Month: April 2018

The Passenger Seat

 

Photographer Unknown, (Passenger Seat)

“From the passenger seat, Ronan began to swear at Adam. It was a long, involved swear, using every forbidden word possible, often in compound-word form. As Adam stared at his lap, penitent, he mused that there was something musical about Ronan when he swore, a careful and loving precision to the way he fit the words together, a black-painted poetry.”

-Maggie Stiefvater, The Raven Boys

Paul Richmond

Paul Richmond: Paintings from His “War Paint” Series

“I created War Paint because I was interested in exploring the concept of identity – how we construct our sense of self and choose to reveal it to others. As a young gay man, I grew up feeling inadequate by the standards of masculinity that were presented to me. War Paint is about ignoring the status quo and boldly wearing the colors that represent who we are and how we relate to the world around us.

Everyone faces battles in their daily lives, and how we prepare for them is an important part of who we are. I hope people feel a sense of recognition or connection with the psychological states of the figures depicted in War Paint and maybe even create a story in their own minds about where they are heading or from what battlefield they are returning.” -Paul Richmond

Izumi Sukeyuki

Izumi Sukeyuki, Snake and Frog Kimono, Wood Inlayed with Horn and Shakudo, Meiji Era, Late 19th Century, Japan

Sukeyuki lived in Omi Province, present-day Shiga Prefecture, in the town of Bamba. He was a master carver of butsudan or family Buddhist altars. On a visit to Hida-Takayama he was amazed to see the okimono and netsuke by the carver Sukemizu, and resolved to start carving similar pieces. Famous for his frog netsuke, Sukeyuki also used the Go or art name Gamatei Sukeyuki.

Sukeyuki’s kimono in the form of a hungry snake conversing with a plump frog, is carved from a single piece of wood. The eyesare  inlaid in horn and the snake’s tongue is made of shakudo. It is signed on the reverse with an inlaid seal form wood plaque,

Stephen Fry: “The Mad Intensities That Made and Unmade Me”

Photographers Unknown, Ten Selfies

“It’s not all bad. Heightened self-consciousness, apartness, an inability to join in, physical shame and self-loathing—they are not all bad. Those devils have been my angels. Without them I would never have disappeared into language, literature, the mind, laughter and all the mad intensities that made and unmade me.”

Stephen Fry, Moab is My Washpot

José Naranja

José Naranja: Sketchbooks

José Naranja beautifully detailed sketchbooks by collaging elements of photography, writing, stamps, and his own precise drawings of everything from poison mushrooms to a bird’s eye view of his dream studio. The ex-aeronautic engineer began working with sketchbooks after he discovered pocket-size Moleskine notebooks in 2005 and realized they were the perfect vessel to document his daily experiences and develop his wildest ideas. After 13 years of using the same style of notebook, Naranja now crafts his own by hand.

“It creates a special link between my journals and me. Drawings of calligraphy are just useful tools to express ideas They are the visible layer in the whole notebook as a piece, a mandala, and it’s the final artwork. Every detail in the process should be taken into consideration because I give the best effort. At the moment they have given me back only good news.”- José Naranja

The sketchbook artist also sells edited copies of his best work in a compilation called “The Orange Manuscript”, which you can find on his website.

Calendar: April 9

A Year: Day to Day Men: 9th of April

A Giant Among Men

On April 9, 1928, the play “Diamond Lil”, written by and starring Mae West, opened in New York City.

Mae West began writing began writing her risqué plays using the pen name Jane Mast. Her first starring role on Broadway was in a 1926 play she entitled “Sex”, which she wrote, produced, and directed. Although conservative critics panned the show, ticket sales were strong. The production did not go over well with city officials, who had received complaints from some religious groups, and the theater was raided. West was arrested along with the rest of the cast. She was taken to the Jefferson Market Court House, where she was prosecuted on morals charges, and on April 19, 1927, was sentenced to 10 days for “corrupting the morals of youth”.

