Natalie Díaz, from “exhibits from The American Water Museum”, Postcolonial Love Poem
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Yet again, Chuuya wouldnt get out of my sight today. I wish he would get out of my sight. Needless to say, I don't want to have to look away first.
more soukoku webweaves: 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 , 7 , 8 , 9
this is the tenth soukoku web weave of mine and I made it on my birthday when I was in a real taylor swift mood so enjoy this skk and swiftie brainrot
creds :
love lines - Olga Broumas// art by @taxolotl // exhibits from the water american museum - Natalie Diaz// peace - Taylor Swift// cowboy like me - Taylor Swift// art by @twilicidity // wishbone - Richard Siken// art by @liyv // spellbound - Ophelia Silk// love opened a mortal wound - Sor Juana Inès de la Cruz// david foster wallace// high infidelity - Taylor Swift// the archer - Taylor Swift// we were that joke - Gregory Orr// art by @taxolotl // litany in which certain things are crossed out - Richard Siken// is it over now? - Taylor Swift// the story of us - Taylor Swift// the becoming of Noah Shaw - Michelle Hodkin// art by @thornedarrow // south and west - Joan Didion// art by @lotus-pear // wishbone - Richard Siken// long live - Taylor Swift// ivy - Taylor Swift// portrait of a boy with grief - Wale Ayinla// the chronology of water: a memoir - Lidia Yuknavitch// art by @thornedarrow// Andrea Dworkin// bigger than the whole sky - Taylor Swift// ‘tis the damn season - Taylor Swift// a love letter to a dead thing - Layana Clouet// art by @twilicidity// art from @/mizumoe_ on twitter// august - Taylor Swift// is it over now? - Taylor Swift// souvenir - Warsan Shire// don’t blame me - Taylor Swift// cruel summer - Taylor Swift// the waves - Virginia Woolf// art by @carrotkicks //
tags:
@philzokman @dinosaur-mayonnaise @amagami-hime @the-gayest-sky-kid @galaxitic @ghostsinacoat @gorotic @lotus-reblogs @vivid-vices @zamxii @autistic-ranpo @pendragonstar @sskk-brainrot @oatmilkbasic @underthetree845 @thesunshinebard @whiteapplesandblackblood @sigskk @pastel-paramour @vinylbiohazard @jacuzziwaters @sommmee @evermorehypewoman
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THIS DAY IN GAY HISTORY
based on: The White Crane Institute's 'Gay Wisdom', Gay Birthdays, Gay For Today, Famous GLBT, glbt-Gay Encylopedia, Today in Gay History, Wikipedia, and more … March 16
The first day of the Bacchanalia in ancient Rome. Introduced into Rome from lower Italy by way of Etruria (c. 200 BC), the bacchanalia were originally held in secret and only attended by women. The festivals occurred in the grove of Simila near the Aventine Hill on March 16 and March 17. Later, admission to the rites was extended to men, and celebrations took place five times a month. According to Livy, the extension happened in an era when the leader of the Bacchus cult was Paculla Annia — though it is now believed that some men had participated before that. In Empires of Trust: How Rome Built — And America Is Building — A New World by Thomas Madden, the author cites the words of the scandalized contemporary Roman investigative consul in his report to the Roman Senate:
"There was no crime, no deed of shame, wanting. More uncleanness was committed by men with men than with women. Whoever would not submit to defilement, or shrank from violating others, was sacrificed as a victim. To regard nothing as impious or criminal was the sum total of their religion. The men, as though seized with madness and with frenzied distortions of their bodies, shrieked out prophecies; the matrons, dressed as Bacchae, their hair disheveled, rushed down to the Tiber River with burning torches, plunged them into the water, and drew them out again, the flame undiminished because they were made of sulfur mixed with lime. Men were fastened to a machine and hurried off to hidden caves, and they were said to have been taken away by the gods. These were the men who refused to join their conspiracy or take part in their crimes or submit to their pollution."
In 1984 gay philosopher, activist and historian, Arthur Evans directed a production of The Bacchae at the Valencia Rose Cabaret in San Francisco of his own new translation, from the ancient Greek, of Euripides' play, Bakkhai, dealing with the Greek god Dionysos. In 1988, this translation, together with Evans' commentary on the historical significance of the play for gay people and women, was published by St. Martin's Press in New York under the name of The God of Ecstasy.
Seventeenth-century North American depiction of a fornicating Puritan couple
1680 – Legislators of New Hampshire pass the colony’s first capital laws, copied almost word for word from the Plymouth laws of 1671: If any man lie with mankind as he lies with a woman; both of them have committed abomination; They both shall surely be put to death: unless one party were forced, or were under fourteen years of age. And all other Sodomitical filthiness shall be severely punished according to the nature of it.
1822 – Rosa Bonheur, nee Marie-Rosalie Bonheur (d.1899), was a French painter, animalière and realist artist, one of few female sculptors. As a painter she became famous primarily for two chief works: Plowing in the Nivemais (in French Le labourage nivernais, le sombrage ), which was first exhibited at the Salon of 1848, and is now in the Musee d'Orsay in Paris depicts a team of oxen plowing a field while attended by peasants set against a vast pastoral landscape; and, The Horse Fair (in French Le marché aux chevaux ), which was exhibited at the Salon of 1853 (finished in 1855) and is now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, in New York City.
Bonheur is widely considered to have been the most famous woman painter of the 19th century. Writers used to explain Bonheur's penchant for dressing in men's clothing by saying that the famous painter of animals needed disguises to paint unmolested in the markets she frequented for her subjects. It's a nice thought, but untrue. Rosa Bonheur, who lived together with Nathalie Micas for most of her life, dressed as a man because she wanted to. She drank, she smoked, she became one of the most popular painters in the world and a member of the French Legion of Honor. She was, in short, very much her own person. As she once said to a male friend who was concerned about her movement through the world of men (gasp!) unchaperoned, "Oh my dear Sir, if you knew how little I care for your sex, you wouldn't get any ideas in your head. The fact is, in the way of males, I only like the bulls I paint."
1937 – Today is the birthday of American pianist and composer David Del Tredici. Born in Cloverdale, California, he studied at Berkeley and Princeton.
Much of his early work consisted of elaborate vocal settings of James Joyce: I Hear an Army; Night Conjure-Verse; Syzygy; and a decade long obsession with the work of Lewis Carroll (Pop-Pourri, An Alice Symphony, Vintage Alice and Adventures Underground, and Final Alice, to name just a few of these works). He was awarded a Pulitzer prize in 1980 for In Memory of a Summer Day, the first part of Child Alice. Sir Georg Solti made the first recording of his epic Final Alice with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.
Del Tredici detached himself from Carroll to write three large, dissonant works for orchestra, March to Tonality (1985), Tattoo (1986), and the threatening Steps (1990). However, the real turn in his career came in 1996, when he attended a workshop in gay sexuality and self-acceptance held by Body Electric, a national organization devoted to such workshops.
During that workshop, he set two overtly gay poems for voice and piano. This led to the composition of a number of songs based on gay texts and experiences. After attending that retreat for gay men, Del Tredici decided to integrate his sexuality into his work. For instance, a setting of Paul Monette's "Here" was dedicated to Del Tredici's lover Paul Arcomano, who died of AIDS in 1993. When he encountered Beat-era icon Allen Ginsberg at a conference, as he later related to The Advocate, Del Tredici told the poet, "I'm looking for something really dirty to set to music." Ginsberg responded by giving Del Tredici his Collected Poems, one of which, "Personal Ads," became part of a six-song cycle, Gay Life. "Personal Ads" was dedicated to gay activist Jody Dalton, director of Composers Recordings Inc.; and a setting of Thom Gunn's "Memory Unsettled" was dedicated to Del Tredici's mother, who died in 2000, and who had accepted her son's life choices. Gay Life also included poems from Paul Monette, Michael D. Calhoun, and W.H. Kidde.
These songs became the core of the cantata Gay Life (1996-2001, premiered by the San Francisco Symphony under Michael Tilson Thomas in May 2001). A related collection is Brother (1997-2001), a song cycle created with drag performance artist John Kelly, which premiered at P.S. 122 in New York in May 2001.
"I no longer want to pretend and I'm not sure what the repercussions might be," he told The Advocate. "I can survive and be a serious composer and be gay. It has fallen [to] me to do it. One generation's silence can become the next generation's nectar."
