Dark Knight

Thomas Blackshear's Dark Knight from Ebony Visions,

sculpted by Mark Newman,
 issued 2006. Photo by C. David Claudon.

For the past few months, I've been working on retelling Thomas Mallory's Le Morte dArthur into modern English. I was fascinated, therefore, when I stumbled upon the gallery of sculptor Mark Newman, primary sculptor for Thomas Blackshear's Ebony Visions. As soon as I saw this piece, Dark Knight, I knew I had to have it. 

Newman's works capture attitude and vitality in beautifully realistic sculptures. Dark Knight is 16 inches tall. Sculptor's Corner states that he works with Super Sculpy/Super Sculpy firm gray and oil base clay (Chavant and J-Mac Classical Clay). [I worked with Super Sculpy when I was making miniature cats.] His textures and realistic detail are all excellently rendered.

Beautiful Life did a layout on him a couple of weeks ago and included many of Newman's originals. Note the jacket of the Tuskegee airman or the outfits of the two in Steppin Out.

The California-based Newman graduated from The Art Academy of San Francisco and has 19 years of professional sculpting experience. His website shows work in both bronze and resin. While he works in all sizes, he says he prefers 1/6 to 1/2 life size.

I first saw Dark Knight among the originals shown in Mark Newman's Sculpture Gallery. He does a wide range of figures and animals, but he shows a particular sensitivity to the African American image and attitude.

I was delighted to own one of his pieces.

Dark Knight can be found online at the Collection Shop and First Capitol Trading Inc.

Welcome to the Future

My students are finishing reading Frankenstein and I will next show them A.I.: Artifical Intelligence. Among our discussions is the idea of what kind of responsibility the creator has toward his creation. In response to the movie, I've done some research on current work in the field of robots (a term coined by the Czech play R.U.R. in 1920).

HRP-4C

Last year a Japanese company created an android called HRP-4C. Here is her presentation, showing her range of emotions.



Yamaha in 2009 combined her with speech capabilities.



Then we have Aldebaran Robotics' Nao



Robotics are all the rage, according to a recent New York Times article, especially in terms of cooking and restaurants.

Here are two robot chefs in a Ramen noodle restaurant, making 80 bowls of noodles a day.

Click here.

And here's a pancake chef.



ASIMOs new artifical intelligence shows how a robot learns to see.



Here are some Dancing Sony Robots.



You might even want your portrait drawn by one.




How prophetic A.I. seems. Someone has said, if we can imagine it we can make it happen. Well, folks, David may be with us sooner than we think.

Let's hear it for the Chanteuse

According to an online dictionary, the word Chanteuse means a female singer, especially a nightclub singer. Here are some of my favorites:

Peggy Lee

Miss Lee could sell a song better than all of them. Even as a kid I understood what they meant by "sultry" when they spoke of her.



Ethel Waters

Miss Waters began in the 1920s, but her performance as Berniece in "A Member of the Wedding" is one of my favorites, especially when she did "His Eye is on the Sparrow." Breaks my heart each time I hear it.



Bette Midler

From the beginning, I loved Bette Midler's sassy style and humor. Her performances as DeLores Delago are a delight. What a great concept: a group of mermaids in wheelchairs.



But Bette can sell it like the best of them.



Edith Piaf sings her signature song, La Vie En Rose.



Judy Garland

Judy's life pain translated into much of her music. But her struggles made for golden moments for her fans.

The Sculptures of Adam Beane

Adam Beane does incredible work.

 

When I wrote him asking if I could include pictures of some of his work here on my blog, he wrote:

"Lately I'm interested in pushing further with the celebrity portrature and I'm quite proud of my latest piece- Barack Obama for Esquire." Only the hands holding the bust belie the fact that the sculpture is a miniature.

 

I've done some modeling of miniature figures and animals and I know the precision it takes to achieve a good likeness. Beane's pieces, created in CX5, are works of art I'd love to own. His portfolio on his website has additionally fascinating pieces.

 

Below, at left is his bust of Evangeline Lilly as Kate from "Lost." At right is his detailed model of Alessandro Del Piero for PlanB Toys (2005).

