A Chuckle at NASA

Here's just one of the amazing NASA photos from Boston.com and the comment below which made me chuckle.(fifth picture from the top)


Comment from Matt: those old pictures are amazing, thanks!
I like that in the fifth picture from the top, you can see deployment of the latest NASA camera tether technology, also known as a piece of string. heh heh.

Bella and Puppies!

Seven males and five females. One of these little sweeties will soon be ours to love. Happy Day, hey!

Darkling Plain

Welcome to a new blog, Darkling Plain, on my blogroll. I expect only good things to come.

Dover Beach

The sea is calm tonight.
The tide is full, the moon lies fair
Upon the straits; on the French coast the light
Gleams and is gone; the cliffs of England stand,
Glimmering and vast, out in the tranquil bay.
Come to the window, sweet is the night-air!
Only, from the long line of spray
Where the sea meets the moon-blanched land,
Listen! you hear the grating roar
Of pebbles which the waves draw back, and fling,
At their return, up the high strand,
Begin, and cease, and then again begin,
With tremulous cadence slow, and bring
The eternal note of sadness in.

Sophocles long ago
Heard it on the Aegean, and it brought
Into his mind the turbid ebb and flow
Of human misery; we
Find also in the sound a thought,
Hearing it by this distant northern sea.

The Sea of Faith
Was once, too, at the full, and round earth's shore
Lay like the folds of a bright girdle furled.
But now I only hear
Its melancholy, long, withdrawing roar,
Retreating, to the breath
Of the night-wind, down the vast edges drear
And naked shingles of the world.

Ah, love, let us be true
To one another! for the world, which seems
To lie before us like a land of dreams,
So various, so beautiful, so new,
Hath really neither joy, nor love, nor light,
Nor certitude, nor peace, nor help for pain;
And we are here as on a darkling plain
Swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight,
Where ignorant armies clash by night.

--Matthew Arnold (1822-1888)

Gender Genie

So much fun! Try it for yourself, the Gender Genie. I came out, correctly, as female on several tries. Thanks to Pete Rahon at Live Life! Love Life! for turning me on to this.

Goya's Colossus

After years of doubt, the Prado says that Goya's Colossus is not Goya's.

I don't even like Colossus, which, among his war paintings, doesn't make any sense. I'm also not a big fan of his so-called Black Paintings, especially his Saturn, which doesn't make much more sense than this Colossus. I do like his tapestry cartoons and some of his portraits. I especially like his portraits that feature dramatic reds. The only one of this type that I don't care for is his washed-out Duke of Wellington, which doesn't count for red anyway.

Portrait of Don Manuel Osorio de Manrique Zuniga, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Love this gem of a portrait. The boy's face is ordinary, but nothing else is. The little drama of cats and bird is suspenseful, and the flamboyant costume of the boy is delicious, especially set against the fantastic light display. Gimme this for my wall!

Count Floridablana , Banco de Espana, Madrid

Here's another portrait in red costume, also against a dark, but dramatic setting. When your eye wanders away from the count, there are several more faces to be seen, including a clock face and Goya himself.

Mourning Portrait of the Duchess of Alba, The Black Duchess, The Hispanic Society of America, New York City

The red in the costumes ties these two paintings, one black and the one below, The White Duchess, together. These reds and others he uses, like in the portraits above, can't possibly be unintentional.

Portrait of the Duchess of Alba, The White Duchess, The Alba Collection, Madrid

Old Men Eating, Prado Museum, Madrid

Here's one of Goya's Black Paintings. They're mostly of these dreary and macabre figures. One exception is Asmodea, which features--significantly!--a figure in scarlet costume.

*All these pictures, except Colossus, are copied from Goya Artwork. Thanks for putting together such a nice page.