Hand Art

Skin art is not only tattoo work. Some artists, such as Guido Daniele and Annie Ralli, have created amazing and beautiful art works by painting hands. Not painting with hands but painting on hands. Apparently the task is made even more difficult by the fact that it needs to be done quickly because paint is less stable on a living, moving base. 

Here are some pics of hand art with one of my own attempts thrown into the collection, see if you can guess which is mine . . . 

Annie Ralli 

The pics of Annie Ralli’s works are part of an advertising campaign for Ecclesiastical Insurance, a niche insurance company . The tag line is “You’re in good hands”. 

Guido Daniele 

Guido Daniele’s amazing hand paintings of animals are often referred to as “handimals”. He is an Italian artist who lives and works out of Milan. Hired by an advertising agency to create body painting of animals, he developed the techniques shown below. Each animal is researched in depth to see how he can transfer it to a hand. Daniele says the hardest part of his job is seeing his creations disappear down the drain after they're photographed. "I'm getting used to it," he said. "At least I get to start each day with a fresh canvas." 

Guido Daniele

More amazing art by Annie Ralli and Guido Daniele in coming weeks. 

Btw, my one was the one with the eyes.

Quote for the Day: Crowfoot

"What is life? It is the flash of a firefly in the night. It is the breath of a buffalo in the wintertime. It is the little shadow which runs across the grass and loses itself in the sunset."

- Chief Crowfoot (c1821-1830 - 1890), last words

Crowfoot was a chief of the Siksika First nation who participated in at least 19 battles and sustained numerous injuries. Nontheless he saw that the way forward was in peace instead of tribal warfare. He was also instrumental in allowing the Canadian pacific Railroad through Blackfoot territory. He refused to participate in the North-West Rebellion of 1885 and died in 1890 of tuberculosis. Renowned as a warriior and peacemaker, his funeral was attended by 800 of his tribe and government dignataries.

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CRAFT and More

Caution: risque language

When I arrived at my office yesterday, I realised that I had left the power lead for my laptop at home, which No 1 son Thomas was kind enough to collect and drop off. That evening when I unpacked my laptop at home, I realised that I had left the lead at the office. Knowing that Thomas was out for the night, I sent him a text message asked if he was able to collect it on his way home and he agreed to do so, commenting that it appeared I didn’t like that lead. I responded “CRAFT”, which is an acronym explained below.

I worked out later that the reason rthat I kept forgetting it was that a day or so earlier I had purchased a new mouse. Whereas my previous mouse had been with a lead, Officeworks told me that all the mouses (mice?) they now sold were cordless. Being used to disconnecting my laptop, then putting the mouse with the lead and the transformer with the lead into the same bag, my trigger for remembering the electrical lead was gone, that trigger being the cord on the mouse.

It started me thinking, however, about acronyms.

WW2 generations used acronyms such as SNAFU and SFA, later came FUBAR and SWALK, then internet speak such as CUL8R.

In the interests of assisting communication, here are some of the more common acronyms that may be useful at some time or other:

CRAFT	Can’t Remember A Fucking Thing
SNAFU	Situation Normal: All Fucked Up
SFA	Sweet Fuck All / Sweet Fanny Adams
FUBAR	Fucked Up Beyond All Recognition
LOMBARD	Lot Of Money But A Real Dickhead
FIGJAM	Fuck I’m Good, Just Ask Me.
SWALK	Sealed With A Loving Kiss
DINK	Double Income, No Kids
NORWICH	Nickers Off, Ready When I Come Home
SWOT	SWOT analysis: Strengths, Weapons, Opportunities, Threats
SITCOM	Single Income, Two Children, Outrageous Mortgage
NIMBY	Not In My Backyard
NIABY	Not In Anyone’s Backyard
SOBBY	Some Other Bugger’s Backyard
CAVE	Citizens Against Virtually Everything
AHOYA	Arsehole Of The Year Award
OMG	Oh My God
AKA	Also Known As
ALF	Always Listen First
LOL	Laughing Out Loud
LMAO	Laughing My Arse Off
ROFLMAO	Rolling On The Floor Laughing My Arse Off
BTW	By The Way
FWIW	Fop What It’s Worth
DNA	National Dyslexic Association (Nahh, that’s not true)
FIIK	Fucked If I Know
FYI	For Your Information
NFI	No Fucking Idea
DILLIGARD	Do I Look Like I Give A Damn?
IMHO	In My Humble Opinion
PICNIC	Problem In Chair, Not In Computer
NSS	No Shit, Sherlock!