 

Below is Beane's 1:16 scale work on  Ed and Shaun from Shaun of the Dead for Slideshow Collectibles, 2006.

To learn more, check out the following sites:

• http://adambeane.com/home.html 
• http://www.beautifullife.info/art-works/incredibly-realistic-sculptures-by-adam-beane/

Check him out.

More Things Found on the Net

Here are some more things I found online of interest:

 

• One Sentence Archive: True Stories, told in one sentence. So how poignant or thought-provoking do you think a single sentence could be? Can it reveal a story waiting to come to light? Here are a couple of them that seemed particularly effective:

When I asked him how his day had been my father shrugged and said "It was okay," in a non-committal way, because we were still ten minutes from home, and only then would he feel able to tell me my brother had been killed.

My ex-wife would freeze up everytime she told the story of coming home from church as a child and finding all the dolls she had left lined up in tiny chairs replaced by the dead squirrels that her father had killed that morning.

I knew what we really were when I realized we had eaten our Christmas Dinner out of a cooler from the back of a pick-up truck.

• The above site reminds me of the book, Post Secret: Extraordinary Confessions from Ordinary Lives, compiled by Frank Warren, a collection of post cards where people write their stories on a post card and mail them anonymously to the compiler.

I wish my parents could see me for what I am... instead of what I didn't become.

When i see an ugly bride, what i am really seeing is a glimmer of hope for the future [maybe i will marry, someday].

I'm with the first person I've ever been able to truly trust. He is the only person I have ever cheated on. [Decorated with a statue of liberty sticker and a Los Vegas sticker and a red balloon.]

• I love miniatures still even though I don't do anymore. Here is the work of Michael Paul Smith  who does incrediblely detail photographs of miniatures. You don't believe it's a miniature until you see the layout.
• It's always interesting to see what people feel the need to create. Here's someone who makes "Skeletons of Looney Tunes Characters." Okay, so some of them are Hanna Barbara and Disney, but we get the idea.

Photofunia

Stumbleupon.com took me to a really interesting site yesterday which allows you to manipulate your pictures into others. I'm showing three examples below. You tell it what pictures to feed in and http://www.photofunia.com/ does it for you. Simple? Addicting. And there are 138 different pictures to choose from. Just select the pictures you want to use and it does the work for you.

More Fun Things Found on the Net

Here are some more links for you check out at your leisure...

• "It's a Wonderful World" puppet show with music by Louis Armstrong. Over the years I've had countless students fascinated with handpuppets everytime a project light is turned on. Here's someone who goes beyond just playing. It's fun to watch.
• Oscar the cat who predicts nursing home deaths. I'd known about Oscar for awhile now, but here's a more in depth article on him.
• The work of artist Liu Bolin, The Invisible Man. He paints himself and then has himself photographed in real settings. It's pretty amazing to see.
• The face of beauty. How does our perception of beauty change? Here's a video of numerous women's portraits from the Middle Ages on--and it's suprising how similar they tend to look.
• Josh Keyes' paintings have the disquieting feel of a dreamworld where people no longer exist. His paintings are unique statements of what might happen if we weren't around. An unforgettable artist.
• Human World Trivia. I love this sort of gallimauphry approach to all kinds of human trivia, from learning that Blackbird, a chief of the Omaha Indians, was buried sitting on his favorite horse or that when Albert Einstein died, his final words died too... the nurse at his side didn't understand German.
•  

I have a friend who thinks I'm slipping into senility because I like Lady Gaga. Anyway, I love the dance number but can't figure out how she can dance in those shoes.

• Living My Life Faster. For eight years J.K. Keller has taken a photograph daily and in this video he shows how he has changed.
• Papercraft Self Portrait - 2009. Last Halloween, Eric Testroete made a huge paper self-portrait head which he wore. It's pretty amazing when you see the final product.
• If you know the work of artist Ron Mueck, you'll find the art of Jamie Salmon equally fascinating.
• People were fascinated with the damage done to Picasso's The Actor painting, but many have forgotten that the Metropolitan Museum had an even more shattering event in 2002. A 15th century priceless marble statue of Adam by Venetian sculptor Tullio Lomardo stood on a faulty pedestal which collapsed, breaking the statue in dozens of pieces. Here's the original New York Times article, and then a more recent one detailing what they are trying to do to save the work.
• Was the Nefertiti statue a fake? Passionate about History tells the story.