His later works have included many vocal settings of contemporary poets such as Allen Ginsberg, Thom Gunn, Paul Monette, James Broughton, Colette Inez, and Alfred Corn — often celebrating a gay sensibility (three examples: Gay Life, Love Addiction and Wondrous the Merge). OUT Magazine has twice named Del Tredici one of its people of the year.
His "On Wings of Song" was premiered in New York City in 2004 as part of the Riverside Opera Ensemble's 20th Anniversary Concert. His notable students include John Adams, Richard St. Clair and Tison Street.
Del Tredici met his life partner Ray Warman in 1999; the couple held their commitment ceremony in 2000.
Maccubbin (R) with partner Jim Bennett
1943 – Activist and former bookstore owner, Deacon Maccubbin was born on this day. Well-known as the founder and owner of Lambda Rising Books, Maccubbin has also been a supporter or founder of many gay Washington, DC institutions including youth outreach, media, the annual Pride celebrations, community social and business organizations, and the Lambda Literary Awards.
While still in the Army, Maccubbin became a gay activist, joining the Gay Liberation Front-DC briefly. In 1971, he took over a craftshop at 1724 20th St NW, turning it into the Earthworks tobacco and headshop. On June 8, 1974, Earthworks’ shelves of magazines and books became the core stock for the new Lambda Rising, one of the nation’s largest and most successful groups of gay bookstores.
As leader of the Community Building (a nickname from antiwar and counterculture days), Maccubbin turned the building into an incubator and haven for many new and struggling community groups, including the Gay Switchboard, gay youth groups, the Blade, off our backs, Roadwork, and many others.
Maccubbin was a founder and chair of the first major community group, the Washington Area Gay Community Council (WAGCC). In 1975 WAGCC launched the planning process for the second gay community center and published Just Us, the first guide to DC’s gay community. That same year, Maccubbin organized the first official Gay Pride, held on 20th St NW in front of the building.
In the 1973, he was arrested with Cade Ware and Bill Bricker from Gay Activists Alliance at a sit-in protesting police entrapment. His protests and civil disobedience continued during the 1980's in response to federal inaction on AIDS research and funding with an arrest at the White House, and in the 1990's in response to Clinton's signing the Defense of Marriage Act, as well as additional arrests at protests against apartheid at the South African Embassy and against the Pope at Catholic University.
Maccubbin has played important roles in the reform of D.C.'s sodomy law, passage of the D.C. Human Rights Act, and in responding to Bible-based attacks on homosexuality.
In 1982, he and his life partner, Jim Bennett, were among the first to celebrate a Holy Union and they were the second couple to be registered as Domestic Partners in the District of Columbia.
In 2003, Deacon saved the Oscar Wilde Bookshop in New York City (which had inspired him to launch Lambda Rising) from closing. Maccubbin commented, "The store never closed its doors. It was open right on through. Historically, that's important to me." In 2006, the bookstore was sold to a local manager.
Facing competition with online book stores, the store closed its doors on December 31, 2010. It was part of a spate of LGBT brick and mortar bookstores closures in the early 21st century, including the Oscar Wilde Bookshop in New York and A Different Light in Los Angeles and San Francisco.
1949 – Victor Garber is a Canadian film, stage and television actor and singer. Garber is known for playing Jesus in Godspell, John Wilkes Booth in Assassins, Jack Bristow in the television series Alias, Max in Lend Me a Tenor, Thomas Andrews in James Cameron's Titanic, and as Canadian ambassador to Iran, Ken Taylor, in Argo. He currently guest stars as Dr. Martin Stein on The Flash and stars as a regular on Legends of Tomorrow.
Born in London, Ontario, Garber is of Russian Jewish descent. His mother is Hope Garber, actress, singer, and the host of At Home with Hope Garber. He attended Ryerson Elementary School. He also was enrolled in the children's program of the Grand Theatre, and at age 16 he was accepted at a six-week summer theatre training program at the University of Toronto taught by Robert Gill.
Garber began acting at the age of nine, and studied at the University of Toronto's Hart House at age 16. In 1967, after a period working as a folk singer, he formed a folk band called The Sugar Shoppe with Peter Mann, Laurie Hood and Lee Harris. The group enjoyed moderate success, breaking into the Canadian top 40 with a version of Bobby Gimby's song "Canada" in 1967. The band even performed on The Ed Sullivan Show and The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson before breaking up.
He has worked in various American and Canadian films and television, including James Cameron's Titanic (1997), in which he used a Northern Irish accent to play the shipbuilder Thomas Andrews, and CTV's E.N.G. (1991-1993), on which he had a recurring guest role.
Other well-known appearances include Godspell (Canadian stage version, 1972, and film version, 1973) as Jesus, Sleepless in Seattle (1993), Annie (1999), Legally Blonde (2001), and Tuck Everlasting (2002).
He is most well known for his portrayal of Jack Bristow on ABC's show, Alias, for which he earned three Emmy nominations. He recently appeared on the now-canceled television series Justice on Fox and ABC's Eli Stone. His most recent TV appearance is as a mysterious character named "Olivier Roth" in 4 episodes of the Canadian science drama ReGenesis. He appeared in the third episode of the Fox series Glee as Will's father.
Rainer Andreesen and Victor Garber
Victor Garber has confirmed that he's a gay man and has been quietly living with his longtime partner, artist Rainer Andreesen, in New York. Garber first spoke of his relationship with Rainer to blogger Greg Hernandez, who pressed the actor to publicly confirm that he's gay after learning via Wikipedia that the 63-year-old star is partnered with a man. He asked the Garber if his partnership with Rainer had ever been made public, and noted that Garber seemed surprised by the question:
"I don't really talk about it but everybody knows," Garber told Hernandez before adding, "He's going to be out here with me for the SAG Awards." The handsome, happy couple have been together for 14 years.
On October 10, 2015, Andreesen announced on his instagram page that he and Garber were just married in Canada.
1976 – Matt Evers is an American pair skater, model and TV personality. He is the 1998 U.S. Junior champion.
With his partner Heather Allebach, Evers won the Junior pairs title at the 1998 U.S. Championships. The following season, they competed at three senior international events, 1998 Skate Canada International, 1998 Cup of Russia and 1998 Nebelhorn Trophy. He quit competing and moved to Los Angeles where he worked for a number of years before receiving an invitation to join Dancing on Ice.
Evers is currently training as a professional actor, model and spokesperson for U.S. and European manufacturers at trade shows, in commercials and print media.
Evers, who was married to a woman previously, came out as gay in January 2018 in an interview with Attitude magazine. He said it was partly the death of his uncle from AIDS and the presidency of Donald Trump that resulted in his decision to announce his sexuality publicly, saying: "I live my life by example, and I want to show young people that what you feel or how you were born isn't something bad."
1977 – Donal Óg Cusack is an Irish hurler who played as a goalkeeper for the Cork senior team. He is current Chairman of the Gaelic Players Association. (Hurling is a kind of cross between grass hockey and football.)
Born in Cloyne, County Cork, Cusack first excelled at hurling whilst at school. He arrived on the inter-county scene at the age of eighteen when he first linked up with the Cork minor team, before later lining out with the under-21 side. He made his senior debut in the 1996 Oireachtas Tournament. Cusack went on to play a key role for Cork, on and off the field, and has won three All-Ireland medals, five Munster medals and two All-Star awards. His brother, Conor Cusack, was an All-Ireland runner-up with Cork.
Cusack represented the Munster inter-provincial team on a number of occasions in the early part of his career, winning one Inter-provincial medal on the field of play in 2005. At club level he won one championship medal with divisional side Imokilly, while he also plays with Cloyne.
Cited by many as one of the most influential inter-county players of his generation, through his championing of the cause of player welfare with the Gaelic Players Association and his innovation as a goalkeeper, Cusack became the first openly gay elite Irish sportsman in 2009.
Cusack and team-mates in traditional salutory (and very homo-erotic) stance.
Cusack has made 54 championship appearances for Cork, more than any other goalkeeper in the county's history. He announced his retirement from inter-county hurling in March 2013 after effectively being dropped from the team.
On 18 October 2009, ahead of the release of his autobiography, Come What May, Cusack disclosed to the Irish Mail on Sunday that he is gay. In Come What May he writes:
I get more out of men. Always have. I know I am different but just in this way. Whatever you may feel about me or who I am, I've always been at peace with it.
The following was serialised in the Mail on Sunday:
Since I was 13 or 14, I knew I was a bit different. I hate labels though. That's the way I am. I live with it and I am fine with it. People close to me will tell you there were never any tears. There was never agony. I just know this thing … I've had to say this to people I'm close to again and again. This is who I am. This is what I do. I spend a lot of time trying to work things out but once I know something about myself, I know it. I don't agonise. It's logical to me. I thought about this but never had any problems dealing with it.
