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July 2009 Archive 26 July - A Narrow Escape  Don't often go out on a Saturday night, but was very pleased to be asked out last evening to a dining-in at the Leib Hornbostel Institute - splendid dinner, wonderful conversation, great opportunity to examine many fine artifacts. A welcome rain storm occurred during dinner. Finally, we made our thanks and drove home to discover that a large limb from one of the Historic Cottage's trees had come down during the tempest; came down hard right where I usually park my car. A lucky escape; though tragically, the Historic Cottage fence, parts of which date back to Col. John Wallingford's time, was quite pulverized. This tree thing is getting a bit old. link home 24 July - Planxty Truman Bun  Very sorry to have to report the passing of an old friend, Truman - rabbit to Tico and Becky up in Martinsburg, West Virginia. Yes, Truman was cute, but he was also one feisty bun - wouldn't put up with no guff from cat, dog or human. I've posted it before, but this video, showing bold Truman on the run, is the way I'll remember the old boy:  ... And, of course, Truman in the spring, doing his very convincing impression of the Easter Bunny. link home 19 July - Cardinals, Cats, and Concerts  Here's a superb work of art, The Cardinal's Leisure, by Charles Edouard Delort, (1841-1895), from the collections of the Detroit Institute of Arts. It shows Armand Jean du Plessis de Richelieu taking a break from signing lettres de cachet or death warrants to contemplate five of his kitties. The names of the cardinal's cats are known - were posted here previously. And here's another lovely Cardinal/Cat image. Many thanks to friend Jane Skinner for acquainting me with the Delort painting.  Thanks are also due to old friend Grahame for alerting me to a concert by the great Jordi Savall and Hespèrion XXI on the program Saint Paul Sunday. I hope to listen to it later this evening - will take my laptop to the porch later on and listen in the dusk among the cats, bats, and fireflies. link home 19 July - Turkey and Technique  This is a suitable companion piece for our fine Adolphus Norbeck bald eagle painting posted last week; Ben Franklin having famously compared the turkey favorably with the bald eagle. This particular turkey, a very dignified looking fellow, was photographed at Turkey Run Park in Northern Virginia back in 1981 - during my Graflexiana period. Photo process buffs may be (slightly) interested in the technique used to make the print: it's a gum-cyanotype print made from a black and white negative. I printed the negative first as a cyanotype - a blueprint. After the print dried, I reprinted it in register (you can see the register marks in the corner of the print) with a gum bichromate solution, using red watercolor pigment. After that printing dried, it was dosed with another layer of gum, this time using yellow watercolor. One "develops" gum prints in a basin of water, you see, and as the gum-watercolor mix soaks, the watercolor softens in direct proportion to the amount of light it received through the negative. One can brush away pigment with an artist's brush - so one brushes away the pigment to make what appears to be (sort of) a color photograph made from a black and white negative. It's a fascinating process, and you're getting it from a master for free. I'll look around for other examples, I think, since it's so terribly interesting. link home 18 July - A Bunnytype  From the Museum's collections, a tintype of a girl and her pet bun - nice. And we have another rabbit-related tintype, previously featured here. Not to be confused, however, with Austro-Hungarian bunny ears photography link home 18 July - Meeting Fuzzyboots  There's a new cat in the Circle; Sergeant Fuzzyboots is a friendly young tuxedo cat, but even so, it was a bit tense when he met the other Circle cats for the first time the other day. There was a certain amount of hissing - a bit of howling, too. SGT FB did so far forgot himself as to raise a paw to poor Leroy, and Leroy on his favorite bench, too - but Leroy coolly stared him down and there wasn't any actual fighting. I hope that they'll be great pals, soon. Here's an exciting video of an earlier encounter: As usual, Leroy uses his nom de video for contractual reasons. That's Martha Norbeck-Wallingford of the Museum's Planned Giving Office, offering counseling during the encounter. link home 18 July - A Gallant Captain  Made by Hinton & Oppenheimer, Mobile, this superb hand-colored carte de visite from the Museum's collection portrays Captain Frank Tilcomb of Company B, Alabama State Artillery, at the height of his glory. I glimpsed a record, once, that suggested Capt. Frank's glory was rather brief - that he served for a few weeks before resigning