Month: May 2018

Shanghai Restoration Project, “Nanking Road”

Shanghai Restoration Project, “Nanking Road”, 2005

The Shanghai Restoration Project is a contemporary electronic music duo of Chinese Americans Dave Liang and Sunfan based in Brooklynn, New York. The group’s music is inspired by the Shanghai jazz bands of the 1930s, combining traditional Chines instruments with hip hop and electronica. Their 2014 album entitled “The Classics” was a collection of 1930s and 1940s Shanghai jazz standards in electronic format featuring vocalist Zhang Le.

Calendar: May 16

 

A Year: Day to Day Men: 16th of May

Orange Trimline Phone

May 16, 1919 was the birthdate of Wladziu Valentino Liberace, the American singer, pianist and actor.

Liberace was born in West Allis, Wisconsin. His father was an immigrant from central Italy and his mother was of Polish descent. Liberace was born ‘en caul”, which in some cultures is indicative of genius, good luck or the promise of a prosperous future. He began playing the piano at age four. By the age of seven he was already memorizing difficult pieces and studying the technique of the Polish pianist Ignacy Pederewski.

In 1934 at age 15, he played jazz piano with a school group called “The Mixers” and later with other groups. He also showed an interest in draftsmanship, design, and painting, and became a fastidious dresser and follower of fashion. By this time, he was already displaying a penchant for turning eccentricities into attention-getting practices, and earned popularity at school.

Liberace, at the age of twenty, played with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra on January 15, 1940, at the Pabst Theater in Milwaukee, performing Liszt’s Second Piano Concerto under the baton of Hans Lange, for which he received strong reviews. By the late 1940s he changed from a classical pianist to an entertainer and showman, unpredictably and whimsically mixing the serious with light fare. He also added interaction with the audience—taking requests, talking with the patrons and making jokes. He began to pay greater attention to such details as staging, lighting, and presentation. The transformation to entertainer was driven by Liberace’s desire to connect directly with his audiences, and secondarily from the reality of the difficult competition in the classical piano world.

In 1956, Liberace had his first international engagement, playing successfully in Havana, Cuba. He followed up with a European tour later that year. Always a devout Catholic, Liberace considered his meeting with Pope Pius XII a highlight of his life. In 1960, Liberace performed at the London Palladium with Nat King Cole and Sammy Davis Jr. This was the first televised ‘command performance’, now known as the Royal Variety Performance, for Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom.

Liberace died on the late morning of February 4, 1987 at his retreat home in Palm Springs, California. He was 67 years old. His body is entombed at Forest Lawn, Hollywood Hills Cemetery in Los Angeles. In 1994 the Palm Springs Walk of Stars dedicated a Golden Palm Star to him. Liberace was recognized during his career with two Emmy Awards, six gold albums, and two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Cody Seekins

Cody Seekins, “The Budgie-Shaman”, 2013, Oil on Canvas, 55.9 x 66 cm

“A dancing shaman with a head of a parrot skull jumps wildly against an emerging night sky. The figure’s cavorting happens in the company of various parrot and budgie totems who lend mystical power to the unfolding freestyle sorcery. On the wrist of the shaman is a prayer bracelet; a symbol of the Budgie-Sattva. The whole episode plays out beneath the radiance of a full moon.” – Cody Seekins

As a late teenager and young adult Cody Seekins became hooked into art making as a platform for psychological exploration. Shortly thereafter he attended Wichita State University in Kansas where he earned his B.A. in Studio Art. During his tenure Cody was awarded a Freeman Asia Grant which he used to live in Bangkok, Thailand for 6 months; traveling throughout the region and studying Buddhist Institutions at Thammasat University.

Between earning his bachelor’s degree and submitting to attend the Academy of Art University in San Francisco, California, Cody lived in Frederick, Maryland, where he was accepted into faculty at both the Delaplaine Center for Visual Arts Education and Frederick Community College.

