"Lost Bird" 1915 from the San Francisco Examiner July 14.
Lost Bird of Wounded Knee
aka Marguerite Elizabeth Colby
aka Mrs. E. C. Allen
aka Margaret “Princeton” Allen
Lost Bird of Wounded Knee, 1915 photo from San Francisco Examiner
January 20, 2010 at 10:39 pm (Cheyenne River Indian Reservation, Indigenous People, Lakota, Native Americans, Pine Ridge Indian reservation, culture, education, history, journalism, life, photography)
Tags: 1890, 1915 photo, history, Lakota, Lost Bird, Magraget Princeton Allen, Marguerite Elizabeth Colby, Mrs. E. C. Allen, San Francisco Examiner, Sioux, woman, Wounded Knee
The Grocer’s Son –and other escapes from reality…
January 19, 2010 at 9:58 pm (Independent film, culture, drama, entertainment, humor, life, movies)
Tags: Departures, dvds, entertainment, Film Movement, films, foreign films, I AM Guilty, Motorcycle Diaries, Still Walking, The Clearing, The Grocer's Son, The House of Sand, The Pope's Toilet
Know when you reach that point where you wish there was a turn off/on switch on the wall for your mind? Some folks reach this point more often and faster than others due in part to how we spend our time and energy. One of my ways of easing the influx of all the negative input is to watch several films in a row. Yep, just turn off the phone, turn off the lights, pop some corn, open the jar of herring, and pour some grape juice over ice and push the ‘play’ button on the dvd player. For me, the key is finding some mental relief from the sadism of the world at large via viewing satisfying films that work visually, textually and with solid performances. Here’s a few films that I though might be worth sharing and inviting discussion/comments. I enjoyed them all–each for what they offered. What films have you indulged in viewing lately?
The Grocer’s Son — http://www.filmmovement.com/filmcatalog/index.asp?MerchandiseID=163&gclid=CMKVu_ypsZ8CFQUMDQodj0HW0w&
I want his ‘job’–I want that route! I want that stone house in the country…
Film Movement offers some very interesting movies that could be easily overlooked since there’s not huge market press everywhere for such films.
Brazil unlike I ever imagined it in The House of Sand — >http://movies.nytimes.com/2006/08/11/movies/11hous.html
The House of Sand gives new meaning to getting away from it ALL.
The Pope’s Toilet – in Uruguay no less!–Who needs a car when you’ve got a bike?
>http://www.moma.org/visit/calendar/films/870
http://www.filmmovement.com/downloads/press/The_Popes_Toilet_FM_Press_Kit.pdf
Robert Redford, Helen Mirren, and William Dafoe ACT big time in The Clearing
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0331952/
The Clearing’s cast is the reason for viewing this film. How would you spend your last hours? I think I enjoyed Redford’s performance in An Unfinished Life, but it was good to see him deal with an entirely different sort of ‘character’ in The Clearing. Dafoe—well, DAFOE is DAFOE—he never disappoints whether invisible as a vampire, The Man in Boondock Saints, or –or anyone else! Mirren–hmm…let’s have her face off with Judi Dench–or maybe not. LOL.
I Am Guilty—-Who needs trouble? This young man wants it. Parents might take notes.
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/i_am_guilty/#
The Motorcycle Diaries–
http://www.motorcyclediariesmovie.com/
Can Che swim? Yes, he can! And that motorcycle loving dude sure can DANCE! I do so adore roadtrips–but I think I would have traded that motorcycle for a donkey pretty damn quick!!!
Not yet on dvd:
Still Walking ***** http://fest09.sffs.org/films/film_details.php?id=85
Beautifully performed, visually engaging, textually satisfying film delivers on so many levels–like the delightful film, Departures– without resorting to horns and whistles. Who says ‘pain’ must be expressed with screaming and yelling? What’s in a song? Should I let you be my ‘father’? If you’re sick of blood and guts and screeching wheels –see it if you can.
A laugh for lunch–check out Yousei’s Cats
January 11, 2010 at 5:08 pm (art, creative writing, entertainment, humor, life, play, random)
Tags: cartoons, cats, comic, haiku, humor, otto, ottobiography, Static Cat Tales, Yousei
Okay, it’s sunny and the wind chill is nill here where me be at the moment. Time to lighten up all the DARK MATTER with a little comic relief. Yousei has at her casa a Tale of Static Cats related in haiku and cartoons. Check it out. I think her kitties should grow, develop, enlarge, expand –in other words, they ought to make more appearances. Pussyfoot on over to Yousei’s and see what you think:
http://tasmith1122.wordpress.com/2010/01/07/static-cat-tales/
Oh and do beware, that turnip, otto, might be lurking around with a Roman Axe in hand ….