According to Cusack, discussing his sexual orientation strengthened his bond with his fellow players. He went for a walk with then captain Seán Óg Ó hAilpín, whom Cusack had known since they were boys, and told him "the whole story, stuff that I thought he would have guessed", had "a deep and complex conversation from both sides and we came out of it like brothers."
Since then Cusack has been noted as one of the few "openly gay sporting heroes" both at home and abroad. Come What May won the William Hill Irish Sports Book of the Year for 2009
1987 – A Louisiana appellate court upholds the solicitation conviction of a man for placing his finger through a glory hole in a bookstore and then placing his mouth at the hole, without saying a word.
1998 – Pope John Paul II asks God for forgiveness for the inactivity and silence of some Roman Catholics during the Holocaust.
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Thursday Thoughts: Israel Story
“I honestly think that it’s adorable that you actually believe these children’s stories. But there is nothing magic about the waters.”
“Without the Creed, what are we? What do we stand for? Our people are scattered like stars in the galaxy. The Creed is how we survived.”
-Bo-Katan Kryze and Din Djarin, The Mandalorian Chapter 18: The Mines of Mandalore
When I was thirteen, my grandparents took the family on a big anniversary trip to Israel.
As a Jewish American kid in the early 2000s, growing up where there weren’t a lot of other Jews and spending my summers at Reform Jewish summer camp, I was told a lot of things about Israel. The big thing was always that Israel was important – that it was our home. That I should go there, and that when I went there, I would have an amazing feeling of connection, and I would know that it was my home.
So, as a recent bat mitzvah, I was excited about this trip. I was ready to go to Israel and have my big moment of feeling connected with the world.
I remember standing in the airport in Tel Aviv, minutes after stepping off the plane, and asking my dad, “When does it start to feel like Israel?”
Because it didn’t feel like Israel. It felt like an airport.
And then we stepped out into Tel Aviv, and rode around on a bus, and it felt like a city. I’d been to cities before. It was cool to see the street signs and graffiti were in Hebrew and Arabic just as much as they were in English, but it was a city.
Over the course of our trip, we went everywhere we could possibly go. We floated in the Dead Sea. We climbed Mount Masada. We saw the archaeological sites at Megiddo. We went to Caesarea, and Ein Gedi, and Yad Vashem, and Tzfat. We rode camels, we ate falafel, we learned just how unbreakable Druze glass is.
And, again, it was cool. I enjoyed the trip. It was beautiful everywhere we went, and we were surrounded by history everywhere we went. I remember thinking that the dust of history was gathering in my boots, because this is a place where people have lived for as long as there have been people.
But I kept waiting for it to feel like Israel – to have that big magical moment of connection that everyone said I would have – and it just wasn’t happening.
Then, we went to Jerusalem. And I thought, “Okay, here it is. This is where I’m going to have my big moment.” We went to the Western Wall, the last remaining piece of the platform that surrounded the ancient temple, the holiest place any Jew could visit in the world. I saw people there, pressed against the wall, eyes shut, in fervent prayer, clearly feeling something amazing. I walked up through the crowd in the small women’s section of the wall. I found enough space to reach forward, and I put my hand on the wall.
It felt like rock.
I remember thinking, “What is wrong with me, that all I feel is rock? Where is the connection I’m supposed to feel?”
And then, on our last day of the trip, we went to the Diaspora Museum (Beit Hatfutsot, now called the Museum of the Jewish People). It’s all about the Jewish people – our exile from that part of the world, and all our journeys since then. I’d never seen such a comprehensive look at the diversity and history of Judaism before. I’d certainly never been to a museum before that provided such an honest critique of the United States – it’s where I first learned about the SS St. Louis.
There was one room in the museum that caught my attention. I don’t know if it was a permanent installment or a temporary exhibit; I haven’t been back there since. In the room, there was a screen on the wall, rotating through pictures in a slideshow. Some of them were drawings, while others were photographs. All of the pictures were of the insides of people’s houses – their kitchens and dining rooms. Each picture was labeled with a place and a time. This was Poland, this was Spain. This was the fifteenth, eighteenth, twentieth century.
These pictures were from all across the world and all across history. And, in every picture, three items were circled in red: the challah loaf, the kiddush cup, and the Shabbat candlesticks.
As I stood there, watching these pictures, it hit me – slowly, and then all at once – that I had those things in my house. I was connected to every single place, and every single time, all across the world, all across history.
That was it. That was my moment, the completely mind-blowing and earth-shattering realization. That connection through tradition – that’s what it meant to be a Jew. I felt then a supreme sense of belonging, of being grounded, of being a part of something so much bigger than myself – something that mattered, something that was made of love, something that could never die. That realization has stuck with me ever since.
I told this story on TikTok on Tuesday. On Wednesday, Chapter 18 of The Mandalorian aired, and I marveled at the serendipity. I’ve talked here before about the connections I’ve noticed between the Mandalorians as depicted in this series and Judaism. We too were scattered. Our holy sites were destroyed. We are diverse, and disparate, and faced with the question of what to do now, in a world that hates us, hurts us, and demands that we too become hateful and hurtful. And we are united – we are grounded – we are able to survive because of the stories, the traditions, the rituals at the heart of our people.
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The freefall into summer time starts now. Who’s with us? ☁️ 😎
Boris Anisfeld’s striking painting of billowing clouds and the Black Sea’s blue water seems a fitting image for today’s #SummerSolstice. While the painting positions the viewer midair, looking down at the vast water from the top of the Ayu-Dag Mountain (located in southern Ukraine), it also challenges the illusion of depth in traditional landscapes by flattening all the elements onto a single plane.
Anisfeld came to the United States after the 1917 Russian Revolution, and the Brooklyn Museum hosted his first American one-person exhibition one year later.
See this summertime sky—and several other landscape paintings from our collection—up-close in Monet to Morisot: The Real and Imagined in European Art, located on the fifth floor.
🖼️ Boris Anisfeld (Bălti, present-day Moldova (former Russian Empire), 1879-1973, Waterford, Connecticut). Clouds over the Black Sea--Crimea, 1906. Oil on canvas. Brooklyn Museum, Gift of Boris Anisfeld in memory of his wife, 33.416 (Photo: Brooklyn Museum)
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"if you have been in water, part of you remains there still."
[Image ID: two gifs and one screenshot of a tumblr post
GIF 1: from episode 3.2 Buck in the water clutching Chris in disbelief after rescuing him from the flooded street. SCREENSHOT: tumblr post with the quote "Water remembers everything it travels over and through. If you have been in water, part of you remains there still." by Natalie Diaz from "exhibits from The American Water Museum" Postcolonial Love Poem. GIF 2: from episode 5.12 Maddie emerging from the water after she decides to return to shore and get help.
/end ID]
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For #InternationalTigerDay 🐅 on #Caturday:
Morris Hirshfield (1872-1946)
Tiger, 1940
Oil on canvas
From the Morris Hirshfield Rediscovered exhibition at American Folk Art Museum in NYC.
>”Among 20th-century American paintings, I do not know .. a more unforgettable animal picture than Hirshfield's Tiger."
-ALFRED BARR
When the founding director of The Museum of Modern Art declared this painting "unforgettable," he was responding both to the charisma of Hirshfield's jungle cat and to such fantastical pictorial choices as a painted sky that appears to be an expanse of blue yarn. Such unexpected pictorial associations recall the artist's prior professional life in the garment industry. Hirshfield manipulated paint to echo the woven materials he formerly cut into patterns, sewed and tailored into coats and suits, and sold in a retail shop. Hirshfield's "textile imagination" is especially apparent in Beach Girl. On close examination, virtually every element in the painting (including water, sea, and sky) suggests the weave of a different fabric rather than a natural feature of a beach.<
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I am inside you— I am you / or you are me. Let us say to one another: l am yours一 and know finally that we will only ever be as much as we are willing to save of one another.