his commission. No record of him, though, in the Alabama Archives Civil War Service Cards File.Curiously, though, I did find a mention of a Frank Tilcomb in blue - served in the 32nd Maine Infantry. link home 12 July - Ex Voto Zauberflöte  Here's a charming ex voto that commemorates a miracle that I really would've liked to have witnessed myself. The translation of the inscription reads: My son plays his flute in an astonishing way and all the animals of the farm begin to dance around him and the birds put more eggs and the goats give more milk and the pigs have more piggies. I thank to the Virgin de San Juan to give that magic gift to my son and because our a farm it prospers thanks to the music he plays.Strangely, it didn't sell during its eBay auction, but the seller, Madreselvas, might offer it again - meanwhile, check out Madreselvas's other superb ex votos. And it reminded me of a recurring nightmare I had for a number of years. In my dream, I'm in the audience of a great opera house, watching a production of The Magic Flute. During the intermission, the stage manager comes out in front of the curtain. He has bad news - the soprano playing the part of the Queen of the Night has suddenly been taken ill and cannot continue - is there anyone in the audience who can perform the part? Without conscious thought (in my dream), my hand is raised - I am whisked backstage and shoehorned into the Queen's gorgeous costume. I'm hustled onstage just before the Queen's great second act aria Der Hölle Rache kocht in meinem Herzen ("the vengeance of Hell boils in my heart"). The curtain is about to rise, and the thought comes to me - What the hell was I thinking of? Sure, I can sort of warble bits of it in the shower, but I don't even know most of the lyrics; and I'm afraid that if I attempt the high F6, something might rupture. But horribly, the curtain goes up - I glimpse the eager faces of the audience - and... mercifully, I wake up. But check out a really fine performance by Snow, our old family dog, who really knew the piece. And there's always Florence Foster Jenkins' classic performance. Other Dreams Noted Previously: Bureau of Labor Statistics Dream link home 12 July - More Belated Coverage  B. Jeffrey Price (left), our representative from the Leib Hornbostel Institute, loads the Institute's matchlock carbine, mentioned here back in March. Willian Van Camp, a veteran of last year's salute, observes.  Here's the firing party, snapped before marching down to the field for the festivities. Our maintenance man Gus is wearing, as usual, the fabulously valuable Theo von Wallingsfurt pickelhaube. Jeffrey is wearing the exotic dress uniform smock of the VSS (Vereinigung fur den Schutze der Streuobstweisen - the Orchard Protection service; we called the VSS in for consultation after our tragic azalea heist) and the Hornbostel Institute issue pith helmet. William's got some sort of suede kepi.  Actually, most of the local kids seem to be sporting pickelhaubes this summer. Oh! Here comes the parade! I had made pulled beef and chickpeas with collards for lunch on the porch afterwards, and braised five spice pork belly for the evening's potluck. Must remember to ask Gus if he's gotten around to cleaning the musket. link home 12 July - Photographica Dogiana  Small White Dog - anonymous ambrotype, c.1858. George Eastman House (GEH NEG: 34194) There's a very fine online exhibit of dogs in photography over at Luminous Lint, Alan Griffiths' superb site. Say, the Janus Museum has some interesting vintage dog photography. And, of course, there's that book, still amazingly in print - lots of dogs in that, too. link home 11 July - Belated Coverage  Bald Eagle, oil on wood panel c.1885 by Adolphus Norbeck My apologies for the long gap in postings - despite the doctor's claim, it was not a vegetative state I was in. I'll be posting some coverage of the town of Washington Grove's annual Fourth of July celebration, but first - to eliminate any lingering suspense about the success, or lack of success, of the yearly volley of musketry: And another view, by Friend of the Museum Lawrence Hare: Not bad, not bad at all for a formation using three different ignition systems - matchlock, flintlock, and caplock. Many thanks to the readers of this page who have been shopping recently on Amazon through one of our links - we get to dip our beak a bit on any purchase one makes after entering the Amazon site through a Janus Museum link, and we appreciate it greatly. Thriller readers and authors will enjoy old Friend of the Museum Allen Appel's blog, The Thriller Guy. Allen's a photographer, author and critic of note who I've known for about thirty years or so. Fact - on the very first day of operation of the blog, Elmore Leonard himself made a couple of comments - not too shabby. link home |
