Month: February 2018

Calendar: February 29

Year: Day to Day Men: February 29

Mediterranean Adventure

The twenty-ninth day of February in 1912 marks the falling of the Piedra Movediza, a balancing rock that was located near the city of Tandil in the Buenos Aires Province of Argentina. A balancing rock, or precarious boulder, is a naturally occurring geological formation that features a large rock of substantial size which is resting on other rocks, glacial fill, or bedrock. No single scientific term for the phenomenon exists. 

There are several types of geological features that are included under the term balancing rock: glacial erratic that are transported and deposited by glaciers or ice rafts to their resting place; perched blocks deposited due to glaciers, avalanches or landslides often on a slope or hillside; erosional remnants that are carved from local bedrock through extensive wind, water, or chemical erosion; and pedestal rock, a single continuous rock form with a very small base and a much larger crown. Although not a true balancing rock, a pedestal rock has the appearance of one. These rocks are now believed to have been formed through years of wind and chemical weathering of its base.

The Piedra Movediza was most likely a deposited boulder; it was situated balanced at the edge of a formation of bedrock. Its weight was approximately three-hundred tons, or 272.2 metric tons, and its pedestal was so thin that the boulder was balanced with the wind. The boulder rocked, imperceptible to the eye, from morning to evening in a extremely slow fashion. Visitors to the site would place bottles under the bottom of the rock only to see them broken later in the day.

The Piedra Movediza fell and broke on the twenty-ninth of February in 1912, some time between five o’clock and six o’clock in the evening. There were no witnesses to the event so the true time and cause of the fall are unknown. Several theories regarding its fall were presented among which were vibrations from a nearby quarry blast, people rocking the stone during the day, and disgruntled quarrymen weary of the tourists. No official reason for the fall, however, was ever issued. 

Proposals were made to move the three segments of the broken boulder back to its original site on the hill and cement them into position; however nothing was done, most likely due to the mass of each segment. In 2007, a replica of the Piedra Movediza was placed in the original site, now considered a historical symbol of the city of Tandil. The replica does not move as it is securely fastened to the supporting bedrock. This original bouder site is now named Parque Litico La Movediza (La Movediza Lithic Park).

Balancing rocks are found world-wide on all continents. Among these are Finland’s seven-meter long Kummakivi in Ruokolahti, Zimbawe’s Balancing Rocks, a large-scale formation of igneous rocks perfectly balanced; the nine-meter tall Pinnacle Balanced Rock at the Chiricahua National Monument in Arizona, United States; and the Pena do Equilibrio, a giant granite balancing rock in Ponteareas, Spain.

Insert Image: Photographer Unknown, “The Piedra Movediza”, circa 1890, Vintage Print

Calendar: February 28

A Year: Day to Day Men: 28th of February

White Drawstring

February 28, 1824 marks the birthdate of Jean-Francois Gravelet, known to many by his stage name Charles Blondin.

In 1829, when he was five years old, a circus troupe performed near his home, and Jean-Francois Gravelet became enthralled by the tightrope walker. It was the first time he had ever seen anyone attempting such stunts. He was so impressed that he felt compelled to try and accomplish the same kind of feats.

Instead of discouraging this rather risky pursuit, Gravelet’s father, who was a gymnast, supported his son’s ambitions. That same year he enrolled his son in the Ecole de Gymase, a school focused on physical education that was located in Lyon, France. Gravelet proved to be quite adept, and after only six months of training he made his amateur performance debut. Billed as “The Little Wonder,” the future Blondin became a popular attraction, as his performances demonstrated surprising skill and originality.

In 1851 he was recruited by an agent for William Niblo, the famed theatrical promoter, to perform with the Ravel Troupe of family acrobats in the United States at Niblo’s Garden. Gravelet then toured America with the troupe that, at one point, performed in New York City, working for P. T. Barnum as part of the world-famous circus impresario’s “Greatest Show on Earth.” During this period, Gravelet assumed his stage name, Charles Blondin.

Charles Blondin toured with the Ravel Troupe for several years. Seeing Niagara Falls for the first time in 1858, he became obsessed with the idea of crossing the gorge on a tightrope. On June 30, 1859, a crowd of 100,000 people witnessed Blondin’s historic feat. For this first attempt, Blondin used a single three-inch hemp cord that was 1,100 feet long and rigged 160 feet above the Falls at one side and 270 feet at the other.

