the focus of their love and faith and trust. They serve us in return for scraps. It is without a doubt the best deal man has ever made.” ~~Roger Caras

—

Everyone thinks they have the best dog, and none of them are wrong.

Submitted by smiley7 on Sat, 08/31/2019 - 7:45pm

Hi Molly,

Congrats on the closing.

Seems a busy time of year for many of us. Wish we could meet up in travels sometimes as we are so near, yet far away.

May be in Knoxville for a couple of weeks soon taking care of Jackson.

Give my best to Mr and a treat to Kaity.