Again, Lady Gaga doing "Paparazzi" (2009). Very interesting production.

• Finally a brief look at The French Chef Julia Child introducing Chicken. Every Saturday I watched her show faithfully and it's fun to see this again. 

Well, that's it for the evening. Have fun and let me know what you think.

stumbleupon.com

Today as we were working on blogs in class, one of my students introduced me to stumbleupon.com. This afternoon, I must admit, I got lost surfing online for a couple of hours. Since my interests are photography, drawing, mythology, the unusual, here are my 15 picks for things to look at today:

1. Ten Places in the World You Will Never Visit shows you 10 hidden places only a few people in the world can visit. Now I want to go.

2. A Super Sprayer using spray cans of paint creates surprisingly realistic worlds


Super Sprayer - The best video clips are right here


3. The most puzzling ten objects from the ancient world, which includes a small artifact that looks like a space ship from ancient Egypt.


4. An artist who does fantastic real life in the wild photography of lions, giraffes, gorillas


5. Scroll across a picture of the CN Tower, Toronto, and it turns from morning to evening.


6. Surrealism lives in these photographs of primarily urban settings where something is definitely out of kilter, whether it’s the newspaper man reading a newspaper, a four-legged metal walker chained to a pole, or the woman crawling into a garbage bag in front of a store window.


7. Your job is unloading bricks… how do you carry a lot at one time?



8. Create your own art with an art pad? And you can keep the picture.


9. Create your own flowers on zefrank.com


10. Paradoxymoron… a very interesting painting that appear flat standing in front but actually projects out toward you as you move to the sides.


11. Theoi Greek Mythology: a website which explores Greek mythology in literature and pictures… tons of pictures.


12. Did you know that Perillos of Athens, who created a brazen bull in which St. Antipas and St. Eustace and others were roasted to death, was the first person to be roasted to death in it? These are only a couple of “unusual deaths” found on Wikiepdia.


13. History and Thought aficiandos, remember the discussion of kinetic art? Here’s a guy who’s doing some pretty fantastic things. Use it on your next art rec test.



14. Add to our art rec list, the singing, ringing tree



15. And finally the fantastic art of Sachiko Kodama Amazing Magnetic Art Sculpture!!



Yes, Ma, I had fun afternoon surfing.

Why I Like Reading the Times

Today thanks to today's New York Times, I learned:

• Preparing for Cyberwarfare. If you have followed the current war between Google and China [where Google believes that they were cyber-attacked by a group in China, supported by their government], you will probably find today's article even more of a nod to our cyber-future.
• Chinese rename Mountains for Avatar. Say what you will about the block-buster movie (which passed Titanic yesterday), not many movies can change the name of locations. In a related story from another site, apparently the excitement of seeing Avatar was too much for one man who died of a stroke.
• The Torn Picasso. Image this scenario. You are leading a tour group through a major art museum, lose your footing and end up pushing your hand through one of the rare Picasso works of that museum. Ooops. And now the curators begin trying to figure out how exactly to repair it.
• Placido and Elaine. What a great review for each. I'm trying to figure out where I'd get $150 plus dinner to see Elaine.
• Sitting Shortens Lives. So, as I'm sitting here doing this, I'm killing myself?

Enjoy today's paper.

Family History: The Nicholas Claudon Family

Recently I received an inquiry from a researcher doing research in Mexico City on a Claudon line that moved there in the 1870s from New Orleans. He wondered if my family was related somehow to the family he is researching. While I had no information for him, I realized that much of the family research I did during the 1970s might not be easily accessible for others doing research, so I decided it was time to tell about my gr-great grandfather Nicholas Claudon.

The only copy of a picture of Nicholas and his wife is a very bad xerox copy given me in the 1970s. Seen in the picture at top, he has what my family always referred to as the Claudon look--balding, square body, stocky like the horses they raised.


