Poet Laureate

Who would have thought, two posts about poetry in one day. W.S. Merwin has been named the new Poet Laureate of the United States. More info from the Washington Post, and a couple videos.

Senator Byrd Recites

Senator Byrd was known for his love of poetry. There is not as much video of this as I thought there might be, but here are a couple recitations.

I have post some video of Senator Byrd singing and playing fiddle on my music blog.

"Touch of the Master's Hand" by Myra Welch



"The Little Chap That Follows Me" unknown author

China Succumbs

Something tells me that Chairman Mao would be very upset about this. On the other hand, I expect Paris Hilton to have one very soon.

China's latest walking fashion accessory

Téenek Hawk Dance

This year's Smithsonian Folklife Festival features Mexico, Asian Pacific Americans, and Smithsonian Inside Out.

The high point is the Hawk Dance performed by the Téenek of Tamaletón, Mexico. Here is the description of it from the SI web site:

The Téenek of Tamaletón in the Huasteca region of San Luis Potosí celebrate the Danza del Bixom Tíiw ceremony. This ritual involves "flying" from a pole, in honor of Dhipaak, the Lord of Corn, to ensure good crops. In a newly inaugurated cultural center, the Téenek also perform for tourists, inviting them to experience local ceremonial and foodways traditions as well as vernacular crafts and architecture.

• Florentina Manuel Martínez, Hilaria Martínez Santos, María Concepción Méndez Orta, María Juana Santos Miramontes, Palo Volantín ceremony: dancers
• Bernardino Martínez Santos, Rodrigo Martínez Zapata, Juan Reyes Méndez, Manuel Reyes Crisóstomo, Palo Volantín ceremony: flyers
• Benigno Robles Reyes, Palo Volantín ceremony: director
• Juan Miguel Santiago Reyes, Palo Volantín ceremony: musician, flyer

The rope is wrapped around the pole and as they let go the rope unwinds and spins them around.

Here are some photographs from the morning performance and preparations for the afternoon performance.

Téenek Hawk Dance

This is a video of the afternoon performance—the first YouTube video I have ever created myself.

Kate Greenaway Medal Winner

The Guardian has a set of illustrations from the book Harry & Hopper. Freya Blackwood won the CILIP Kate Greenaway medal for illustration for this book.

Kate Greenaway winner Freya Blackwood

Lighting the Trump Tower

Last night was the official lighting of the spire on the new Trump Tower in Chicago. I don't think that this was exactly what the plan called for.

When lightning strikes (twice), a photographer is ready

Earliest Paintings of Jesus's Apostles

It was announced at a press conference in Rome that the oldest known images of the apostles Peter, Andrew and John have been uncovered in one of the city's Christian catacombs.

Paul, Peter, John and Andrew

The Kiss

Edith Shain, who was photographed by Alfred Eisenstaedt in Times Square in 1945 being kissed by a sailor, dies at aged 91.

Edith Shain dies age 91

We the People

New Hampshire became the ninth state to ratify the U.S. Constitution on June 21, 1788. Ratification by nine states beung required for implementation, that means as of today the Constitution has now been in force for 222 years.

In commemoration of this here is an image of one of my favorite art works from the Smithsonian American Art Museum

Mike Wilkins' "Preamble"

Royal Wedding

The Huffington Post has a set of pictures from yesterday's wedding of Crown Princess Victoria of Sweden. Included are pictures of most of the crowned heads of Europe, except they somehow left out Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands, she only shows up in the group picture.

Princess Victoria's Wedding in Photos

For Neda

This is the HBO documentary about Neda Agha-Soltan, the women shot on the street in Tehran one year ago today on June 20, 2009. A cell phone video of the event was posted on the internet and almost instantly she became a symbol of the Iranian government's repression.

Leonora Carrington

The Guardian has a video about Leonora Carrington, a British surrealist painter who has lived in Mexico since the 1940's. I had never heard of her before, but she is very interesting.

Leonora Carrington: Britain's lost surrealist

The Archimedes Palimpsest

Here is a 3 part video about the Archimedes Palimpsest. I saw the Palimpsest several years ago when it was displayed at the Walters Art Museum. I think the restoration has been completed, and I am not sure where it is now.

Old Shoe

A video about the discovery—in Armenia—of the earliest known shoe in the world.

Jacques Cousteau's Centenary

Jacques Cousteau was born 100 years ago today on June 11, 1910. To mark the date here is a short biographical video.

Anish Kapoor's latest work

A video from the BBC about Anish Kapoor's latest work,Temenos, in Middlesbrough, UK. Only time will tell if this ever becomes as popular as Kapoor's Chicago sculpture Cloud Gate, which is now affectionately know as the Bean.

Middlesbrough displays Kapoor artwork Temenos

Picture ot the Day - 6/10/2010

The National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, DC. Architect and project designer was Douglas Cardinal. The building is clad in Kasota limestone.