Great Plains Art Museum
January 8, 2010 at 2:49 am (Lakota, Writing, art, culture, entertainment, environment, history, humor, life, photography)
Tags: Agate Passage, art, Bison, Bruce Thorson, Cradled, Crazy Horse, driving, Great Plains Art Museum, High Country Spirit, Lincoln, Museum, Nebraska, Night at the Drive-In, Photo essay, photographs, Places and Narratives, Searching for the Real Nebraska, Short Bull, snow, Star Camp, watercolors, winter
There’s something otherworldly about exploring the new territory of an unfamliar city when its traffic has been decreased to nearly nill due to all the delights of drifting snow and freezing temperatures. You can drive as slowly as you please while searching for addresses and street names and buildings as yet unknown–not to mention loitering while considering IF you really want to drive into that parking garage or not. When even the police cars of Lincoln, Nebraska fishtail while gingerly making their way over snow packed asphalt, it’s nice to be almost lost and wandering downtown. Hell,it’s downright enjoyable! The few other vehicles within sight have their own issues about safe winter wheeling and everyone keeps far away from other cars in order to reduce the odds of unexpected impacts. It’s all good as far as I’m concerned. Such was the nature of my foray to the Great Plains Art Museum at 115 Q Street, Hewit Place, Lincoln, Nebraska where I took in two of the three exhibits cabin fever had driven me out into the icebox that is the midwest to savor.
Okay, bad news first: the Buddhist Art exhibit is ‘nill’–ie, off limits while some sort of painting issues in the exhibition gallery are dealt with. Hmm. Good news: the exhibits “Searching for the Real Nebraska: A Photo Essay on the Great Recession–Part 2″ by Bruce Thorson, Kyly Bruggerman and Clay Lomneth and “Arthur Short Bull: Places & Narratives” are both up, open and free to the public for viewing at will. The two compliment each other in unexpected ways as the past and present call to each other from the large exhibition gallery. There’s even a Remmington bronze on display, the Cheyenne.
As a whole the photographs are bright, brilliantly rich in color and occassionally wholly engaging via the people stories they relate. Much is almost forgettable eye candy unfortunately despite credible efforts at capturing a sense of Nebraska via its residents. But there are some images that impress themselves upon the mind’s eye. Bruce Thorson’s “Cradled” which depicts a modern Navajo mother, Sheri, with her sleeping son, Seth, ensconed in a contemporary version of a cradleboard beneath a breeze flowing curtain is a wonderful turn on a Madonna with child motif. The shades of blue play off the white curtains with their red flower patterns for a rare capture of shared deep serenity. This photograph could be a ’show’ all by itself. Another photograph with real staying power was also by Bruce Thorson, “Night at the Drive-In”. Here’s it’s all about color where white lighting streaks across a purple sky while at the lower right side a scene of school hallway of lockers is displayed on the movie screen and offers a contrast of yellows and the usual nondescript tones associated with school hallways. Then, because this is a drive-in movie theater, there are all the cars beneath that purple night sky. It’s a striking photo presented on a fairly large scale to make the most of everything it offers from compositon, colors, details, to dramatic effect. There are varying degrees of drama in the rest of the photos recounting moments in the daily lives of Nebraskan–hauling an armful of funnell cakes to young people speeding along on a motorbike. Familiar scenes of recognizable down home folks offer all sorts of welcomes into their territory displayed along the gallery walls.
The photo essay flows into Short Bull’s “Places and Narratives” with Thorson’s “Cradled” as a sort of bridging visual transitional piece to other times, places, and people. Short Bull’s small watercolor landscapes have a way of expanding to suit the vast vistas they portary. The movement from one cultural venue to another is striking in tone and subject. Here the land, people, animals, and spirits are all “one”. In these watercolors buffalo roam, Star Camps shelter, thunderclouds rain on mountains, ghosts dance and the tragic end of Crazy Horse unfolds. In some paintings, like “Midnight Bison”, Short Bull works the darkness of night skies and charcoal hued buffalo. In “Niobrara River Road” the people seem to have emerged from the placid river waters as they continue calmly on their way across the landcape. “Agate Passage” offers another portrayal of water, its surface reflecting clouds while suggesting clear depths while grass reaches for the sky. Often the details are delicately rendered in the distance, thus drawing the eye further into the artist’s visual scope.
There’s not always a lot of rich color on display in these paintings which increases its effectiveness when it dominates a piece like “High Country Spirit” with lush green trees embracing a figure clad in rich red. Color is more subtle and yet satisfying in “Bison Meadow” with offerings of delicate clouds against a blue sky, yellow, green, orange field grasses, and summer coated buffalo. These images do not rely on eye candy to engage attention as the photo essay images do. Instead they toss out almost casual delicate fishing lures to reel you into another way of perceiving the landscape and the living beings dancing with it. Enjoy the journey.