In May 2013 Cody earned his MFA in Figurative Painting from AAU. Since then, Cody has been traveling the world and painting. Within the next couple years, Cody intends to develop a new complete body of paintings while living in Thailand.

The Boxer

Photographer Unknown, (The Boxer in His Stance)

“The same hand that can write a beautiful poem, can knock you out with one punch—that’s Poetic Justice.”
― “Irish” Wayne Kelly

“Irish” Wayne Kelly was a former pro-boxer, boxing professionally as a light heavyweight, and a referee with a long distinguished career He served as an Army Ranger in Vietnam, earning a Purple Heart for his service.

Kelly refereed bouts in the ring with numerous world champions: Oscar de la Hoya, Riddick Bowe and Wladimir Klitschko, among others. Among the most notable fights Kelly officiated was the first Bowe-Andrew Golota fight at Madison Square Garden. The bout ended with Kelly disqualifying Golota for repeated low blows.

One of the most popular and proficient referees, Wayne Kelly was a veteran of twenty-six world championship fights. He passed away on February 1st of 2012 at the age of sixty-three.

The Erawan Museum

The Erawan Museum, Bangkok, Thailand

Located in Samut Prakan, Thailand, Erawan Museum is mostly known for its massive three-headed elephant art display. This elephant is said to contain ancient religious objects and antiquities, making up a priceless collection. The museum contributes to the preservation of the Thai cultural heritage.

The massive three headed elephant made of bronze weighs 250 tons, is 29 metres high, 39 metres long and stands on a 15 meter high pedestal. The inside of the museum is modeled after the Hindu representation of the universe, which consists of the underworld (1st floor), earth (2nd floor) and Heaven (top floor). The lower two floors are located inside the pedestal while the top floor is located in the belly of the elephant.

Calendar: May 15

A Year: Day to Day Men: 15th of May

Awaiting an Answer

On May 15, 1492 German mercenaries kill 232 people during the Bread and Cheese Revolt in Holland.

The Bread and Cheese Revolt was an uprising of people from Kennemerland and West-Friesland in the province Holland in the year 1491-1492. The name “bread and cheese rebellion” comes from the emblems on the rebel banners. The main reason for the rebellion was a tax raise; but an economic crisis and a food shortage stimulated the rebellion. The tax oppression and the garrison policy of John III of Egmont, the steward of Maximilian I, who had secured the Lowlands by marriage to Mary of Burgundy, further inflamed the discontent of the suffering citizens..

The rebels attacked several cities and killed the most hated tax collectors including the bailiff of Kennemerland, Claes van Ruyven in the town of Haarlem. The peasants with the support of the urban lower classes seized the cities of Hoom, Alkmaar, and Haarlem. The rebels also stormed and destroyed two castles.

Count John III van Egmont first tried to quell the uprising by making some promises to the rebels but they were not impressed. John III called in an imperial army under the control of Albert III, Duke of Saxony, and Governor of the Netherlands. The imperial army defeated the rebel army on the cemetery of Heemskerk.

Two hundred and thirty-two peasants were killed by mercenaries at the city of Alkmaar in the Netherlands during the uprising. The captured leaders of the rebellion were executed and the cities which supported the rebellion were stripped of their city walls, received fines, and had garrisons installed in their midst.

Yukio Mishima, “The Smell of Seaweed Cast Upon the Shore”

Photographer Unknown, Parva Scaena (Brief Scenes): Set Two

“Again, there were maidens who cherished the firm belief that he had come from the sea. Because within his breast could be heard the roaring of the sea. Because in the pupils of his eyes lingered the mysterious and eternal horizon that the sea leaves as a keepsake deep in the eyes of all who are born at the seaside and forced to depart from it. Because his signs were sultry like the tidal breezes of full summer, fragrant with the smell of seaweed cast upon the shore.” 

― Yukio Mishima, Confessions of a Mask