Natalie Diaz, excerpt of "Exhibits from The American Water Museum", in Postcolonial Love Poem
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ComRo Tot TMC3000 by Jerome Hamlin (1982), ComRo Inc., New York, NY. The Comro Tot mobile programmable multilingual personal robot is fully programmable, and can also be operated using radio-control. It has a four-wheeled mobile base, both arms are functional, and its head rotates, enabling it to perform a wide variety of tasks including serving drinks. It’s based on a SYM-1 6502 computer, and like Comro 1, can talk using the Votrax SC-01 speech synthesiser. The body is fibreglass painted white. A TMC3000 was the top prize in a sweepstake run by Warner Communications, called the “GREAT Robot Giveaway” (final image); runners-up won a Comro Tot T-Shirt. Tot also made an appearance at the “Robot Exhibit: History, Fantasy and Reality” at the Avenue of the Americas in 1984. “WORDS failed Tot. It was only days before he was to usher visitors into the new exhibition at American Craft Museum 2, and all he could do was flail his arms or blurt out the wrong time. ''He's not outputting speech properly,'' said his creator, Jerome Hamlin. ''His battery must be low.'' Running out of whatever it is that passes for patience in a robot, Tot advanced - right arm raised - toward the museum's director, Paul J. Smith. ''Is he handing me a glass of water?'' Mr. Smith asked hopefully. ''No,'' Mr. Hamlin answered, ''this is an attack.'' The assault turned into a simple feint, so Mr. Smith walked off, unharmed.” – PAST AND PRESENT ROBOTS GATHER FOR EXHIBITION, by David Dunlap, The New York Times, Jan 12, 1984.
In 1984, "The Tot robot, manufactured by the now-defunct company Comro, puts a California sea lion through a series of tests during a demonstration at the New York Aquarium at Coney Island. The aquarium said at the time that they had plans to study the feasibility of incorporating a robot into its marine mammal shows." – Betamax and Chill But One of You is a Robot and the Other is a Seal, Paleofuture.
The video clip is from 'The Equalizer', Season 1 Episode 20 (1986) via Scott McDonnell's "80's Robot Revival."
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Dancing in the Moonlight: 01
Posted on: Ao3
Pairing: Steven Grant x F!TelepathReader
Wordcount: 4k
Chapters: 1, 2, 3, 4
Genre: Fluff, First Date, Telepathic Reader
Summary: Telepathic!Reader is reeling from sensing an unworldly presence in loyal bookshop customer Steven Grant when he asks Reader on a date.
You don’t think anything’s weird with him the first time you meet Steven Grant. He’s another customer with a special interest in Egypt given the books he buys. Not unusual, especially not when you find out he works at the British Museum near the Egyptian exhibition. Makes sense he’d buy the books he does from a little bookseller and rare book procurer. The amount of money he dishes out for them is a little worrying, and you briefly wonder how he can afford it but it’s not your business. You really do try to ignore the mental nattering that goes on in most people’s heads. You had after all made an oath to not go snooping into stranger’s minds with your ability.
The second time, that’s when you think there’s something off. It was harder not to go eavesdropping with Steven Grant. It was like he was projecting his very thoughts. Or maybe, they were louder, it was difficult to really explain.
But it’s the third time, when you focus on his thoughts and the hairs on the back of your neck prickle, you know for sure there’s something off with him. There’s something– someone else there. An undercurrent voice beneath his thoughts humming along. Not sinister, not benevolent, but wholly extraterrestrial and unhuman. It gave you a migraine to focus on it and you had to take your break early.
You all but collapse onto the fountain’s ledge, hand to your temple as you try to rub the migraine away. You’re shaking from the pain made worse by the cacophony of thoughts swirling in the square but it was better than the intensity of what-whomever you had bumped into in Steven Grant’s mind.
You’re staring at the ground when the aural distortions pulse and intensify as a pair of shoes stop right in front of you. You look up and he’s there.
“You alright? You look a bit...”
You’re trying very hard not to look, not to listen to what’s going on behind those eyes, behind that brow but it was like telling someone to stop feeling the temperature. Still, you grit your teeth and smile, imagining a coat on your mind to keep out the cold wind.
“Yeah, ju-just a migraine.” You helplessly stutter and then close your eyes, hoping that would help. It won’t of course. You knew it wouldn’t because it never has.
“Ah, I’m sorry. If you want, I c-can – I mean if you think you need it. I’ve got–” He fumbles as he pulls a Tesco bag from his other bag. You watch as he pulls out at first caffeine tablets – the kind people take to stay awake. You used to take them in your university days because they were legal, as opposed to the pharmaceuticals your American mates did to achieve the same. Then Steven pulled out a nuromol bottle.
“That’s convenient.”
“Was just at Tescos, yeah.” He explains and holds out the bottle.
You stare at it and decide it couldn’t hurt. Plus it might make him walk away faster and take whatever presence was in his head far from you.
You struggle to open the bottle, so he does and hands you a single tablet but you hold out your palm for two.
“Says to take one,” he explains in a sing song way, like he’s going to tattle, but he’s already tabbing one more out. You catch wind of a stray thought of his. One never works for me either, wish they’d give us the stronger stuff without a script. You get a mental image of him downing twice the recommended caffeine tablets to stave off his sleep.
You don’t say anything about it, instead you down the tablets and chase em with water. “Cheers, mate.” You fully expected him to walk away after that, but he lingers.
His fingers grip tight and loosen around his recent book purchases and his mouth moves silently as though he’s working himself up to say something. “I noticed you were reading– well I happened to glance at the book you put down when I came in, yeah? and see I work at the Museum near the Egypt exhibit-“
“I know.” You interrupt him..
“You do?”
“You told me.” You state but then quickly doubt yourself. Had he told you? Or was that a fact you picked out from thoughts he had in his head? You think it’s the latter now, especially as his face contorts into confusion. “I-mean I must have heard you mention it to my boss or something.” You wave your hand, trying to be dismissive. It mollifies him far too much. Why?
You regret it instantly, but you loosen the mental coat a bit to hear. Thought I lost time again. Your head swirls around that presence again and you wince away.
“So. I was wondering, if you’re curious about Egyptian gods, I could- we could- if you’re not busy- meet for dinner - or lunch. Yeah, lunch?” He manages out, second guessing every other sentence.
You stare at him, really stare and finally it clicks. You hadn’t even realized it, too preoccupied with the pain of hearing his thoughts and feeling the presence. “Are you chatting me up?” It’s a rhetorical question because as soon as you say it, you get confirmation from his thoughts in the form of: I should have practiced more. She’s probably already seeing someone. Along with those thoughts is a teeth chattering sinister breeze of that being – like it’s trying to push you away.
You would have gone fleeing, if not for the indignant rebellion that roared at whomever was in his mind that wanted you gone. And, though you’ll never admit this to anyone, the way Steven looked deflated like a kicked puppy.
“Sure.”
The puppy analogy was too spot on, because his eyes brighten and widen in surprise. Even his smile is infectious and makes your lips lift to mirror his. And oddly enough some of the pain ebbs away, though it could be the nuromol. You’d swear it’s the latter to anyone who asks.
You set a time and place at a little restaurant, not too fancy but definitely not a place to show up in ratty jeans. You do a bit of gloss and dab some eyeliner on for a smokey-eyed look but you wipe it away when you feel ridiculous with it on and say “Sod it” and go off.
It’d been years since your last date, you were out of practice. Not that you wanted to be well versed in dating. It was tiresome when you could hear their disingenuous thoughts as they tried to flatter you. Not to mention it was difficult to talk about yourself without hearing every judgmental thought cross their mind for everything you said, wore, and did. At first it made you self conscious, like you had to please them on every thought, until you got fed up, angry, and at times indignant.
For a time you used your ability to your advantage to get right into the sheets to scratch an itch, but that made you feel worse than when you took their passing thoughts to heart. So you didn’t do that again, at least not intentionally.
Steven meets you in the courtyard outside the bookshop with a bouquet of flowers. He’s got an awkward nervous smile that suits him. And you can admit it’s kind of endearing, especially paired with the way those dark eyes are glued to you as you approach. His gaze doesn’t do a body check, and instead they remain respectfully – gentlemanly – on your face. You smile brighter from that alone but all out swooned when the traces of his thoughts reach you. She’s beautiful. How did I ever manage to ask her with that smile? Always loved her smile, greeting me every time. I’m so lucky. Don’t muck it up. Accompanied by a nervous gulp.
You wish you could assuage his nerves, but that would mean revealing your ability. You hadn’t had the best luck in that. People didn’t exactly find it comforting when they knew you knew every thought that passed their mind.
You step up to him, mentally prepared for the pain of the foreign presence to try to push you away but surprisingly there was none. The presence was present; now that you knew to look for it. You weren’t sure how you never noticed it before whenever Steven came by. It was so obvious. Perhaps you never cared to look closer until he lingered longer than was prudent at your register.
You grab the bouquet and glance over the carefully picked flowers. You notice your favorite as a center piece. You look up to his expectant look. “These are lovely. How did you know they’re my favorite?”