My family line stems back to Nicholas Claudon, born 7 March 1800, in northern Lorraine, France, under the rule of Napoleon Bonaparte. According to family tradition, Nicholas was orphaned as a child, so I'm not sure whether his biological family was Claudon or if he took the name from people who raised him. Nor do I know whether he had any siblings. One of his early memories was the experience of guarding prisoners of Napoleon’s army.

In his youth, Nicholas joined the Mennonite Church. As an adult he became a farmer and, according to family tradition, sold Percheron horses to American dealers [quite possibility to my great-great grandfather David VanDolah].

In 1836 Nicholas married Barbara Baechler (born 1814 in Lorraine). One of the only things told of her was that she had a lovely singing voice. The couple settled in Reding, Lorraine, near Sarrebourg, until around 1848 when they moved to Eich, also near Sarrebourg. They lived there until the 1870s (probably until the Germans invaded Lorraine during the Franco-Prussian war). They then joined their daughter, Mrs. Chris Sommer, at Pagny-sur-Meuse, near Toul.

The Claudons had five sons and three daughters:

1. Christian Claudon (1837-1892), farmer, came to Canada in 1859 and moved to Tremont, Tazewell County, Illinois in 1860. Later settled in Yates Township, McLean County, near Chenoa, Illinois, in 1866. Married Anne (Baechler) Rupp Claudon in 1861 and four children (2 daughters survived him).
   
2. Joseph Claudon (1840-1898),farmer, located near Pekin, Tazewell County, Illinois, around 1858 and moved later to Waldo Township, Livingston County, Illinois where he farmed. He and his wife had eight children.
   
3. Mary (Claudon) King (1844-1897) came in 1866 to the US, marrying in 1868 Daniel R. King, who lived in Nebraska Township, two miles south of Flanagan, Illinois. The Kings had no children, but provided for an orphanage (The Salem Children’s Home) which was erected in 1888.
   
4. Andrew Baechler Claudon (1846-1932), banker, grain and coal dealer, harness maker, located in Chenoa (1867) and then Fairbury (1869). He ran the Fairbury elevator with his brother Nicholas Jr. and owned the Claudon State Bank, Fairbury, Illinois. He married Mary ‘Mollie’ Alice (McDowell) Claudon in 1877. They had five children.
   
5. Barbara (Claudon) Sommer (1849-1928), married Christian Sommer (a miller) in France in 1869. They had five children. Came to the United States with her son in 1891 and her husband and daughter followed. Settled in Bellflower Township, McLean County, Illinois. She finally settled in Pontiac, Illinois.
   
6. Peter (Pierre) Claudon (1852-1913)—this is my line—farmer, came to Livingston County, Illinois in 1871. Married Catherine “Kate” Vercler) Claudon in 1855. They had two children. After her death in 1881, he married Magdalena “Lena” (Englel) Claudon and they had four children.
   
7. Nicholas B. Claudon, Jr. (1855-1913), grain-dealer, came to the US in 1873 to Chenoa, Illinois, working on Dan King’s farm until 1881 when he became a partner in Stuckey & Claudon, a mercantile business at Danvers (1881-1883). Later established the firm of Claudon Brothers which put him in the grain business. He married Mary Ann (Schirtz) Claudon in 1858 and they had two children.
   
8. Daughter who died in infancy.
   

Family tradition holds that Nicholas Sr. did not believe in military service, so to avoid his sons’ conscription he sent each to the United States when they came of age. [I don’t know that this is a true assumption.] Ironically, during the Franco-Prussian was, his youngest son, then about 16, was captured by the Germans and compelled for three days to haul provisions for the enemy on the line near Strasbourg.

On 11 Mar 1880 at Pagny-sur-Meuse, Lorraine, France, Barbara (Baechler) Claudon died. [This date is from the Gerig family bible, which was originally Joseph Claudon’s. Nicholas obit lists the date as 14 February 1878.]

In the summer of 1889, Joseph Claudon returned to Lorraine from America to see his childhood places and his aged father. When he returned home, he brought his father and nephew J.C. Sommer back with him to Illinois. It was stated that Nicholas Sr. at 89 had been the oldest man to ever cross the Atlantic Ocean [probably referring to the ship's history]. The group arrived in Fairbury, Livingston County, Illinois, on 3 July.

