Saturday, December 06, 2003

ASHER BROWN DURAND research uncovers Halleck link--:
"In 1867, evidently in anticipation of making a grand gesture on his wedding anniversary, Field prevailed upon his friend Fitz-Greene Halleck to invent a second verse:

And that I am all the world to her,
It joys my breath to say, For her beating heart has told me so
For many a happy day. For many a happy day-
And her bonny lip and eye, Oh! my darling Floy Van Cortlandt,
'Tis for thee Id live and die.

Then, Field asked Durand to complete the three-way collaborative gift. It was not unusual for Durand to accept a landscape commission in which setting and various details were stipulated by the patron. He enhanced Field's memory image of thirty years by setting the courting couple, moon, clouds, and the shores of a winding I Hudson River into the type of landscape in vogue when both he and his patron were young men by reverting to the classical landscape formula of tile seventeenth-century French painter Claude Lorrain, on which he hid frequently relied thirty ' years earlier. During the 1860s, Durand occasionally created landscapes in which such older formulas reappear."
Slate test drives the dictionaries

Friday, December 05, 2003

David Hemmings
Dams: the beavers' dams: "I don't like calling beavers engineers. What humans engineer either works or doesn't work any more. Beavers have a more encompassing view of the environment than humans. Their 'work' fits more organically into the natural scheme of things. One 300 foot dam I patrol has good sized bushes growing out of it."
Language Log has these Beaver terms from the Carrier language of BC's interior:

"tsa--beaver
tsatsul--beaver of mid-sized variety
tsayaz--beaver of small variety
tsati--beaver of large variety
tsachenisboo'--beaver kit
tsata'--adult male beaver
tsa'at--female beaver
tsadiya--mother beaver
tsacho--male beaver that is the boss of a whole area
tsaken--beaver lodge
'utsut--runway from lodge of beaver or muskrat to land
lht'azutnai--pair of beaver lodges built close together behind one dam
'udats'un--beaver harpoon
tsambilh--beaver snare
'ulhtusti--trail over beaver dam
tsata'ti--beaver channel under the ice"
Luke Vibert video

________________iloveacid________________

Wednesday, December 03, 2003

Bemsha Swings with some lovely drummer photos
"Bobo" Fulford on Lost in Translation
Is Miles Davis really dead?: "McLaughlin's power-guitar solo that opens the track should be used to sort out the wheat from the chaff in the air guitar Olympics. Around bar 50 he begins to get ready to pass the lead to Davis and begins a climatic buildup from bar 60, a masterpiece of impromptu construction that climaxes with Davis's entry at bar 75. Davis makes the most of what he's been given. Just as Scarpia's entrance in Act 1 of Puccini's Tosca is one of the great, dramatic moments in opera, so Davis's commanding entry here is one of the great moments in jazz. "

Sunday, November 30, 2003

looks like robot wisdom weblog, the original "weblog" is no more...only this cache...
Happy Birthday Jack Sheldon!
Cinnamon: "'We were looking at the effects of common foods on blood sugar,' he told New Scientist. One was the American favourite, apple pie, which is usually spiced with cinnamon. 'We expected it to be bad. But it helped,' he says."
Cinammon
Giving cats a chance in life: "Behind him are several miniature dwellings that look like igloos. The cats sleep in the tiny huts, which the volunteers line with straw in the winter. 'They're like little subdivisions,' Shaw says. "
Dave Till's Toronto Photos - ghost signs
Dictionary of Victorian London
Referential Communication with an African Grey Parrot: "Alex has learned over 40 object labels: paper, key, nut, wood, wheat, truck, hide (rawhide chips), peg wood (clothes pins), grain, cork, corn, walnut, block, box, showah (shower), banana, pasta, gym, cracker, scraper (nail file), popcorn, chain, kiwi, shoulder, rock (a lava stone beak conditioner), carrot, gravel, cup, citrus, back, chair, chalk, water, nail, grape, grate, treat, cherry, wool, green bean, and banerry (apple). We have tentative evidence for labels such as bread and jacks. He has functional use of 'no', phrases such as 'come here', 'I want X', and 'Wanna go Y' where X and Y are appropriate labels for objects or locations."