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Please Buy a Copy A Cat Compendium DVD by the Museum's Video Unit  |
August 2010 Archive 29 August - Beef and Bemelmans  A very pleasant summer evening - me, grilling beef ribs done in a sort of char siu style with corn (not shown, a filet of ginger-garlic salmon) while swilling iced gin and lime, while a beautiful woman reads a Ludwig Bemelmans novel to me. link 29 August - Once Around the Circle Photosynths are vast stitched accumulations of photographs - one whirls about snapping away, then uploads the resulting snaps (Windows users only, unfortunately) to the Microsoft Photosynth site, where everything gets banged together and then is presented for viewing. I tried making some Photosynths a couple of years ago; yesterday, I suddenly decided to have another go - inevitably, it's a tour of the Circle with cats included, made from 127 shots. One of the improvements made by Microsoft is that one can now embed a synth on a web site, but I have no idea if it'll actually work on all browsers. Microsoft also makes a pretty nice panorama stitcher, too - the Image Composite Editor - may give it a bash a bit later. Synthing Update - Here's a synth of a walk in the woods with Cat Natasha, and also... ... One of them panoramas, too, also featuring Natasha. Should've taken more pictures, though. link 28 August - Fagioli della Sera  Last night's dinner, shown above, was Pasta e Fagioli con Smoked Turkey Wing - quite delightful. Sorry - forgot to shoot it in 3D. Previously Featured Pasta e Fagioli: Pasta e Fagioli con le cozze link 22 August - Sandwichery in 3D  This is, possibly, the sandwich of the decade, if not the century - the Pan con Chicharrón from Carbón in Rockville, Maryland - fried pork chunks on a bun, slathered with red onion and sarza criolla and fried sweet potato and rocoto mayonnaise - a sandwich so superb that I had to render its image in 3D - red/blue glasses needed...  ... Or haul out your stereoviewer. Carbón is run by the same folks who ran our old favorite La Flor de la Canela in Gaithersburg, now tragically closed. No pisco sours at Carbón, but the Chicharróns go a long way to assuaging the loss. And there's also La Canela just down the block from Carbón and owned by the same family - a very handsome place where the pisco flows like water. link 22 August - An Unexpected TV Pickelhaube  We came across a totally unexpected pickelhaube - the German spiked helmet of the 19th and early 20th centuries - during an episode of Madmen (Season 3, episode 4, "The Arrangements"). Grandpa Gene (Ryan Cutrona) has moved in with Don and Betty. While unpacking, he pulls out an M1895 pickelhaube (possibly an officer's or Garde helmet), which he presents, along with a suitably bloodthirsty provenence, to little Bobby. Don objects, and there is, of course, a scene. But I put it to you that Grandpa Gene is a great big fibber, and also a tosser. By the time the AEF made it to the front, the Germans had replaced the pickelhaube with the stahlhelm - it would have been highly unlikely that Gene would have encountered a boche wearing such a thing. I suggest that he acquired it like the chap in this 1918 Punch cartoon:  ... and embroidered the story as prophetically laid out in the rest of the cartoon. Many thanks to Mark Sullivan of The Jury Box for sharing the cartoon with me. A Selection of Previous Unexpected On-Screen Pickelhaubes Our Man in Havana Blazing Saddles Gormenghast link 22 August - Back on Exhibit  Another superb canvas has emerged from the Janus Museum's conservation lab and is now back on exhibit. It's The Smoker by a follower of David Teniers the Younger, c.1645. The lab discovered that the painting had sustained smoke damage at some point, ironically enough. link 21 August - The Trials of the Day, With Cat, Updated  The temptation of having a dozing cat, a digital camera, and StereoPhoto Maker all handy could not be resisted, and so we now have a modern version of The Trials of the Day... stereoviews featured here. This modern take, starring Cat Maxine, is titled The Trials of the Day are Over (and it's only 10AM). I took the pictures, uploaded them to the computer, ran it through StereoPhoto Maker and generated the stereocard, printed the card and trimmed it, and then viewed it with the stereoviewer, and Maxine was still asleep. She's still asleep, four hours later. Maybe I'll take a nap, myself. link 16 August - The Trials of the Day, With Cat, Part 2  With cat-related stereoviews on my mind, I was pretty sure that we had another version of a The Trials of the Day are Over stereoview with cat - the title refers, of course, to a quote from Thomas Louis Haines and Levi W. Yaggy's inspirational book The Royal Road of Life, 1882. This version was made by Underwood & Underwood, 1905. The other version, made by the Littleton View Co., was featured back in February. link 16 August - A Monumental Ambrotype  Here's a magnificent view of the Washington Monument - it's an ambrotype, a collodion positive on a glass plate. Possibly made around the same time as our previously featured DC ambrotype. link 15 August - A Pleasant, Non-Flaming Aerial Expedition  Somewhere over the lovely Virginia countryside in the Shamu blimp - the Blue Ridge is visible in the distance. Suddenly an unidentified biplane appears. Fortunately, he doesn't seem to be armed with incendiary ammunition, and we're not inflated with hydrogen. So an otherwise pleasant aerial jaunt is not spoiled by flaming, hideous death. Which would have been a real drag. But let's have a nice airship disaster song, anyway: ... It's The Wreck of the Shenandoah (the USS Shenandoah, wrecked in a storm over Ohio, September 3, 1925), sung by a great connoisseur of disaster songs, Vernon Dalhart. link 14 August - Progress in Stereoscopy  Have made the fascinating discovery that one can easily make stereo pairs using one's camera's Burst Mode. It's very nice to come up with an improvement on a nineteenth century technique; my last breakthrough was the invention of the unbreakable ambrotype. I doubt that either invention will make me rich, but undying fame would be an adequate substitute. link 14 August - Paris Story  May, 1944 - I was supposed to be meeting Kaltenlooper, a turned Abwehr agent, at the tip of the Île-St.