Nicholas was said to have been pleased with his new home and never regretted leaving Lorraine. His grandchildren were impressed with the fact that he never drank anything but wine the whole time he was in America.

Nicholas stayed with his daughter, Mrs. Daniel King, near Flanagan, Illinois. Unlike his daughter and son-in-law, however, who attended the Salem Mennonite Church, Nicholas attended the Flanagan Mennonite Church, then known as “Stuckey Amish.” He joined the church in 1890.

On Tuesday, 28 December 1893, after an illness of four days, Nicholas Claudon, Sr. died at Dan King’s home. He was buried in the Waldo township cemetery, Livingston County, Illinois. The tombstone has now almost disappeared under a large shrub.

Sources: Nicholas Claudon obituary, Bloomington (IL) Pantagraph, 1 Jan 1894; the Gerig family bible; Christopher Strawn, Fordyce B. Johnson & George H. Franzen. Ed, History of Livingston Co (IL), vol. 2 (Chicago: Munsell Publishing Co, 1909), p 876; my grandmother, Leta Elson Claudon; Ivan Lorenzo Claudon, my father; Stephen Estes.

As I was growing up, there were other Claudons and Claudins in the Pontiac, Illinois, area who I could not connect to my family. (I do remember my father introducing me to a Claudin at a restaurant in Pontiac, but he was unable to connect him to our history.)

When I was doing research in Livingston County, Illinois, I found the following Claudins listed but do not believe they are part of my line. Listing their information, however, might help someone else sort out the families.

Other Claudon, Claudin, Clandin, Clodine, Choldina information:
Births, Livingston Co, IL

• Lea Claudin b 9 Feb 1880, Waldo Twp. to Basile Claudin, farmer Gridley, b La Munch, France, 46 and Mary Sommer, b Ohio, 41. 10th child.
  
• Richard J. Claudin, b 9 Nov 1914, Pontiac to Jake A. Claudin, b IL 23 and Harriet Morris, b IL 20. 1st child.
  
• Mary L. Claudin, b 29 Aug 1882, Waldo Twp, to Basile Claudin, farmer, b Lovejir (?) France, 48 and Mary Sommer, b Tazewell Co, IL. 11th child of mother.
  
• Jerome Howard Claudin, b 2 Oct 1929, Pontiac, to Howard Irvin Claudin, printer, b Pontiac, 25 and Alice Malmrose, b Pontiac, 25, first child.
  
• Gloria Jean Claudin, b 30 Oct 1936, Pontiac, to Robert James Claudin, shoe worker, live 807 E. Livingston, b Pontiac, 25 and Harriet Jean Phipps, b Mitchell, IN, 26. First child.
  
• Hugh John Claudin, b 29 Sep 1908, Fairbury, IL to John W. Claudin, electrician lineman, Fairbury, b Roanoke, IL, 20, and Mabel A. Harrington, b Toronto, Canada, 22, first child.

Marriages, Livingston Co, IL

• Christian Claudin of Roanoke, liveryman, b Gridley, 23, f John Claudin, m Magdalena Abersol married 25 May 1899, Livingston Co, to Florence Thompson of Roanoke, b Roanoke, 24, f Charles Thompson.

Marriages, Woodford Co, IL

• Claudin, Bazil m Mary Sommer, 5-30-1858
• Claudin, Eugene m Mary Ann Parsons, 10-16-1847
• Claudin, John m Mary Sontag, 7-15-1854
• Claudin, John E. m Magdalene Eversole, 11-8-1868
• Miller, John Peter m Gisteen Claudin, 5-21-1847

Death Records, Livingston Co, IL

• Jacob Claudin, d 31 Dec 1945, Pontiac.
  • Res 702 S. Locust Pontiac.
    
