- 1. This Painting by Katsushika Hokusai, circa 1832 – I was fascinated by this piece of art when I first saw it. I must admit, I haven’t seen a lot of paintings of waterfalls so I don’t have much for comparison, but what I found most wonderful was the way the artist showed movement, both at the bottom of the waterfall and in the waves.
It may not be easy to see in the image below but if you go to this page there is a copy of the piece where you can enlarge different sections of the painting. You can double click on the image to enlarge it and then use the cursor to move the view.
P.S. I decided to look up to see what paintings there were of waterfalls and there are quite a few but I am unfamiliar with all of the artists. Which could explain how I haven’t seen any previous to this one. You should take a look, some of them are equally impressive.
2. This Micro-Documentary about the Liverbirds, One of the First Female Rock Bands – I’ve never heard of the Liverbirds, have you? (And it’s pronounced LYE-VER BIRDS.)
It’s infuriating that generations of women have had to make the choice between a career or a family. Wait, scratch that. Looking at history as a whole, the majority of women did not even have the option of a career. But in the past, oh, maybe 100 years or so, they sort of did. But of course women who chose careers were expected, unless they were in a lower income bracket, to stop working if they got married. Can you imagine what things would have been accomplished if women had been allowed to work?
3. This HUGE ASS Log Cabin – Sad that it burned down.
4. These Firefighters Working to Protect ‘General Sherman‘ – With all the floods on the east coast, news of the fires in California and the Pacific Northwest have fallen off the “front page.” But it doesn’t mean they have burned out. One wildfire hotspot has sadly turned out to be the Sequoia National Park. Sequoias are among the longest living trees in the world, most of them live hundreds of years. “General Sherman” is the oldest single trunk tree on the planet. It is believed to be between 2,200 to 2,700 years old. There have been a combined total of over 43,000 acres of Sequoias burned so far.
Firefighters, like so many of our public employees that get little notice, are real heroes.
Here’s a bigger view:
5. This New Book on Miniature Eye Portraits – Believe it or not, I’ve been obsessed with eye miniatures for years. I can’t believe they are publishing a book! Now, before you go “ewww” this is weird, the idea behind them was that lovers would send portraits of their eyes to one another so that they could have keepsakes and reminders but only they would know the person so well that they could identify them by their eye. It was to keep the relationship private or secret. Read this article to find out more.
6. This Astronomical Clock in Prague – it’s over 600 years old! I’ve been fortunate enough to have been to Prague twice, but both trips were well before smartphones. I’m sure I took plenty of photos but I have no idea where they’d be now. We’re talking mid-1990s. But two things I remember vividly are the Charles Bridge and this clock.
7. This Baroness von Sketch Show Sketch – LMFAO every time I watch it. SPOT ON!
P.S. And here’s a little follow up from last week. And I’m weeping all over again!
Word of the Week
Quote of the Week
This week I’m going with a poem rather than a quote – it was so good I had to share it. Of course traveling right now is not easy but once this damned pandemic is over we should all get back to traveling the world!
Try to travel, otherwise
you may become racist,
and you may end up believing
that your skin is the only one
to be right, that your language
is the most romantic
and that you were the first
to be the first.
Travel, because if you don’t travel then
your thoughts won’t be strengthened,
won’t get filled with ideas.
Your dreams will be born with fragile legs
and then you end up believing in tv-shows,
and in those who invent enemies
that fit perfectly with your nightmares
to make you live in terror.
Travel, because travel teaches
to say good morning to everyone
regardless of which sun we come from.
Travel, because travel teaches us
to say goodnight to everyone
regardless of the darkness
that we carry inside.
Travel, because traveling teaches us to resist,
not to depend, to accept others, not just for who they are
but also for what they can never be.
To know what we are capable of,
to feel part of a family beyond borders,
beyond traditions and culture.
Traveling teaches us to be beyond.
Travel, otherwise you end up believing
that you are made only for a panorama
when instead inside you there are wonderful landscapes still to visit.
– Gio Evan, poet and songwriter. Translated from Italian.