After this first successful crossing, Blondin performed the stunt many times throughout the next year. Each time the crowds grew larger, and he employed different and much more dangerous variations. Once he crossed the Falls while blindfolded. On August 17, 1859, he crossed the Falls while carrying his manager, Harry Colcord, on his back. On September 14, 1860, he traversed the tightrope while walking on stilts. During this period of his career, he became known as “the Prince of Manila,” because the rope he used was made of Manila hemp. In all, Blondin walked across Niagara Falls 17 times.

Evan Chambers

Evan Chambers, Octopus/Squid Series of Lamps, Copper, Bronze, Glass

Evan Chambers began working with copper and blowing glass at the age of eighteen at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo in their metalsmithing program. He worked with glassblower Fred Cresswell who taught him the craft of art nouveau glasswork. In 2009 he moved to Los Angeles and built his current studio, working with hot lustre glass, copper, bronze and silver.

Images reblogged with thanks to the artist’s site: http://www.evanchambersobjects.com

Jean Eugene Charles Alberti

Jean Eugene Charles Alberti, “Warrior with Sword Drawn”, 1850, Oil on Canvas, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

Jean Eugene Charles Alberti was an Dutch painter of Italian descent who worked most of his life in Paris. He studied in Amsterdam,moving there with his parents at the age of five. Later he studied under Jacques-Louis David, a French painter in the Neoclassical style. Afterwards he traveled to Rome, where he copied works by Guido Reni, a painter of the high-Baroque style, and the works of Anthony van Dyck, a Flemish portrait artist of the Baroque style.

He returned to Paris, France and stayed there until 1843. After that date, there is no definitive information about him, neither his destination (possibly the Netherlands) or the date of his death. His painting entitled “Marius among the Ruins of Cathage”, painted in 1805, gained him a gold medal.

Reblogged with thanks to http://hadrian6.tumblr.com

Ann Brauer

Ann Brauer, “Prairie Sky”, 2006, Quilt, 96 x 120 Inches

Ann Brauer has had an impressive quilting career for over 30 years. Based in Shelburne Falls, USA, her quilts are a celebration of captivating colour and immaculate technique. Her style constantly evolves, often reflecting the landscape and seasons around her, yet her enduring use of colour makes her work both recognisable and timeless.

Image reblogged from the artist’s site: https://www.annbrauer.com

Calendar: February 27

A Year: Day to Day Men: 27th of February

Straw Hat

February 27, 1940, was the general release of Alfred Hitchcock’s “Rebecca”.

The film “Rebecca” is a 1940 American romantic psychological thriller directed by Alfred Hitchcock. It was Hitchcock’s first American project under contract with David O. Selznick. It was based on the book of the same name by Daphne du Maurier with an adaption by Philip MacDonald and Michael Hogan. The film star Laurence Olivier played the aristocratic widower Maxim de Winter and Joan Fontaine played the young woman who became his second wife.

The film is a gothic tale shot in black and white. Maxim de Winter’s first wife Rebecca, who died before the events of the film, is never seen. Her reputation and recollections of her, however, are a constant presence in the lives of Maxim, the housekeeper Mrs Danvers (Judith Anderson), and especially the new wife, Mrs. de Winter. The young bride’s first name is never mentioned in the film; she is always referred to as Mrs. de Winter.

At the 13th Academy Awards in 1941, “Rebecca” won two awards, ‘Best Picture’ and ‘Best Cinematography, Black and White’, out of a total 11 nominations. Olivier, Fontaine and Anderson also were Oscar-nominated for their respective roles as were Hitchcock and the screenwriters. It is the only film since 1936 (when awards for actors in supporting roles were first introduced) that, despite winning Best Picture, received no Academy Award for acting, directing or writing.

Selznick insisted that the film be faithful to the novel. According to the book “It’s Only a Movie”, Selznick wanted the smoke from the burning Manderley to spell out a huge “R”. Hitchcock thought the touch lacked subtlety. While Selznick was preoccupied by the production of “Gone with the Wind”, Hitchcock was able to replace the smoky “R” with the burning of a monogrammed négligée case lying atop a bed pillow.

According to Leonard J. Leff’s book “Hitchcock and Selznick”, Selznick took control of the film once Hitchcock had completed filming, reshooting many sequences and re-recording many performances. Some sources say this experience led Hitchcock to edit future pictures “in camera” -shooting only what he wanted to see in the final film, a method of filmmaking that restricts a producer’s power to re-edit the picture.

African Serval

Photographer Unknown, African Serval, Felidae Leptailurus serval

Servals are a small cat species oringinating from Africa. The size of an African Serval ranges between 18 to 40 pounds, with males being the largest. They look similar to a small version of the cheetah, but are in fact an entirely different species. These exotic beauties have a wonderful coat that is yellowish to reddish brown with distinctive dark spots and stripes. There are also a couple of varieties including the all Black Serval, and the woodland Servaline which has much smaller spots in its patterning.