  • Wife Harriet Morris
    
  • Occupation printer, Pontiac Leader
    
  • B 15 Sep 1890 (55-3-16) Roanoke, f John E. Claudin, b Metamora, IL and m Magdalena Abersol, France
    
  • Bur Pontiac
    
• Peter Claudin, d 9 Mar 1949, Pontiac.
  • Res 1100 N. Hazel
    
  • Wife Jennie C. Irvin
    
  • Occupation carpenter and grocer
    
  • B 22 Jul 1871 (77-7-15) Gridley, f John E Claudin, IL and m Magdahlena Abersole, IL
    
  • Bur Southside, Pontiac
    
• Ben Claudin, d 29 Mar 1959, Pontiac.
  • Res Pontiac, 20 years
    
  • Unmarried
    
  • Occupation carpenter
    
  • B 1 Dec 1878 (80), Roanoke, f John E. Claudin and m Magdalene
    
• Richard J. Claudin, d 16 Apr 1975, St. James Hospital, Pontiac, IL
  • Res Pontiac
    
  • Wife Zelda Murray
    
  • Occupation commercial artist
    
  • B 9 Nov 1914 (60 years), f Jake Claudin and m Harriet Morris
    
  • Bur Pontiac

Probate, Livingston Co, IL
#13637 Jacob A Claudin, d 31 Dec 1945, Pontiac. Wife: Harriet E. Married once. Son Richard J. Claudin, 1420 E 65th St, Chicago. Personal estate: $1800.

Census
26 Oct 1850 Woodford Co, IL

• Claudin [spelled Clodine], Mary, b 56 (1794), f, France, $400.
  
• Charles, 21 (1829) m France, farmer
  
• John, 18 (1832)f, France [md 14 Jul 1854, Woodford Co, to Mary Sontag]
  
• Adell, 17 (1833), France
  
• Baszille, 15 (1834)m, "La Munch, France" [md 30 May 1858, Woodford Co, to Mary Sommer]
  
• Mary, 14 (1836), France
  
• Augustus, 13 (1837), France

• Claudin [spelled Chlodina] Eugine, 22 (1828) m France, farmer
  
• Mary Ann [Parsons, md 16 Oct 1847]
• John, 2, m IL
• Mary E, 3/12, f IL

18 Jun 1880, Waldo Twp, Livingston Co, IL
12 72-174

• Claudin, Basile, w m 47, farming, b France, fb France, mb France
  
• Mary, w f 41, wife, keep house, b IL, fb France, mb France
  
• John w m 19 son work on farm, b IL, fb France, mb IL
  
• Emma w f 17 dau at home same
  
• Samuel w m 15 son work on farm same
  
• Edward w m 13 son same
  
• Jacob w m 10 son at school same
  
• William w m 7 son same
  
• Joseph w m 4 son same
  
• Wilhelmene w f 2 dau same
  
• Leah w f 4/12 (Feb) dau same

The Biographical Record of Livingston and Woodford Counties, Illinois, Chicago: The S.J. Clarke Publishing Company, 1900.
Joseph R. Clandin, born 5 January 1870, Metamora, IL. [While the spelling may well be Clandin, I know that I often have people assume the u's I write are n's.]

Grandfather Eugene Clandin, one of the pioneer merchants of Roanoke was born in France and came to the new world about 1853. For several years he was engaged in farming. In 1880 he purchased a store and went into merchandizing under the firm name of E. Clndin [sic] & Son until 1882. He is seventy years old; his wife Marian died in 1892. John E. Clandon was born in 1844. He was a Merchant. Married in 1868, Woodford County to Madeline Ebersoll, native of France. He is a member of the German Apostolic Church, Roanoke. They have 12 children.


If you have a Claudon connection or have anything to contribute, drop me a line and tell me where you fit or where you think you might fit.

Someone who knows cats

So do you know Simon's Cat? He appears in a series of vignettes created by Simon Tofield. Check these out:

Here Simon's cat tries to catch a fly.


And here Simon's cat wants Simon to wake up and feed him.


Here Simon's cat goes outside to see snow for the first time.


Of course Simon's cat wants in when he goes outside.


What self-respecting cat doesn't think feeding him is more important than tv?


Finally Simon Tofield explains his book and cat.


I love these vignettes and await with anticipation new videos from Simon.

