Month: June 2018

The Pugilist

Photographer Unknown, Vintage Photo, (The Pugilist)

“There is a distinct art in boxing, because there is method, strategy, technique rules and all the bells and whistles that the general public knows. However, since the beginning of time mankind was destined to appreciate the art of combat; and that is the mortal sacrifice – you put yourself out there and display a virtual painting, an interactive canvas that portrays the nature of the human body and what it’s capable of, and as an outcome, the object of combat is not to sacrifice yourself to entertain spectators, no, but to make the other bastard sacrifice himself to entertain spectators – thus comes the art of honor. It’s not a thirst for blood, not at all – but an astonishment, an appreciation for the capabilities of a human that bares his soul naked for the art of combat using strictly his body.”  – Ghaleya Aldhafiri

Calendar: June 28

 

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

Iced Coffee

On June 28, 1911 the Nakhla meteorite falls to earth and lands in Egypt.

The Nakhla meteorite is a prototypical example of the Nakhlite type meteorite of the SNC Group of Mars meteorites. These meteorites are considered to have been ejected by the impact of another large body colliding with the Martian surface. They orbited through the solar system before penetrating the Earth’s atmosphere. This Nakhla meteorite landed in the Abu Hommos district near the village of El Nakha El Bahariya, Egypt.

Many people witnessed the descent, approaching from the north-west, with an inclination of about 30 degrees. It was trailed by a column of white smoke. Several explosions were heard before it fell to earth into an area of about three miles in diameter. About forty fragments were discovered, some buried in the ground up to a meter deep. The original weight of the meteorite was estimated at twenty-two pounds (ten kilograms); fragments weighed from 20 grams to eighteen hundred grams.

The Nakhla meteorite is especially significant because it is the first Martian meteorite to show signs of aqueous processes on Mars. The rock contains carbonates and hydrous minerals, formed by chemical reactions in water. In addition, the rock was exposed to water after it formed, which caused secondary accumulations of minerals. The carbonates contain more 13C than rocks formed on Earth, indicating Martian origin.

London’s natural History Museum, which holds several intact fragments of the meteorite, allowed NASA researchers to break one open in 2006, providing fresh samples, relatively free from Earth-sourced contamination. These NASA scientists found an abundance of complex carbonaceous material occupying branching structural pores and channels in the rock, resembling the effects of bacteria observed in rocks on Earth.

Side Note: One fragment of the meteorite was said to have landed on a dog, as observed by a farmer named Mohammed Ali Effendi Hakim in the village of Denshal. It supposedly vaporized the animal instantly. Since no remains of the dog were recovered and there were no other eyewitness to the dog’s demise, this story remains apocryphal. However, the story of the Nakhla dog has become something of a legend among astronomers.

The Ukulele Player

 

Photographer Unknown, (The Ukulele Player)

“At the ukulele workshop that summer. He lectured on the four-note chord in the context of timelessness, and described himself then as a Quaternionist. We had quickly discovered our common love of the instrument,” Miles recalled,“ and discussed the widespread contempt in which ukulele players are held— traceable, we concluded, to the uke’s all-but-exclusive employment as a producer of chords—single, timeless events apprehended all at once instead of serially.

Notes of a linear melody, up and down a staff, being a record of pitch versus time, to play a melody is to introduce the element of time, and hence of mortality. Our perceived reluctance to leave the timelessness of the struck chord has earned ukulele players our reputation as feckless, clownlike children who will not grow up.”
― Thomas Pynchon, Against the Day

Eugene Delacroix

Eugene Delacroix, “The Baroque of Dante”, 1822, Oil on Canvas, Louvre, Paris

The “Baroque of Dante”, also known as “Dante and Virgil in Hell”, is the first major painting by French artist Eugene Delacroix, signaling a shift in the character of narrative painting from Neo-Classicism towards the Romantic Movement. It was completed for the opening of the Salon in 1822 and currently hangs for viewing in the Musee du Louvre in Paris.

The arrangement of figures is for the most part compliant with the tenets of the cool, reflective Neo-Classicism that had dominated French painting for nearly four decades. There is a group of central upright figures, and a rational arrangement of subsidiary figures, all in horizontal planes, and observing studied poses.

Although the composition is conventional, the painting in some important respects broke unmistakably free of the French Neo-Classical tradition. The painting explores the psychological states of the individuals it depicts, and uses compact, dramatic contrasts to highlight their different responses to their respective predicaments. There is neither comfort nor a place of refuge in the painting’s world of rage, insanity and despair.

The drops of water running down the bodies of the damned are painted in a manner seldom seen up to and including the early nineteenth century. Four different, unmixed pigments, in discretely applied quantities comprise the image of one drop and its shadow. White is used for highlighting, strokes of yellow and green respectively denote the length of the drop, and the shadow is red.

Calendar: June 27

 

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

Searching a Field of Tigers

June 27, 1927 was the birthdate of Robert James Keeshan, an American television producer and actor.

In television’s early days, nearly every town with a station launched its own local kids’ program. These local kids’ programming generated indelible characters, entertained and educated countless youths, and launched the careers of a host of talented actors and broadcasters.  An early show that premiered in 1947 on the National Broadcasting company was “Howdy Doody”.

On the “Howdy Doody Show”, Bob Keeshan played Clarabell the Clown, a silent Auguste clown who communicate by honking horns attached to the belt around his waist. Clarabell often spayed seltzer water at Buffalo Bob Smith, the lead character played by Robert Schmidt who had created the character of Howdy Doody and voiced the puppet on television. Keeshan gave up his role in 1952 after having played the role of Clarabell for three years..

By September of 1953, Keeshan was back on the air for the New York City station WABC, in its new children’s show “Time for Fun”. In this show he played a talking clown named Corny the Clown. At the same time in a separate series, Keeshan also played the title role of a grandfather figure named Tinker, in a pre-school show called “Tinker’s Workshop”.

Developing ideas from the “Tinker’s Workshop” show, Keeshan and his friend, Jack Miller, submitted the concept of “Captain Kangaroo” to the CBS network which was looking for children’s television programming. CBS approved the show; the show premiered in October of 1955 with Keeshan as the lead character Captain Kangaroo.. The show was an immediate success and Keeshan served as its host for 9000 programs over thirty years.

The recurring characters on the show included the Captain’s sidekick (and a fan favorite) Mr. Green Jeans played by Hugh Brannum, and puppets Bunny Rabbit and Mr. Moose. The show had a loose format with cartoons, the reading of books such as ‘Curious George”, and guest appearances such as Bob Newheart, William Shatner as Kirk, and Dr. Joyce Brothers. “Captain Kangaroo”  finished on December 8, 1984, making it the longest-running nationally broadcast children’s program of its day.

Keeshan suffered a sever heart attack in July of 1981, pushing the start of the show for the season back to August. Following the heart attack Keeshan received three Emmy awards for Outstanding Performer in 1982, 1983, and 1984. Despite these awards, his program was shortened from one hour to a half hour and given changing time slots. Keeshan left “Captain Kangaroo” when his contract ended at the end of 1984. In the 1990s, Keeshan attempted to revive the show but was unable to obtain permission from the company who owned the rights to “Captain Kangaroo”.