-Louis - I was buying a map of V-1 launch sites from him; I had to get it back to Bomber Command, pronto. Posing as a tourist, I had just snapped the photograph shown above when a sausage-smelling voice breathed in my ear, "You are surrounded, Herr Szégy-Légy - for you, the war is over!" Kaltenlooper had betrayed me! I jammed the lens of my Ikonta C under the Gestapo agent's chin with terrible force - I heard his neck snap, and he was dead before he hit the pavé. I caught his Walther PPK and shot the rest of the arrest team - four men - before they could react. But the back-up Feldgendarmerie squad was speeding toward me in their Kubelwagon. Briefly, I considered diving into the Seine, but I didn't want to spoil the film. As the Feldgendarmerie troops pulled up, Schmeissers at the ready, I had a brilliant idea... Well, it'll take to long to tell the rest of the story. But I eventually rendezvoused with the RAF Lysander and got my snaps back to London safely, and I'm sure you'll agree that it's a nice photo. Previous Photographs of Paris and Environs link 14 August - Dog on the Shore  Dog, Potomac near Carderock, 1988. From White Dogs of the Potomac. link 13 August - Justice, Overgrown  Justice, her sword broken and her scales missing, neglected and surrounded by weeds - perhaps there is some larger meaning or symbolism here, but it eludes me. And I have no idea what the significance of the date, 1867, could be. Taken on the grounds of the old National Park Seminary, Forest Glen, Maryland. Previous Forest Glen Snaps: Hiawatha, Bright Yellow Hiawatha Caryatids Cat and Caryatid Caryatid, Silva, Czech Hedgehogs link 13 August - Down the Old Canal  Versailles, looking towards the Grand Canal. Previous Versailles Snaps: Moody in Versailles Rainy Evening in Versailles Belvedere Sphinx Bassin d'Apollon Tableau Militaire Trianon link 13 August - Meeting Moise  This is Moise, who ran an old clothes booth at the Marché aux Puces - the Paris Flea Market - along with his human, Mme. Gottscheck...  ... Who told me, after I politely asked her permission to photograph her dog, that my "Frrrench was rrrotten!". But she let me take my pictures, and we had a nice chat, during which she told me that she had visited in the U.S. and had stayed with rrrelatives in Rrrrockville, just down the road from Washington Grove - petit monde! I posted another dog of the Flea Market last year, I recall. link 8 August - Flag and Feline, the 3D Version  Oh, just one more lethargic stereo cat - Leroy, this time, sitting on the plant stand on the porch. Hard to believe, but we later had a fairly spirited catwalk in the woods -  No ambushes, no tree climbing, but a lot of wallowing. Not bad for an August catwalk, really. link 8 August - Hot Weather an Advantage in Stereographic Cat Photography  One good thing about the current torrid conditions is that the cats are laying about as if comatose, making them excellent subjects for stereo photos - see, when one uses a non-3D camera, one takes a shot, then shifts the camera a bit to the right and snaps again, thus calling for an unmoving subject. Of course, it wouldn't be a problem if I had a FinePix REAL 3D W1. Above, Natasha lies poleaxed on the Historic Cottage's wicker settee - as usual, she uses her nom de photo "Maxine". And if you have your red-cyan 3D glasses handy:  And meanwhile...  ... Over on 7th Avenue, Buddha Minor is looking a little more lively. link 8 August - Grilled Clams  Making grilled clams is hot work, though quick and simple. Step one - rinse off your clams. Corn is optional. Slice lemons. Make a sauce, if one is desired. I desired one made from soy, vinegar, sesame oil, chili flakes, minced ginger and garlic, and a few shakes of Sriracha sauce.  Step two consists of putting the clams on the grill. When they open up, take them off the grill. Use tongs. This is where the work gets hot. Beer can help you out at this stage. Actually, beer can help during the entire procedure.  Step three is pretty simple - a squeeze of lemon on the clam, a twist of the fork, a dip in the sauce, and then eat it - repeat until clams are gone. Continue to drink beer. Have a few of the clams without sauce - all a clam really needs is lemon. The corn went on the grill a bit later with the steak and salmon, and the beer continued to be very helpful. Grilled oysters, in season, are superb, too. Grilled mussels are excellent, too, come to think of it. link 7 August - More High Fashion  Very pleased to launch the latest in our exclusive line of World War I German aircraft lozenge camouflage attire, an elegant gents necktie, now available for purchase through the Janus Museum Museum Shop.  Gus look quite sharp in the tie, I have to admit - it arrived just in time for his bail hearing. Sadly, the cat-sized tie is not yet available. link 1 August - I Ponder as I Wander  Much cooler than last week at this time, so we ventured into the Museum's Forest Preserve for a bracing catwalk. But catwalks are rarely bracing - sustained activity not being a catly attribute - so there was a fair amount of setting and meditating, as Nutmeg and Maxine demonstrate above.  Natasha continues to ponder. Then we all went home for a snack and a nap. link |
