A fine art, film, history and literature site oriented to, but not exclusively for, the gay community. Please be aware that there is mature content on this blog. Information on images and links to sources will be provided if known. Enjoy your visit and please subscribe.
The Three Saviors of the Three Kingdoms
“On and on the Great River rolls, racing east.
Of proud and gallant heros its white-tops leave no trace,
As right and wrong, pride and fall at once unreal
Yet ever the green hill stay
To blaze in the west-waning day…”
― Luo Guanzhong, Three Kingdoms
“宠之以位，位极则残；顺之以恩，恩竭则慢。所以致弊，实由于此。吾今威之以法，法行则知恩；限之以爵，爵加则知荣。恩荣并济，上下有节。为治之道，于斯著矣”
― Luo Guanzhong, 三国演义
Plumb, “Cut”, From Plumb’s Third Full-Length Album ‘Chaotic Resolve”.
Artist Unknown, (The Attack!)
The kraken is a enormous mythical cephalopod-like sea monster in Scandinavian folklore. According to Norse sagas, the kraken terrorized sailors off the coasts of Norway and Greenland. It has been a staple of superstitions and legends through the centuries, becoming a common ocean-dwelling monster in fictional works.
The word ‘kraken’ comes from the Swedish and Norwegian language, the definite form of the word “krake’ denoting an unhealthy animal or smoething twisted. ‘Krake’ (plural) and ‘kraken’ (singular) in modern German means ‘octopus’. ‘Kraken is also an old euphemism in Swedish for whales, a word once believed that would summon whales.
Gossip, “Heavy Cross”
Gossip was formed in 1999 in Olympia, Washington, with vocalist Beth Ditto, guitarist Nathan “Brace Paine” Howdeshell and drummer Kathy Mendonça. All three were originally from Searcy, Arkansas; Mendonça moved to Olympia to attend Evergreen State College and Howdeshell and Ditto followed. Howdeshell and Mendonça had been in bands together in Arkansas. The band coalesced when the three members were roommates in Olympia.
Their style has been described as “a soul or gospel” voice with “a sort of funky punk soundtrack”. The band stated a liking for rock bands like Birthday Party, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Nirvana and The Raincoats but also for other genres such as dance and hip hop.
Artist Unknwon, (Merging of Spirit)
Artist Unknown, (The Danger and the Red Hood)
Ichiro Kojima, “Near Inagaki, Tsugaru”, 1960, Gelatin Silver Print
Born and raised in the northern city of Aomori, Kojima was the eldest son in a family that ran a toy and photographic supply store. He learned photography under the influence of his father, and began to publish his work in photography magazines. His subjects were everyday landscapes on the Tsugaru and Shimokita peninsulas, but his work stood apart from the mainstream realism of that era and soon gained notice for its compositional and poetic sensibilities.
With strong encouragement from the pioneer photojournalist Yonosuke Natori, Kojima mounted his first exhibition, ‘Tsugaru’, in Tokyo in 1958. Following this strong start, he moved to Tokyo in 1961 to pursue a career as a professional photographer. There he held his second exhibition, ‘Freezing’. However, having emerged on the scene with photographs of his home country, he now faced great difficulty making photographs in a new environment.
After the death of Natori, his main supporter in Tokyo, Kojima returned to Aomori. He embarked on a new project in Hokkaido, but he feel ill after repeated exposure to severe conditions and died at the early age of thirty-nine.
Photographer Unknown, (The Runes on the Forest Floor)
Advertising the Future: Illustrations by Arthur Radebaugh
Arthur Radebaugh was born in Coldwater, Michigan in 1906. He developed his interest in art and briefly attended the renowned Art Institute in Chicago. It was there that Radebaugh first began experimenting with airbrush painting, a technique he helped popularize and used throughout his career.
One of his first clients in 1935 was MoToR Magazine, which purchased a painting for $450 and used it for the highly coveted cover of the Annual issue through 1957. With the exception of years 1941-1946, he designed covers for every Annual issue through 1957. Radebaugh’s artistic vision of the future fell in line with the forward-thinking nature of the automotive trade shows that the Annual issues were published to coincide with.
His paintings drew heavily upon the art deco movement of the 1920s through the 1940s, though his style would evolve with the passage of time. His renderings of the future were inspired by the context of his present.
Radebaugh’s work with MoToR garnered him widespread attention, and his list of clients grew to include several big-name brands including the Saturday Evening Post, Fortune, Coca-Cola, and United Airlines. The automotive industry also took note, with Chrysler contracting him to do artwork for their 1939 Dodge Luxury Liner sales literature and advertisements. For the marque’s 25th anniversary, Radebaugh blended the present with the future by painting the 1939 model year cars in front of lush science-fiction-inspired cityscapes. These are shown in images two and three of this blog post.
Photographer Unknown, (Reminiscence)
“Memories are made of peculiar stuff, elusive and yet compelling, powerful and fleet. You cannot trust your reminiscences, and yet there is no reality except the one we remember……”
-Klaus Mann, The Turning Point
Saint Paul and the Broken Bones, “All I Ever Wonder”
Vocalist Paul Janeway and bassist Jesse Phillips met in the mid-2000s while playing in Birmingham as part of the alternative soul outfit The Secret Dangers. In 2012, Jesse and Paul met back in Ol’ Elegante Studios in Birmingham to start a new project. Janeway says of the project with Phillips, “It was going to be our last hurrah” before focusing on other careers, “but then something just clicked and we walked out of there with something.”
As the two began working around Janeway’s voice, they realized they were forming a soul outfit. As the project progressed, the pair brought in Browan Lollar, formerly of The 400 Unit, Andrew Lee, Ben Griner, and Allen Branstetter. Here, they recorded their first EP, Greetings from St. Paul and The Broken Bones before ever playing a live show.
Photographer Unknown, (The Barkeep)
Photographers Unknown, (Men and Their Jeans)
The Artwork of Michael deMeng
Michael deMeng is an assemblage artist from Vancouver, Canada who exhibits throughout the United States. As an educator, he has been actively involved with VSA Montana, providing art education and encouraging participation in the arts to people with disabilities. Through these activities, as well as his artwork, deMeng fosters community awareness, and offers creative methods to explore the human experience.
In his art, he addresses issues of transformation. Discarded materials find new and unexpected uses in his work; they are reassembled and conjoined with unlikely components, a form of rebirth from the ashes into new life and new meaning.
These assemblages are metaphors for the evolutions and revolutions of existence: from life to death to rebirth, from new to old to renewed, from construction to destruction to reconstruction. These forms are examinations of the world in perpetual flux, where meaning and function are ever-changing.