“I smelled your perfume.” A second too late he realized how bad that sounded and winced. “That is-I mean you always have them in the bookshop, by your counter. You’re always smiling when you come in with a fresh bouquet. Not that I watched- I mean I did but only- ah.”
Ever the skeptic, you take a look in his head – fighting the presence. Memories flit by of him walking into the bookstore, watching you as you run the till, aggravated over annoying customers only to smell the flowers you kept nearby to relax. Then memories of Steven paging through flower books, to find the name of them, reading a book on flower language, then looking up and calling local flower shops.
The entire time you looked, the presence makes a go at you. They’re a torrential gust of wind pushing you away and you almost stagger but hold on until it finally wrenches you away.
You take a step back, breathless.
“Sorry, I know, it’s weird. I swear I wasn’t stalking- though now that I say it makes it sound like I did. But I promise you, I only happened to notice and you really seemed to like them and I wanted to get you something you’d like.” He rambled.
“Steven.” Your voice is soft and you step back toward him and place a hand on his arm over the sleeves of his jacket, in active rebellion against the presence. It roared, attempting to push you away again. And while it could from Steven’s mind, it had no bearing on your physical body. Except of course for the pain, but you could live through it tonight. Anything to spite the being. “I love them.” You reassure Steven. If he really was a puppy his tail would be wagging quickly with how enthused and happy he looked.
You walk to the restaurant together under the afternoon sun. Steven talks about the meaning of the flowers, which you already know from his mind but you let him go on as he explains the history and varying meanings and uses of the flowers he picked. Not in a showy mansplaining I-know-more-than-you way, but in a I’m-genuinely-excited-to-share-this-knowledge way. It was endearing.
As he talks about the things he found interesting in reading and researching it – his mind is resolute, confident. Yet shatters when you get to the restaurant, and Steven ceases talking.
“Oh my god. I’m an absolute git, I’ve been talking your ear off, not letting you get a word in.” He looks at you in horror.
“I like listening to you talk.” You pat his arm with a genuine smile. He returns it and the presence in his mind seems to withdraw. That was odd.
The hostess takes you to a table for two. Steven is quiet as he pulls out the chair for you. It makes you chuckle and you sit opposite him.
You order your drinks and platters. Steven orders from the vegan options, which you take note until you catch onto one of the ingredients.
“Oh that has peanuts.” You mutter, with a forced frown trying to hide a mischievous grin.
Steven looks up and blanches. “I didn’t think to ask. Are you allergic? I can order something else.” He is about to call the waitress back but now you’re smiling.
“Only mildly allergic. You can order it. Just means I definitely can’t kiss you later if I want to.” You’re joking of course. You definitely could kiss him later but you’d have to wash your mouth out. It was a joke that had the intended effect.
Steven’s mouth opens and closes in shock as his cheeks darken, throat bobbing nervously. “So-sorry wha- no I can-“ his voices cracks. “I can change the order.” He rushes out and then raises his hand to call the waitress back. You laugh and grab it, intending on bringing it down to the table – completely forgetting a cardinal rule to your abilities.
Never make skin to skin contact unless you’re ready. And you needed to be, especially with all the weirdness already with Steven.
The presence is sentient, bearing down from behind Steven. It’s tall, with a floating bird skull as a head and body dressed in strips of floating cloth bandages with gold moon adornments while leaning against a staff. And the pressure, that same gust of wind in your mind is howling, rushing at you like a tornado and you let go of Steven’s hand the moment that thing looks at you with a skull tilt.
Steven is looking behind him confused as you stare at the spot it had inhabited. “You alright?”
Does he not know it’s there?
You look at him and back to the spot, your breath heaving and you nod. “Yeah…um.” You grasp for an explanation. “Must’ve seen a spider.” It feels like a lame excuse, especially because you love spiders. But you do not want to have this conversation. Not on the first date.
Were you seriously going on with this date after seeing that?
With the way Steven looks at you, worried and hopeful, and the nervous insecure chatter bleeding from inside his head?
Yes you were.
The date gets better from there. He asks what interested you about Egyptian gods, and he’s flummoxed to learn it was him. There’s a moment where his mind spins about whether you did that intentionally to catch his interest. Sadly you reveal it was something you did to repeat customers, that if they were that invested in the topic – then it would make for good reading during down time. Which led to him asking what other books you read and which customers inspired it. Leading to a long list of stories.
“I read about em, so I have something to say when they come in.” You explain with a shrug. “Gets boring being a cashier, even in a bookshop.”
“I know what you mean.” Steven sighs.
You laugh. “You work in the museum as a tour guide! That doesn’t sound boring to me.”
Steven looks embarrassed now. “I…well, I auditioned for the tour guide.” She doesn’t know I work in the gift shop. His voice and mind has a sort of sound like wounded pride.
“Oh. Sorry I just…I thought.” You’re left without words. You hadn’t expected that he could keep that sort of information from you, or from his thoughts. Clearly he found it too embarrassing to even think about except when confronted with it. “You know what, your boss is a sodding fool for not taking you on then.”
Steven gives you a half smile.
You almost reach for his hand, but pause. “Just means we have a lot more in common. Both of us under appreciated and stuck on the till when we got so much more to offer.”
Steven huffs a laugh but nods. “More time to read, I suppose.”
“Or go on more dates.” You counter. Why did you say that?! You can’t take it back now. You couldn’t but want to see Steven in brighter spirits. And besides, he’s not bad. Friendly, knowledgeable, easy to fluster, and he was handsome too, in an insecure kind of way. It’s the way he holds himself, with hunched shoulders so he takes up as little room as possible with his gaze down and clothes that were high quality but clearly he felt uncomfortable in them.
“S-sorry…dates? Plural?” Steven’s eyes are wide with that shimmer of hope.
“Unless you don’t want to?”
Steven trips over his own tongue “I do! I mean I would love to go on anoth- more…dates.” He over emphasizes the s. You couldn’t help but laugh. It’s a boisterous sound, that has him grinning and then also laughing. And it’s like something is knocked loose in his shoulders. They aren’t so tense, they’re relaxed. I didn’t mess it up, like usual. I’m not a failure.
Your heart breaks a little for this beautiful man, to feel the relief in his thoughts. You decide far too quickly, you don’t ever want to make him tense up again.
After Steven regaled you about Egyptian tales that you had yet to read about, and you commiserate over your shared experience working in customer support, he walks you back to the bookshop. There’s a moment, a hopeful one from him. You know it’s about a kiss. He did end up changing his order for something without peanuts.
You hadn’t been kidding about giving him a kiss if it went well but you were faltering now. Kissing him would mean skin to skin contact. And you hadn’t touched him for the rest of the night on purpose. And the presence was still there, but it wasn’t pushing or throwing waves of mental gusts to get you to leave. But the very feel of it so close was difficult to bear.
If you kissed Steven, would you see it? You weren’t even sure what it was.
Still, you step closer. He doesn’t have to look too far down to meet your gaze.
“Thank you for lunch.” You murmur and he touches your hand. It’s intimate, more so than a kiss with the way his fingers lace with yours. The warmth of his fingers
She doesn’t have to kiss me if she doesn’t want to. You hear, clear as day from his mind before he says it softly. She was only having a laug-
You interrupt that thought by pressing your lips to his. His body is frigid in shock and then melts. It’s not a searing kiss, not the stuff of movies, and certainly not raunchy- they’re in a public square for goodness sake! Your noses bump against each other and he has to step closer to you aren’t craning your neck, but he’s smiling even with a close lipped kiss. It’s chaste, and sweet and he pulls away with an unintended promise and taste of more when he licks his lips and yours before.
You’re the one who is flustered this time.
“I-“ you’re swallowing and touching your lips with your fingertips, like you cannot believe you did that. “I had a lovely time, Steven.”
And then, he says your name. Only it’s different from all the other times he has this entire lunch date. It’s softer, vulnerable, and with yearning. You want nothing more than to hug him, but you don’t.
Later when you’re home, you feel completely exhausted. A migraine had worked it’s way up to your temple from the strain of the presence around a Steven. Because even in the kiss, it had tried to push you away, not that you paid it any mind. But now that you’re home you don’t quite care as you’re floating from the euphoria. You hadn’t expected to enjoy the date as well you did.
You pick up your phone and start to text but stop several times before committing to a bit:
You: I would like to submit a review on my experience tonight.
You watch the icon indicating he is texting start and stop repeatedly before stopping for a long time until an hour later.
Steven: Oh?