Servals have a long slender build and long legs. The back legs are slightly longer than the front. Their body form is then complimented with a narrow head and very large, prominent ears. Servals are a swift and graceful predator in the African bush. Everything about the appearance and body form of this cat reflects its natural instincts, behaviors, and abilities. Their coat provides a perfect camouflage, their long back legs provide incredible power in a leap, and they have acute hearing with those large ears. What they lack in size they make up for in speed and agility.

They are versatile stealth hunters that will stalk their prey or patiently crouch in the brush listening intently for quarry. With the slightest rustle they leap in a graceful arc, up to 10 feet into the air, pouncing on their prey and striking with a chop of their paws. These incredible cats have a 50 percent success rate, a phenomenal feat in the cat world.

Calendar: February 26

Year: Day to Day Men: February 26

Moment of Rest

The twenty-sixth of February in 1870 marks the opening day of New York City’s Beach Pneumatic Transit, the first attempt to build an underground public transit system in the city. This system was a prototype developed by Alfred Ely Beach in 1869 to demonstrate a subway line running on air pressure.

At New York’s 1867 American Institute Exhibition, inventor and patent lawyer Alfred Ely Beach demonstrated a basic subway model in which air pressure pushed cars through a tubular tunnel. After a successful demonstration, Beach founded the Beach Pneumatic Transit Company in 1869 for the construction of a pneumatically powered subway line beneath Broadway, one of the main commercial arteries in New York City. He financed the full-scale test project himself in the amount of three hundred-fifty thousand dollars.

Alfred Beach, however had no political support for the project as William Magear Tweed, the political boss of Tammany Hall and third largest land owner in New York City, refused to give his approval. In order to start the project, Beach claimed he was building a postal tube system. This was a pneumatic system, already established in London and Paris, that quickly transported tubular cylinders containing small packages, mail, paperwork, and currency. Beach was granted an initial permit to install a pair of postal tubes beneath Broadway; it was later amended by Tweed to allow a single large tunnel in which a system of tubes would reside.

Construction on the Beach tunnel was completed in fifty-eight days. It extended for approximately three-hundred feet from the intersection of Warren Street and Broadway, directly across from City Hall,  and ended at Murray Street and Broadway. Built through the use of a tunneling shield, a temporary structure that shields workers from falling materials or cave-ins, the subway opened to the public on the twenty-sixth of February in 1870 and operated as a demonstration until 1873. 

The Beach Pneumatic Transit ran only a single car on its track from the Warren Street to Murray Street, the distance of one city block. Riders paid a fare of twenty-five cents for the experience, with proceeds given to the Union Home and School for Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Orphans. The Warren Street station was elaborately designed with frescoes on the walls lit by zirconia lamps; the interior held statues and a goldfish pond to view while passengers waited for the car.  The ride was controlled by a forty-four short-ton (39,915 kilogram) generator built by Roots Patent Force Rotary Blowers. The air pressure would propel the car forward and, by reversing the baffles on the blower system, the car would return to the original station. The public approved of the system with over four-hundred thousand rides in its operation.

Alfred Beach had problems in getting official permission to expand the system. In 1873, he succeeded in getting permission to expand the system to Central Park, a distance of five miles. However; both public and financial support had waned, mainly from a stock market crash that became known as the Panic of 1873. With the project shut down, the tunnel entrance was sealed and the station reclaimed for other uses. Although the Beach Pneumatic Transit only existed for three years, the project inspired the New York pneumatic tube postal system that Beach had previously, albeit falsely, suggested to William Tweed. Opening in October of 1897, the pneumatic postal system operated continuously in New York City until 1953, except for a suspension of service during World War I to conserve funding for the war effort.

Edgeworks Design, Texas

Touch Activated Lighting by Edgeworks Design in Texas

“Drawing inspiration from the very heart of industry, Edgeworks Design strives to embody the strength and power of humanity’s thirst for progress. Using salvaged materials from heavy machinery, I craft uniquely striking products, incorporating the very tools that propelled our country through the industrial age. At Edgeworks Design I believe in up-scaling the old and abandoned, retaking the throne of American ingenuity, and breathing new life into the fragments of a throw-away culture otherwise forgotten.” – Philip

This company from Texas does handcrafted lighting and wood/metal furniture for the home. Their site is: http://www.edgeworksdesign.com