Since BB said it was teasing to not offer photos here are some informative links for Thorson & company’s photo essay project for Real Nebraska: http://unlphotojournalism.blogspot.com/2009/06/story-and-photos-by-bruce-thorson-june.html
http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1000&context=journalismstudent
and www.dawnhawk.org for Short Bull’s watercolors.
http://scarlet.unl.edu/?p=5712
for now…
anticipating
January 6, 2010 at 4:04 pm (art, creative writing, environment, photography, poetry, random)
Tags: "Water", art, haiku, leaves, light, minolta x700, photo, photograhy, poem
waiting
after melting snow
warming thrills breaking ice light
liquid sun invades
Short Bull’s “Places & Narratives”
January 4, 2010 at 8:59 pm (Lakota, Native Americans, art, culture, entertainment, random)
Tags: art, Arthur Short Bull, artist, Great Plains Art Museum, Lakota, Native American, Places & Narratives, watercolors
Heads up, Arthur Short Bull’s exhibition “PLaces & Narratives” opens at the Great Plains Art Museum at the University of Nebraska in Lincoln, January 5, 2010. Over fifty original watercolors depciting the people and landscapes of Native America will be on display through March 28, 2010. Visitng the online dawn hawk gallery will give you a sense of what’s to be seen. Enjoy.
Albert Owl King, Cherry Creek 1922
January 4, 2010 at 4:18 pm (Cheyenne River Indian Reservation, Indigenous People, Lakota, Native Americans, culture, education, history, life)
Tags: 1922, Albert Owl King, Cherry Creek, Cheyenne River Indian Reservation, history, Lakota, South Dakota
Albert Owl King
Albert Owl King p.2
Lures of DC
January 4, 2010 at 12:07 pm (art, culture, education, food, history, life, politics, random)
Tags: cheap lodging, food, Freer Gallery, Haad Thai, hostel, National Archives, public transportation, Teaism, travel, Washington DC, Whistler
Randomness is rampant in moi’s mind this day cycle of no sleep–and my latest posts tell only a small piece of the tale—lucky for you. Much thanks to dave, the lazy photographer trolling Toronto for whatever trips his camera snaps, for inspiring this post about DC. http://lazyphotog.wordpress.com/
These days one HAS to wonder what goes in Washington, DC besides lobbyists going mad. Well, corrupt politics aside, here are a few things that DC has to offer:
Teaism–Not all for the love of tea –there are wonderfully good yum yums for your tum tum. Do NOT pass on the cookies or green tea ice cream.
http://www.teaism.com/Restaurant/PennQuarter.aspx?SubModuleID=7
Way affordable lodging for those willing to share bunks, bathrooms, kitchens and one funky pooltable—-every hostel is unique and this is no exception.
Hankering to play history detective? Oh the National Archives are loaded to the max with all sorts of secrets.
http://www.archives.gov/dc-metro/washington/
Great Thai food that won’t break your budget can be had at Haad Thai.
http://www.haadthairestaurant.com/
Feasts for your eyes at the Freer Gallery–oh for the loves of Whistler don’t miss it.
Oh and yes, there is PUBLIC transportation in DC–the metro runs runs runs–and sometimes there’s live music too–but it’s affordable and reliable and if it’s crowded another train will be along soon—wake up the rest of America and get one of these systems.
Paragon Radio live for five hours now–yes, NOW
January 4, 2010 at 6:17 am (culture, education, entertainment, ethics, journalism, life, music, politics, random)
Tags: Ben Johnson, current affairs, Issues, Kansas City, KKFI, LIVE, media, Paragon radio, politics, radio, talk radio
http://www.kkfi.org/program.php?id=84
Blogging in the wee hours in silence? Doesn’t have to be. Surf in to KKFI’s five hour long talk radio show hosted by the one and only Ben Johnson–no, he’s not that Ben Johnson of Shakey Will’s time. But he could be a reincarnation…right there’s some weird tunes aplaying–an early suicide? Dunno, just tunned in meself…Care to join us later nighters in Kansas City? Ohhh here’s Neil Young and the vampire song….join in…
www.kkfi.org streaming live
community radio like you’ve never heard it before–definitely without a plan…
At Monday at 5 am in the middle of muddled america this program will conclude until next week. But there are others for your listening pleasure –and amazement–and displeasure– always streaming online 24/7 365 for FREE—yes, FREE.
Films—Native Americans
January 4, 2010 at 5:07 am (Independent film, Indigenous People, Native Americans, art, culture, drama, entertainment, ethics, history, life, movies)
Tags: films, Hollywood sterotypes, movies, Native American Women, Native Americans
Just a few films for ‘thought’ here. All deal with Native American subjects in one way or another. Suggestions for additional titles are invited. Please feel free to post.
“Total Silence Native American Women Vs Hollywood Stereotypes” –>
http://www.imdb.com/video/wab/vi2242905113/
The Snow Walker —–>>>>>
http://www.imdb.com/video/screenplay/vi3019505945/
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1143677-snow_walker/
Skins –>>
http://www.imdb.com/video/screenplay/vi2357723417/
Smoke Signals –>>>
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120321/
Edge of America —->>>>
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0363587/
Black Robe——>>>>
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0101465/
The Business of Fancy Dancying –>>
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/business_of_fancydancing/#
The Only Good Indian -> http://www.theonlygoodindian.com/
American Indian Film Institute – - – - >.>.>
om mani padme hum jewel in the lotus wahupa qi prana universal life energy