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Quote for the Day: Martin Luther King

"In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends."

- Martin Luther King

(1929-1968)

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Trivia Tuesday

Mocha Dick, the original Moby Dick

1870 UK reprint, Mocha Dick: Or The White Whale of the Pacific by Jeremiah N. Reynolds

The inspiration for Herman Melville’s 1851 novel, Moby-Dick, the story of the albino sperm whale, was an albino sperm whale nicknamed “Mocha Dick”.

The name Mocha Dick came from the island of Mocha, the whale having first having been sighted off the coast of that island. The name Dick came from the practice of whalers to bestow names such as Dick and Tom on certain deadly whales.

Usually encountered in the waters near the island of Mocha, off Southern Chile, Mocha Dick survived over 100 skirmishes with whalers between 1810 and the 1830’s before being finally killed.

According to author Jeremiah N Reynolds, Mocha Dick was as "an old bull whale, of prodigious size and strength...white as wool” and covered in barnacles

Mocha Dick was a docile animal, often swimming alongside ships, but once attacked he retaliated with a ferocity and cunning that saw him sink 20 ships. Often he would sound and then breach so aggressively that his entire body would come completely out of the water.

In Reynolds’ account, Mocha Dick was killed after observing whalers kill a calf that was with its mother. The mother whale tried to herd her calf, which had been harpooned, away from the whalers but eventually it went belly up. When the mother whale realised her calf was dead she turned on the whalers and tried to destroy their ship. Before she was able to strike their ship, she too was harpooned and killed.

Having observed all this, Mocha Dick joined the fray and attacked the whaling ship. He destroyed one of the smaller whaling boats but was harpooned and killed.

His body was 70 feet long and yielded 100 barrels of oil, along with some ambergris —a substance used in the making of perfumes and at times worth more per ounce than gold. He also had nineteen harpoons in his body.

Explorer and author Jeremiah N. Reynolds gathered first-hand observations of Mocha Dick and published his account, "Mocha Dick: Or The White Whale of the Pacific: A Leaf from a Manuscript Journal", in the May 1839 issue of The Knickerbocker, this in turn serving as the inspiration for Melville’s classic tale.

Reynolds’s story has a similar captain to Melville’s Captain Ahab, both captains being single minded in their determination to hunt down the white whale. When the crew in Reynolds’ story first see Mocha Dick, the captain rallies them:

As he drew near, with his long curved back looming occasionally above the surface of the billows, we perceived that it was white as the surf around him; and the men stared aghast at each other, as they uttered, in a suppressed tone, the terrible name of MOCHA DICK! 

"Mocha Dick or the d----l [devil],' said I, 'this boat never sheers off from anything that wears the shape of a whale."

Melville also drew upon the sinking of the Nantucket ship Essex in 1820, after it was rammed by an enraged sperm whale 2,000 miles (3,200 km) from the western coast of South America. First mate Owen Chase, one of eight survivors, recorded the events in his 1821 Narrative of the Most Extraordinary and Distressing Shipwreck of the Whale-Ship Essex.

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Quote for the Day: Edward O Wilson

"I will be brief. Not nearly so brief as Salvador Dali, who gave the world's shortest speech. He said I will be so brief I have already finished, and he sat down."

- Edward O Wilson 

(1929 - )

American biologist, researcher (sociobiology, bidodiversity), theorist, naturalist, conservationist and author.

Edward O Wilson

Salvador Dali

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Monday Miscellany - A Collection of Odds, Ends and Personals

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From Byter David J, in response to my comment on the German word Treppenwitz:

The French have a term,"l'esprit de l'escalier" (staircase wit) with the same meaning as the German "treppenwitz".

I had written:

Treppenwitz: the things you should have said but only occur to you when it is too late.

Remember the Seinfeld episode about George Costanza coming up with great responses after everything was done? 

According to Wiktionary, both terms mean a devastating rejoinder thought of only after leaving the scene of the debate. 

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From Byter David B in response to the following cartoon:

Your joke about Jesus being gypped on presents strikes a chord since my daughter was born on Christmas Day in 1993. When she was younger we used to even things up by having a "half-birthday" party for her on June 25th. In England that is mid summer so we often made it a garden party.