Coming Out in New Moon

So I went to a movie the other day. It told the story of a high school girl who gets dumped by her boyfriend. She goes through lengthy angst and depression but finally turns to a young guy who likes her, who is sensitive and who wears long hair, beautifully coiffed. While they are together one day, they see a group of 4 other guys running around without shirts. He says the leader keeps staring at him, which makes him uncomfortable. Within probably ten minutes of the film, he has joined them—cut his hair and gotten a tattoo. And he takes off his shirt (for almost the entire rest of the movie). He tells the girl he has to stop seeing her. “I have a secret you will hate me for,” he tells her in another scene of teen angst. “I didn’t choose to be like this… I was born this way,” he concludes. His big secret is…

At this point I turned to a friend and asked, “Is this a gay coming out story?” I thought maybe I was in the wrong film.

Well, it turns out his secret is he is a werewolf. I didn’t realize there was a correlation between being gay and being a werewolf, but I guess there are some similarities—you function in a fringe group, feel you were born the way you were, and run around without shirts whenever you get a chance.

The film, of course, was the latest installment of the Twilight series, New Moon.

Many of my female high school students wanted to talk about the books and the film today. I asked them to explain the attraction.

A couple of girls spoke about how wonderful the descriptions in the book are. Many felt the book was much better than the film. (I have nothing to go on here because I haven’t seen the first film nor read the books.) Said one student, “The main character is the perfect high school student, and she dates the perfect boyfriend who just happens to be a vampire. We can see ourselves in her.”

An adult female teacher friend theorizes that the books allow the female student to fantasize about sublimated sexual fantasies and come to terms with their impact in a nice safe way. The main character keeps saying that she wants her vampire boyfriend to suck her blood and make her one of his family. Putting it crassly, she sounds like she wants him to rape her, but by the end of the film it becomes pretty murky with the boyfriend wanting her to wait until they are married. (Hmm, what are we talking about here?)

My girls talked about the attraction to the male characters. They were definitely attracted to Taylor Lautner’s six pack chest. They were turned off by Robert Pattinson’s bare chest because (ewww) he has chest hair. If the fantasy involves perfection, I guess those chest hairs can be disturbingly real.

I found many interesting moments in the film and it held my interest, but it definitely is a different audience.

Putting on the Drag Makeup

Years ago, I had friends in New Orleans who had many friends who did drag. I was always fascinated by the makeup they did, since my training was in theatre and I concentrated in theatrical makeup. Here is a really good professional makeup artist who shares the tips for doing drag makeup.



The resulting makeup reminds me of the brilliant Moira Shearer in the 1948 film The Red Shoes--one of my favorite childhood films and perhaps the greatest filmed ballet I can think of.

Men in High Heels?

Kylie Minogue gives great concert. Not since Rocky Horror Show are men in high heels sexy.

Time Warp Priscilla

The Drew Carey Show number where Rocky Horror meets Priscilla Queen of the Desert.

Dream About Me

Discovered while preparing the last post: Moby, Dream About Me ...a powerful and disturbing narrative.

More Mylène

Mylène Farmer and Moby's duet, Slipping Away



A very thought-provoking retelling of the Snow White story blended with Marxist and Lenin images.



Mylène Farmer, L'ame-stram-gram. The images remind me so much of "Wu ji" [The Promise].

John F. Kennedy on Diversity

If we cannot end now our differences, at least we can make the world safe for diversity. For, in the final analysis, our most basic common link is that we all inhabit this small planet. We all breathe the same air. We all cherish our children's future. And we are all mortal. (American University Speech, 10 June 1963.)

Amen.

(500) Days of Summer

One of the best films of the summer proved to be the (500) Days of Summer.



A story about love, but not totally a love story, told in a non-linear random way, the film had two incredible actors in the leads and a script that brought great freshness to its story. This dance sequence by Joseph Gordon-Levitt has stayed with me since I saw it. I feel good every time I see this.



This second dance number, although not in the film, uses the two leads and shows them to be quite proficient dancers.



If you haven't seen this movie, find it today.

Mylene Farmer

I love when I discover a whole new world I didn't know existed. While talking online one day with a friend who lives in France, he introduced me to the work of Mylene Farmer. "I've known her work since I was seven," he wrote--he's 28. Some of the following clips give you an idea of her range. I was delighted with her work.

It's nice to know that surrealism is alive and well in the music industry of France.