You roll your eyes, having a feeling he agonized over what to write back the entire time only to send a one syllabic response.
You: yeah. a little thing I wrote up just now.
Steven: Was there something wrong at the restaurant? Was it the spider?
You: nothing wrong with the restaurant. Want to read?
There’s a long pause in his reply, before a simply “Sure” came through. With a grin, you hit enter.
You: Went on a date with one Steven Grant, Pros: exceptional conversationalist, puppy dog eyes that make you melt, warm hands. Cons: not very food allergy conscious, kissing skill needs work. 7 out of 10. Would date again. Does management have any thoughts?
There’s a flurry of the icon indicating he’s typing popping up and disappearing repeatedly. Then he’s typing for a long time. Too long. You wonder if he’s writing a book or just editing his message over and over again. He seemed the type.
Steven: Thank you for your input. I will take it into consideration and review so I can better service you
Steven: ah, wait I hit send too fast!
You: service me huh? That’s some can do attitude.
Steven: that’s not what I meant!!!
You: are you sure? Because I’m down.
Steven: !!! You! Let me finish!
You laugh, imagining how warm his cheeks might be as you wait.
Steven: I will take your input into consideration and review so I can PROVIDE better service to you. At your earliest convenience when might we offer you a more satisfying experience?
You: I think a more satisfying experience isn’t necessary but a change in venue and activity might improve the rating. It is calculated in an aggregate, not average, manner. So how about a movie? Say this Thursday evening?
There’s a long, long time before Steven answers but when he does, it’s adorable and you press your face into your pillow with a girlish giggle.
Steven: If I sneak in the snacks, will I lose or gain points on my review?
You: gain, obviously. Sleight of hand means you’re likely good with your hands in other aspects. Or so I hear.
Steven: agshekt
Steven: sorry! I dropped my phone.
Steven: I will bring the snacks then. Meet at the bookshop after your shift?
You: keeping track of when my shifts are? Kind of suspicious there, Grant. Maybe you are a stalker after all.
There’s no answer for a long time. Not even the typing icon lights up. Maybe you went too far there and he was panicking. So you decide to have mercy on him.
Frowning, you type a few words, stop then decide to call him instead. He doesn’t pick up the first or second ring but he does on the third.
“Hello?” There’s a tentativeness in Steven’s voice and you can hear it.
“Hey. So we’re still on for the movies right?” You ignore your last message sent. You don’t even want to think of it.
“We are?” Steven asks and then sighs. “I thought maybe I went too far…memorizing your shifts.”
“My shifts are incredibly predictable, being one of two employees in the shop.”
“Yeah.” Steven mutters. You hear him shuffling papers.
“It’s kind of endearing you paid so close attention, though.”
“Is it?”
“Like the flowers. Which by the way are now in a vase right on my bedside table.”
“Bedside table? Why not the den? Or kitchen?” Steven asks.
“Because it’ll be the first thing I see when I wake up in the morning.” You say softly.
There’s a sharp intake of breath and release before he hums around a smile. “Now I’m jealous of the flowers.”
“For what?” You prod gently, until you track back to what you said right before. Now you’re the one with warm cheeks. “You-” you stutter and choke on your words.
Steven’s muffled laugh comes through, like his hand is over his mouth. “I cannot believe I said that.”
“Nor can I!” You grab a pillow to shove your face into, as if it could hide the blooming heat racing up your neck to your cheeks and ears.
There’s a beat of silence before, “I-I think I need to hang up before I self combust.”
“Me too.”
Neither of you hang up again.
You grumble and catch the tail end of his laugh before you finally hang up first.
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Sarah Sze (American, b. 1969) • Twice Twilight •
Twice Twilight • Installation Views
Sarah Sze is an American artist and professor of visual arts at Columbia University. She has exhibited internationally and her works are in the collections of several major museums. Sze's work explores the role of technology and information in contemporary life utilizing everyday materials. Drawing from Modernist traditions, Sze's work often represents objects caught in suspension. – Wikipedia
Twice Twilight is a spherical metallic structure over five metres in diameter suspended from the ceiling. This work is inspired by the idea of the planetarium, a circular theatre where you can observe the movements of celestial bodies. Inside, hundreds of tiny projections flicker on torn pieces of paper. Sarah has also included many familiar objects inside the structure: a trestle table, fans, lights, bowls of water, postcards, and miniature spherical models that resemble the larger work, some of them containing further flickering projections. For Sarah, these objects are like traces of human behavior. – Aesthetica Magazine
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THINGS TO DO: LET’S EXPLORE NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA!
New Orleans is a Louisiana city on the Mississippi River, near the Gulf of Mexico. Nicknamed the "Big Easy," it's known for its round-the-clock nightlife, vibrant live-music scene and spicy, singular cuisine reflecting its history as a melting pot of French, African and American cultures. Embodying its festive spirit is Mardi Gras, the late-winter carnival famed for raucous costumed parades and street parties.
Explore the Historic French Quarter
The French Quarter is always a must-do, any time of year. As the city’s oldest neighborhood, the Vieux Carre is packed with gorgeous architecture, loads of history, a wealth of food and music, and a cast of characters including long-time residents, chatty tour guides, and talented street performers
Take a History Tour of the Garden District
Upriver from the French Quarter lies the Garden District. Take a tour of this neighborhood’s grand mansions and historic cemeteries. The houses and history are a draw, but the neighborhood also offers a wealth of shops and cafes, as well as Commander’s Palace, one of New Orleans’ best restaurants.
Relax at the New Orleans City Park & Art Museum
New Orleans City Park offers a lovely respite from the city and is a great place to spend an afternoon, according to recent visitors. Take a nature stroll through the 10-acre New Orleans Botanical Garden (which boasts 2,000 different varieties of plants) or peruse the art hanging in the adjacent New Orleans Museum of Art.
Tour the New Orleans Jazz Museum
It's only logical for New Orleans to be home to a jazz museum, for this is the city where the musical genre was born. At this comprehensive repository of artifacts from the very beginning of the 20th century, you'll see and hear the history of jazz. The museum also presents more than 365 concerts a year and hosts educational programs on the city's legends, from Louis Armstrong to Al Hirt, Louis Prima and more.
Catch a Ride on the Algiers Ferry
Hop aboard the historic Algiers Ferry to feel the power of the Mississippi firsthand. The short ride on this commuter ferry will give you an amazing view of the city and a few minutes to be one with the river.
See the City on the Streetcars
New Orleans’ streetcar system has been rolling since 1835. While you can no longer ride the Desire line made famous by Tennessee Williams, the existing lines offer a great way to see the city. The newer red streetcars run out to Mid-City, while the older, original green cars take you down historic St. Charles Avenue, past beautiful houses in the famed Garden District and Audubon Park.
Cool-off at the Aubodon Zoo
Spend an afternoon at one of the top zoos in the country. The Audubon Zoo has world-class exhibits featuring animals from Asia, Africa, and South America. You’ll also see seals, reptiles, and a glimpse of the Louisiana swamp. Located behind Audubon Park, the zoo is dotted with majestic oak trees (keep an eye out for resident peacocks). In the summer, the Cool Zoo water park offers a respite from the heat.
Get Classic New Orleans Fair at Cafe Du Monde
The Original Cafe Du Monde Coffee Stand was established in 1862 in the New Orleans French Market. From beignets to café au lait, Café Du Monde is a New Orleans tradition.
Shop the French Market at the Colonnade
The French Market is a market and series of commercial buildings spanning six blocks in the French Quarter of New Orleans, Louisiana. It is one of the oldest trading posts in the US. Get your milk, bread,and eggs, along with unique souvenirs.
Check out Faulkner Books
Faulkner House Books is located in the heart of New Orleans’ beautiful and historic French Quarter, just off Jackson Square, behind the Cabildo and opposite St. Louis Cathedral’s rear garden. Founded in 1988 by attorney Joseph J. DeSalvo Jr. and his wife Rosemary James, Faulkner House Books is a sanctuary for fine literature and rare editions, including, of course, books by and about Mr. Faulkner.
Get Adventurous with the Swamp Kayak Tour
The Manchac Swamp tour is a secluded, calm, and pristine tour. If you are searching for a gorgeous, natural, and picturesque kayak swamp tour – this is your tour! Deep in New Orleans bordering swamps enjoy calm waters with maybe the occasional wildlife spotting.
Join a Alligator Tour
Jean Lafitte Swamp Tours is located just 15 minutes from New Orleans and offers swamp and airboat tours of Louisiana's back country. They guarantee you will get upclose with the swamp’s best residents, alligators.