Though Mae West could have paid a fine and been left off, she chose the jail sentence for the publicity it would garner. While incarcerated on Welfare Island, she dined with the warden and his wife. West told reporters that she had worn her silk panties while serving time, in lieu of the ‘burlap’ the other girls had to wear. She achieved publicity from this jail stint. West served eight days with two days off for “good behavior”. Media attention surrounding the incident enhanced her career, by crowning her the darling “bad girl” who “had climbed the ladder of success wrong by wrong”

West’s next play, “The Drag”, dealt with homosexuality, and was what West called one of her “comedy-dramas of life”. After a series of try-outs in Connecticut and New Jersey, she announced she would open the play in New York. However, “The Drag” never opened on Broadway due to efforts by the New York Society for the Suppression of Vice to ban any attempt by West to stage it. West explained, “the city fathers begged me not to bring the show to New York because they were not equipped to handle the commotion it would cause.” West was an early supporter of the women’s liberation movement; since the 1920’s she was also an early supporter of gay rights.

Mae West continued to write plays, which included “The Wicked Age”, “Pleasure Man”, and “The Constant Sinner”. Her productions aroused controversy, which ensured that she stayed in the news, which also often resulted in packed houses at her performances. West’s 1928 play, “Diamond Lil”, was about a racy, easygoing, and ultimately very smart lady of the 1890s. It opened on April 9th,  became a Broadway hit, and cemented West’s image in the public’s eye. This show had an enduring popularity and she successfully revived it many times throughout the course of her career.

The Stand

Photographer Unknown, (The Stand)

“There was a small stand of trees nearby, and from it you could hear the mechanical cry of a bird that sounded as if it were winding a spring. We called it the wind-up bird. Kumiko gave it the name. We didn’t know what it was really called or what it looked like, but that didn’t bother the wind-up bird. Every day it would come to the stand of trees in our neighborhood and wind the spring of our quiet little world.”

-Haruki Murakami, The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle

The Energy Flow

Artist Unknown, (The Energy Flow of the Amenonuhoko), Computer Graphics, Endless Loop Gifs

Amenonuhoko is the name given to the spear in Shintoism used to raise the primordial land mass, Onogoro-shima, from the sea.

The Kojiki, the oldest extant chronicle in Japan, was composed by Ō no Yasumaro in the early eighth century at the request of Empress Genmei. The chronicle state the Shinto’s genesis gods Izanagi and Izanami were responsible for creating the first land. To help them do this, they were given a spear decorated with jewels, named Ame-no / nu-hoko (heavenly / jewelled spear) by the older heavenly gods. They churned the sea with the spear. When drops of salty water fell from its tip, the drops formed into the first island, Onogoro-shima.

Sergei Polunin Dancing to Luciano Pavarotti’s Singing “Caruso”

Sergei Polunin Dancing to Luciano Pavarotti’s Singing “Caruso”

Sergei Vladimirovich Polunin is a Ukranian-born ballet dancer, actor and model. He started out in gymnastics before switching to ballet at the age of eight and attended the Kiev State Choreographic Institute. He joined the British Royal Ballet School a the age of thirteen in 2003. He was awarded, among other awards, the Prix de Lausanne and the Youth America Grand Prix in 2006. In 2007 Polunin was named the Young British Dancer of the Year. At the age of 20 in 2010, he became the Royal Ballet’s youngest ever principal dancer.

Polunin is now pursuing a freelance career as a principal dancer, performing at various theaters such as the Bolshoi Theater, La Scala Theater, Teatro San Carlo, and the Royal Ballet. He is a permanent guest artist for the Bayerisches Staatsballet in Munich, Germany.

James Clear

James Clear: Photo Study of The Blue City of Chefchaouen, Morocco

Chefchaouen is a small city hidden deep within the Rif Mountains of Northwest Morocco. The ancient part of the city known as the medina is covered in all shades of blue paint. The men wander the streets in long wool robes with pointed hoods known as jellabas. Locals wear then in all weather. The women make handmade Moroccan rugs and carpets using wool, camel hair, cactus fiber and natural dyes.

James Clear is an American author, photographer and entrepreneur. He takes a photography trip every three months to different parts of the world.

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