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Having mentioned George Costenza (I used to love watching Seinfeld), let me acquaint you with his Worlds Collide Theory:

This is a theory which states that a man must keep his personal life (i.e. friends) separate from his relationship side (i.e. girlfriend). Should the two worlds come into contact with each other (by means of his girlfriend becoming friends with his friends), both worlds blow up. That is, that if ones relationship self and their independent self met it would be the end of the independent self.

"If Relationship George walks through that door, he will kill Independent George! A George divided against itself, cannot stand!" - George Costanza

Someone expressed it this way:

The worlds colliding theory is quite simple, many people live their lives in a similar way: you have your "independent self" (the guy that tells nasty jokes, swears, hangs with the fellas, and is an all around cool guy) and then you have "relationship self" (the guy that does nice things for his lady, leaves the seat down, cooks sometimes, still a cool guy, but a little adjusted).  Some have the "family self" (which is just like relationship self, just a little less wussy). 

If either of the latter mix with the first, say a girlfriend begins to "hang out" with you and your friends, then it's chaos because the way you act around her was never supposed to be seen by your buddies, who have every right to make fun of you after that. You no longer have the ability to act like the independent wildman because you're constantly in conflict with the relationship guy. 

One of the two will have to go and, depending on your strength of will, it may well be the independent side that suffers.

Quote for the Day: Russell Baker

The cheap contractions and revised spellings of the advertising world which have made the beauty of the written word almost unrecognisable — surely any society that permits the substitution of “kwik” for “quick” and “e.z.” for “easy” does not deserve Shakespeare, Eliot, or Michener.

- Russell Baker (1925 - )

American journalist, author, humorist, columnist (New York Times)

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RIP Donna Douglas

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Donna Douglas (1932-2015), who played Elly May Clampett in the original Beverly Hillbillies (1962-1971), has died at age 81, of pancreatic cancer. You know you’re getting old when someone you watched as a kid dies at age 81.

Remember the fancy eatin’ table? The ce-ment pond? Elly and her critters?

Some trivia and information:

Having grown up in Louisiana as a tomboy who wrestled with her brothers and cousins, the role of Elly May fit like a glove.

The Beverly Hillbillies was panned by critics and by the network president who put it on the air: "I HATED it," Michael Dann confided much later. "After screening the pilot, I don't think I ever watched another segment."  The public, however, felt quite the opposite: It ran for nine seasons, often in the Top 10.

Following the cancellation of the Beverly Hillbillies in 1971, she concentrated on gospel music and public appearances at churches, youth groups, schools and colleges. She also obtained her real estate licence and made good money at selling real estate.

One report I read stated that Douglas ended up buying the property at which the Beverly Hillbillies was made but I have not been able to confirm it.

Douglas sued over alleged plagiarising over her script for Sister Act. She declined an offer of $1m and elected to go to court, where she lost.

She also sued Matttel for $75,000 over the making a Barbie likeness of her as Elly May. Mattel had also made likenesses of Jeannie (I Dream of Jeannie) and Samantha (Bewitched), see pics below.  CBS defended on the basis that the character and the likeness belonged to the network. The case was settled out of court upon confidential terms but with each stating that they were happy with the outcome.

Some Donna Douglas photos:

As Elly May Clampett

Early Donna Douglas

Cover of a 2013 cookbook

Elly May has left the building.

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By the way, the term “hillbilly” is believed to have originated in the US Appalachian region of Alabama. Largely settled in the 18th century by Scotch-Irish, the majority of whom came from the Scottish lowlands, the term comes from the linkage of two older Scottish expressions, "hill-folk" and "billie" which was a synonym for "fellow", similar to "guy" or "bloke". 

Until the American Civil War, the Appalachians did not have the underdevelopment and backwardness that came to characterise it after the war. As the frontier pushed further west, the Appalachian country retained its frontier character, and the people themselves came to be seen as backward, quick to violence, and inbred in their isolation. Fuelled by news stories of mountain feuds, such as that in the 1880s between the Hatfields and McCoys, the hillbilly stereotype developed in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. 

In 1900 the first use of the term appeared in print, a New York Journal article stating that "a Hill-Billie is a free and untrammeled white citizen of Alabama, who lives in the hills, has no means to speak of, dresses as he can, talks as he pleases, drinks whiskey when he gets it, and fires off his revolver as the fancy takes him."

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Quote for the Day: Robert Benchley

"Hebrews 13.8."

- Robert Benchley (1889-1945), 

summing up the long-running 1920's Broadway hit Abie's Irish Rose.

The verse reads: "Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, and today, and forever."

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