Dare Yourself with the Voodoo Mystery and Paranormal Tour
This New Orleans voodoo and mystery tour takes you into the Big Easy's history of vampirism, occult activity, paranormal occurrences and even piracy. Hear tales of haunted buildings, lost treasure and documented sightings of ghosts and vampires as you explore. Use of pro ghost-hunting equipment is also included.
Get in on a Pub Crawl
Explore the famous Magazine street pubs and bars with this one of a kind pub crawl. Come with your walking shoes and an excitement for the nightlife. Open 7 days a week.
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THIS DAY IN GAY HISTORY
based on: The White Crane Institute's 'Gay Wisdom', Gay Birthdays, Gay For Today, Famous GLBT, glbt-Gay Encylopedia, Today in Gay History, Wikipedia, and more … November 16
42 BC – Tiberius, Roman emperor, born (d.37 AD); second Roman Emperor, from the death of Augustus in CE 14 until his own death in 37 AD. Tiberius was by birth a Claudian, son of Tiberius Claudius Nero and Livia Drusilla. His mother divorced his father and was remarried to Octavian Augustus in 39 BC. Tiberius would later marry Augustus' daughter Julia the Elder (from an earlier marriage) and even later be adopted by Augustus and by this act he became a Julian. The subsequent emperors after Tiberius would continue this blended dynasty of both families for the next forty years; historians have named it the Julio-Claudian dynasty.
Tiberius was the predecessor to Caligula and he was certainly the appropriate curtain-raiser. His sexual excesses were widely known, especially when he "retired" to Capri, governing Rome via correspondence, and becoming the patron saint of that future gay mecca. Suetonius reported that Tiberius trained young boys, whom he called his "minnows," to stay between his legs while he was swimming so they could lick and nibble him until he came. Suetonius reports that Tiberius can be credited with the "daisy chain" or spintriae - a conga line of people joined front and back in sexual congress.
1942 – Barton Lidice Beneš, born in Hackensack, New Jersey (d.2012), was an artist who lived and worked in New York City. He studied at Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, New York and Beaux-Arts, Avignon, France.
His father, the son of Czech immigrants gave him his middle name in memory of Lidice, the Czech town destroyed by the Nazis that year. He grew up in Queens with Czech-born grandparents, who instilled in him a dedication to the Roman Catholic traditions of reliquaries and memorials to the dead.
Barton Beneš' art incorporated shadow boxes filled with bits and pieces that revealed the myths and ironies of life. The fragments in Beneš' work often involved famous people and events, from a piece of Elizabeth Taylor's shoe to a crumb from the wedding cake of the Prince of Wales. His travelling exhibition series about AIDS, "Lethal Weapons," was the focus of an independent documentary film released in 1997. "Lethal Weapons" consisted of 30 vessels such as a water pistol, an atomizer, and hollow darts, all filled with the artist's or other people's HIV-infected blood.
Another work, "Brenda," was a wall relief carpeted with red AIDS-awareness ribbons and slathered with a coat of gray paste made from the cremated remains of a woman who had died of AIDS. "I absolutely hate those [AIDS] ribbons," he said, contending that wearing them did nothing more than assuage people's consciences.
Although galleries and museums refused to show this work, they were displayed without incident at the North Dakota Museum of Art in 1993. Beneš did not forget the courage and commitment to art of this prairie institution. When he died he left instructions to be cremated and have his remains placed in a pillowcase on his bed. The bed was the central part Beneš last completed and most personal work, his 850-square-foot home in Greenwich Village containing thousands of objects including masks and religious relics and the mementoes and remains of his loved ones. This enormous piece with its thousands of contents will be moved to Grand Forks, North Dakota, where they will be exhibited in a replica of the apartment
Among the museums that have acquired his works are the Chicago Art Institute, the National Museum of American Art, the National Gallery of Australia, and most importantly the North Dakota Museum of Art.
Scott Wittman (L) with Marc Shaiman
1955 – Born: Lyricist and director Scott Wittman, who, with composer Marc Shaiman, his partner in life and collaborator in theater, film, and television projects, has a long list of credits in the entertainment industry. Their work on the musical version of John Waters' Hairspray earned Tony and Grammy awards in 2003.
Both Shaiman and Wittman grew up in the vicinity of New York City, the former in Scotch Plains, New Jersey, and the latter in Nyack, New York. Both were fascinated with musical theater from an early age and dreamed of careers on Broadway. Shaiman played piano with local community theater groups from the time that he was twelve, and Wittman apprenticed in summer stock in his hometown. Such was their love for the stage that they both cut high school classes to travel into New York for matinees.
Wittman attended Emerson College in Boston but left after two years to pursue a career as a writer and director in musical theater in New York. In the city's East Village he crossed paths with Shaiman, who had quit high school at sixteen to join the New York musical scene. Wittman was directing a show at a club in Greenwich Village when Shaiman came in and started playing the piano. Wittman promptly hired him. They subsequently fell in love and have been a couple since 1979.
The two soon began collaborating professionally, writing songs that Shaiman describes as "full of anarchy and joy."
Since 1997 Shaiman and Wittman have contributed and directed music for the Academy Awards presentation show. At the same time Wittman, who humorously calls himself "a great diva wrangler," has directed concerts. In addition to working with Bette Midler, he has had a long association with Patti LuPone and has worked with Christine Ebersole, Raquel Welch, Dame Edna Everage (Barry Humphries), and Lypsinka among many others.
Shaiman and Wittman's greatest triumph thus far is Hairspray, an adaptation of the 1988 John Waters movie for the musical stage. Shaiman and Wittman wrote the music, and Mark O'Donnell and Thomas Meehan the book for the play.
The show dominated the 2003 Tony Awards, winning eight, including best musical and best score. At the end of their acceptance speeches Shaiman declared to Wittman, "I love you, and I'd like to spend the rest of my life with you." The couple then embraced and shared a long and tender kiss. News outlets around the world took note of this affecting moment.
1964 – Waheed Alli, Baron Alli is a British multimillionaire media entrepreneur and politician. He was co-founder and managing director of Planet 24, a TV production company, and managing director at Carlton Television Productions. He was, until November 2012, chairman of ASOS.com. He is the chairman of Silvergate Media, which purchased two of the media rights previously held by Chorion Ltd, where Alli was former chairman. He is a Labour life peer and is described as one of only a few openly gay Muslim politicians in the world.
In British political terms he is considered Asian, though both of his parents are from the Caribbean. His mother, a nurse, is from Trinidad, and his estranged father, a mechanic, is from British Guiana (now Guyana). His mother was Hindu and his father Muslim; he has two brothers, one of each faith. He was named one of the 20 most important Asians in British media in 2005. At the same time, he maintains ties with his Caribbean roots, both with other British-Guyanese politicians such as Valerie Amos and Trevor Phillips, and with President Bharrat Jagdeo.
Alli joined the Labour Party at the persuasion of his neighbour Emily Thornberry, to whom he remains close. He is also close to Anji Hunter, Director of Government Relations in Tony Blair's first government. Prime Minister Blair used him for years as a means to help him reach out to a younger generation (aka "yoof culture"), and as such he is considered one of "Tony's Cronies". He was made a life peer as Baron Alli, of Norbury in the London Borough of Croydon, on 18 July 1998 at the age of 34, becoming the youngest and the first openly gay peer in Parliament. He sits on the Labour benches in the House of Lords. The BBC summarised his appointment as "the antithesis of the stereotypical 'establishment' peer – young, Asian and from the world of media and entertainment".
Alli has used his political position to argue for gay rights. He spearheaded the campaign to repeal Section 28. He advocated lowering the age of consent for homosexuals from 18 to 16, equal to heterosexuals; this eventually became law as the Sexual Offences (Amendment) Act 2000. It was during a heated exchange with conservative opponents, led by Baroness Young, that he informed his fellow peers that he was gay. In April 1999, he said in a speech, "I have never been confused about my sexuality. I have been confused about the way I am treated as a result of it. The only confusion lies in the prejudice shown, some of it tonight [i.e. in the House], and much of it enshrined in the law."
In 2009, he spearheaded an effort to repeal clauses in the Civil Partnership Act 2004 which prohibited religious institutions from conducting the ceremonies on their premises. This campaign culminated in a bipartisan amendment, which became part of the Equality Act 2010.
2007 – Breakfast With Scot - In 2006, straight Canadian actor Tom Cavanagh began filming Breakfast with Scot, in which he plays a gay retired hockey player who becomes an adoptive father to a young boy. The film, released on this day in 2007, drew attention as the first gay-themed film ever to win approval from a major league sports franchise to use its real name and logo; Cavanagh's character formerly played for the Toronto Maple Leafs.