Pictures of the Day - 2010

Peregrine falcons in Baltimore

Since I did one post about pelicans in Louisiana, here is an article from the Baltimore Sun about the Peregrine Falcons that have nested in downtown Baltimore for over 25 years.

Peregrine falcons thrive in Baltimore

Louisiana Bird Rehabilitation Center

Video from C-SPAN's visit to the Louisiana Bird Rehabilitation Center.

Louisiana Bird Rehabilitation Center

National Geographic Pictures

Some great photographs from National Geographic.

Best of May From Photo of the Day

David Markson, R.I.P.

The New York Times today published an obituary for the writer David Markson, who died last Friday. The headline refers to him as a "Postmodern Experimental Novelist". Postmodern is a term that is hard to define, but if you read any of his recent books you will get a clear picture of what it is. On the other hand, it might be a stretch to refer to these books as novels. They probably deserve a genre all their own.

Wittgenstein's Mistress, which he published in 1988, is one of my all time favorite books. In the narrative of that book everyone has disappeared from the face of the earth, except one women who is living somewhere on the coast, I think in Greece maybe. She relates her shifting memories of the days before everyone disappeared and her subsequent travels around the world living in art museums.

Here is a video of Markson reading the ending of his last book, The Last Novel, a book which I have not read. Appropriately for the ending of his last book, this is about death. References are made in this excerpt to two of Markson's favorites, Wittgenstein and St. John of the Cross. Wittgenstein's Mistress also includes numerous references to these two men.

Picture ot the Day - 6/7/2010

From the window of the Women's Industrial Exchange in Baltimore, a clay tile quilt. I am assuming that, like Baltimore album quilts, the different square tiles were made by different people, but I am not sure of this.

Pictures of the Day - 2010

More Silent Films Recovered

The New York Times has an article on the 75 previously lost silent films that are being recovered from the New Zealand film archive.

The films will be made available on the National Film Preservation Foundation's web site. Two preview clips are already available from the film The Sergeant: Told in the Yosemite Valley.

National Film Preservation Foundation

Previous Related Posts:

Lincoln Silent Film Discovered

Landslide Lake in Pakistan

This is quite a set of photographs. A massive landslide in Pakistan's Hunza River Valley has created a new lake 300 feet deep and 10 miles long. The water is now threatening to breach the dam that was created and wash the whole thing out.

Landslide lake in Pakistan

D-Day

On the 66 anniversary of D-Day, here is a short documentary on the landing.

The 39 Steps

Last week I went to the Hippodrome to see a production of The 39 Steps. This is a theatrical re-imagination of Hitchcock's famous movie. It took me a little while to warm to the show. While the play is almost an exact replication of the scenes from the movie, the tone of the play is totally different.

The play consists of broad physical humor, with minimal sets. The characters from the movie are recreated on the stage by just four actors. After a while it becomes very impressive to see the movie so faithfully recreated, but at the same time totally changed. It was really a feat for one actor to play multiple characters in the same scene.

A few of the scenes were recreated on the stage with shadow play, as in the scene with the main character being chased by airplanes in the video below. The play also contains numerous references to other Hitchcock films. The airplane chase scene below is a recreation of one of the scenes from Hitchcock's film North by Northwest.

All in all, in was a very original and well acted play.

"Secret" Movies

I have seen two movies in the last week or so, both with the word Secret in the title.

The Secret in their Eyes

This is the Argentine film that won the 2010 Oscar for Best Foreign Film. It involves a murder where the perpetrator apparently got away with the crime. It is told from the perspective of one for the police investigators, who has retired and is writing a book about this case which happened some years in the past. The story is told with flash backs interspersed with current developments in the story, and also involves a love story between the investigator and his boss. It does have a surprising ending.

Here is an interview with the director and some clips from the film.



The Secret of the Kells

This film was nominated for the 2010 Oscar for Best Animated Feature, but lost to Up. The animation is very two dimensional and stylized, like the illustrations for book. The story centers around a conflict between the Abbot whose sole concern is building a wall around the community to protect from a Viking invasion, and the great illuminator who is trying to complete the Book of the Kells. The main character, a young boy named Brendan, has been forbidden to go outside the walls into the forest, but does anyway in order to get berries for the illuminator to make ink. I do think Up was a better film, but I did like this one, and it was more artistic than most Disney animated films.

Dennis Hopper's Photographs

NPR has a slide show with some of Dennis Hopper's photographs. Though he was primarily known as an actor, he had many of other talents.

Dennis Hopper, The Photographer

Picture ot the Day - 6/3/2010

Henri Crenier's Sculpture, The Boy and the Turtle, in the fountain at West Mount Vernon Place Park, Baltimore. Buildings in the background are the Peabody Institute and the Hackerman House—part of the Walters Art Museum.

Pictures ot the Day - 2010

Picture ot the Day - 6/2/2010

Here is a picture I took in D.C. this afternoon. This is about one block south of Washington Circle, behind the GWU Hospital.

Pictures ot the Day - 2010