1989 – The Center for Homosexual Lifestyles was established in Berlin. It was the first time in Germany that a public office was established specifically to deal with the concerns of lesbians and gay men.
1995 – A directive was issued by the Canadian Government allowing workers in same-sex relationships to take time off in the event of a partner's illness or death.
1999 – The Rhode Island Supreme Court rules that all pending consensual sodomy prosecutions at the time of the 1998 legislative repeal must be abandoned.
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Gwendolyn Knight
At just 7 years old her mother gave her over to trusted close friends with whom she immigrated from Barbados to the US with. Eventually settling in Harlem, NY where she graduated from Wadleigh High School in 1930. Now known as Wadleigh Secondary School For the Performing and Visual Arts, the only accredited arts high school in Harlem.
She went on to attend Howard University studying fine arts with Lois Mailou Jones and printmaker James Lesesne Wells from 1931-1933. The thick of The Great Depression caused financial hardship for Knight who had to drop out before receiving her degree. She then returned to NY and began work at the Works Projects Administration as an assistant to the muralist, Charles Alston. She didn’t let her early departure from college stop her. She continued studying art at the Harlem Community Arts center where she was mentored by Augusta Savage. Through Savage, she met and was exposed to the work of other artists, poets, and writers of the Harlem Renaissance.
In 1934 she joined another Works Projects Administration mural project, where she met fellow painter and future husband Jacob Lawrence. In 1946 Knight and her husband were invited to teach at Black Mountain College, a private Liberal Arts College in Black Mountain, North Carolina. Returning to work and live in NY during the 1950s.
She then moved with her husband to Seattle Washington after he accepted a job at the University of Washington’s School of Art. The traveling and work she has done from the 40s-60s some would say makes her an itinerant artist. She is quoted in a Callaloo magazine interview with Charles H. Rowell saying “It wasn’t necessary for me to have acclaim… I just knew that I wanted to do it, so I did it whenever I could.”
Knight procured support from the National Links, INC for her first one woman show that was developed in 1976. This exhibit created a greater desire for her works and acquiring of her pieces by national museums.
Knight’s work was concentrated on storytelling paintings that illustrated the lives, culture, and history of African Americans that surrounded her own daily life. Her paintings encompassed a diverse range of subjects such as still life, portraits, and urban scenes. She worked with a variety of different mediums from oil paints, water colors, and gouache. Later in her artistic journey her paintings started to have a more poetic depiction of animals through etching and monoprints. You can also see that she draws from her admiration for African dance, sculpture, and theatre.
https://jacobandgwenlawrence.org/
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Andrew Edlin Gallery is currently showing a collection of rarely seen works by artist Beverly Buchanan. It covers her years as an abstract expressionist painter in NYC and her later work inspired by the rural South.
The gallery’s press release gives a really good history of this wonderful artist-
The first section of the show features the artist’s abstract paintings and works on paper from the 1970s, alongside post-minimalist sculpture from the late 1970s and early 1980s. The second section introduces a later, more personal side of Buchanan’s oeuvre, her colorful depictions of flowers and small folk-inspired assemblages created during the same period as her well-known “shacks.” A number of the works in the show, many of which were part of the artist’s private collection, have never been shown.
Though Buchanan wrote about her love of “making things” from an early age, it wasn’t until 1971, when she began taking evening classes taught by African-American painter Norman Lewis (1909-1979) at the Art Students League in New York, that her career as an artist took off. Abstract still-lifes that she made in Lewis’s class in 1972 are displayed here for the first time. That same year, her paintings were included in a group show at Cinque Gallery, a nonprofit space co-founded by Lewis and Romare Bearden (1911-1988), which showcased the art of emerging minority artists.
Having witnessed demolition sites in Harlem and SoHo, Buchanan evoked the visual erosion of architectural facades through what she dubbed her “Wall” paintings. In 1976 she presented a selection that she called “Torn Walls” in a two-person show titled City Walls at the Montclair Art Museum in New Jersey. In his New York Times review, David Shirey described the show as “indisputably a tinderbox of a display that will cause sparks to fly” and “the kind …one sees more regularly at the Whitney Museum and at some of New York’s avantgarde galleries.” Three of these paintings are being shown for the first time since that exhibition, forty-seven years ago. The show also includes a monotype, small studies, and a large painting from a series she titled “Black Walls.” The latter was originally featured in Shackworks, a seminal exhibition that opened at the Montclair Art Museum in 1994 and traveled to nine other institutions from 1994-1996.
By the late 1970s, Buchanan was further exploring the aesthetics of architectural decay through sculpture, i.e., cast concrete assemblages, made from pieces of stone, brick debris, clay, and cement mixtures. She arranged these works in clusters on the floor, documenting them with photographs, and exhibited them, notably at Truman Gallery in New York in 1978, and at the feminist artist cooperative A.I.R. Gallery in 1980 in its groundbreaking show Dialectics of Isolation, curated by Ana Mendieta. Some of the small black terracotta works on display may be considered as studies for these larger assemblages.
After moving to Georgia in 1977, Buchanan became increasingly interested in making what she referred to as “environmental sculpture,” artworks that mimicked exterior surfaces and were also site-specific installations that were allowed to decay over time and become part of the surroundings. Most notably, in 1979 she completed Ruins and Rituals (also the title of the Brooklyn Museum retrospective from 2016-2017), and in 1980 Marsh Ruins, with funding from a Guggenheim Fellowship. To construct the three mounds that comprise Marsh Ruins, Buchanan produced her own tabby cement. Composed of the lime from burned oyster shells mixed with sand, water, ash, and other shells, tabby is what colonial settlers used to build structures in coastal Georgia, the location of Marsh Ruins. In her zine “Making Tabby for Brick Sculptures,” Buchanan documented the labor-intensive process of making tabby, a task that in the eighteenth century was typically delegated to enslaved workers. Two smaller iterations of these structures, with bits of oyster shell showing in the concrete, are laid out in the show alongside four other examples of her cast concrete assemblages. Though little is known about their exhibition history, we do know that the artist placed these cast concrete works in her garden in Athens, Georgia. They retain stripes of the green, blue, black and earth-toned paint with which Buchanan initially covered them. The faint outline of her signature “B.B.” is also visible.
Buchanan’s later work is intimately linked to her natural surroundings and folk art. As a native Southerner, she drew on memories from her childhood as well as the lush Georgian landscape and yard art of local self-taught artists. A passionate gardener, Buchanan produced vivid oil pastel flower drawings and small assemblage works. She loved to rummage through thrift stores collecting marbles, wedding toppers, and beads, to create what she referred to as her “Christmas trees,” and “spirit jars,” her take on memory jugs, a prized Southern Folk Art form. Buchanan was particularly moved by a visit to folk artist Nellie Mae Rowe’s home in Fayette County, Georgia, and reminisced: “Being at Nellie Mae Rowe’s home was like being engulfed in a magic forest of her work because every surface had a mark from her hand and the simple chewing gum works made you never take gum as just chewing gum again.” A distinctive chewing gum jug and pin are also included in the show.
This exhibition closes 5/13/23.
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Mark Bradford (American b. 1961). I recently learned of this series of paintings, which are based on a group of French tapestries owned by the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Bradford’s process involves layering images--often print images and found, printed text material--and then scraping, digging, and sometimes blasting (with a pressure washer) through the layers. The result is rich with surface incident. I’ve paired two of the paintings with the original tapestries they were based on, so you can see the commonalities. Bradford hung these canvases un-stretched, possibly to reinforce their connection to the hanging tapestries.
The Hunt of the Unicorn series installed in Agora exhibition, November 2021-July 2022, Serralves Foundation, Porto, Portugal. Source.
The Unicorn Rests in a Garden 2020. Mixed media on canvas, 144 x 110 inches. Source.
French (cartoon)/South Netherlandish (woven). The Unicorn Rests in a Garden (from the Unicorn Tapestries) 1495-1505. Wool warp with wool, silk, silver, and gilt wefts; 145 x 99 inches. The Met Cloisters, New York.
The Unicorn Purifies Water 2020. Mixed media on canvas, 144 x 158 inches. Source.
French (cartoon)/South Netherlandish (woven). The Unicorn Purifies Water (from the Unicorn Tapestries) 1495-1505. Wool warp with wool, silk, silver, and gilt wefts; 145 x 149 inches. The Met Cloisters, New York.
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