|
June 2005 Archive  Yellow Squid, Mary Carlson, 2001. Would love to see this in person. It looks amazing, it's crocheted yarn, and it's on exhibit at the Elizabeth Harris Gallery, New York City, through July 22. Update - here's a review of the show. However, I fear that, generally speaking, contemporary artists have neglected squidly motifs. There are exceptions, of course. link home 28 June - Toby  Cat Toby Today's the second anniversary of the death of Toby, our beloved Museum Cat. Our current museum cats, Max and Maxine, showed their respect by allowing a couple of extra pats and cuddles. Friend of the Museum Grahame, who felt a special long-distance tie to Toby, sends this report from the Twin Cities: I have decided on this year's Toby activity: Svenskarnasdag is a big event around here: lots of Swedes in Minnesota. One of my young college student friends is from Sweden and she wants to go to this event with me, which event also incorporates Midsommardag and the raising of a maypole with dancing. There will be booths and food concessions and picnics at this large event, and I intend either to circulate, passing the hat for Toby and for all cats in need, or maybe I can even have a booth for this cause. All proceeds will go towards cat rescue or medical care of needy cats. In the event that I am booted out for my activities, I shall establish another collection elsewhere. I believe that this Swedish event is informally organised: not a commercial event, but rather a real peoples' gathering. Thankee kindly, Grahame - we'll be making a contribution to the local shelter where we met good old Toby. link home 25 June - Tarzan in Bollywood  Tarzan (Hemant Birje) and Ruby (Kimi Katkar) I came across this 1985 Bollywood take on Tarzan while searching for the fabled Dara Singh version of King Kong. This version of the old story includes much wonderful singing and dancing and a moderate number of wet sari scenes. It was produced by the famous B. Subash Movie Unit. Tarzan, played by Hemant Birje, looks a bit like a buffed-up version of that guy who dresses like Peter Pan. It's the bangs, I think. Ruby (Kimi Katkar) likes to prance about the jungle in highly inappropriate expedition gear, like high heel white boots. And a bright red sarong. Ruby seems to fall into the water a lot - the sarong gets all wet and revealing and stuff. Tarzan rescues her frequently, usually when she's wet. Tarzan rescues Ruby from a rubber crocodile! Ruby meets Tarzan's friends, the animals! Ruby sings to them, and Tarzan commands Tiger to namaste to Ruby! Ruby shakes her butt at the elephants, while singing - how funny!  Ruby likes to drape herself about Tarzan's studly form, and sing. Tarzan looks baffled, but is cool with it. She sings the hit single Tarzan, My Tarzan. It's a wonderful song - listen to it here (streaming MP3) - you'll love it, and will not be able to get it out of your head; you can thank me later. Ruby has a wonderful fantasy scene - she imagines wafting Tarzan to civilization, all the while singing a take-off of Do Re Mi from The Sound of Music. Ruby and Tarzan stroll down a busy street; Tarzan is still in his little loincloth ensemble. Ruby takes him to the barber, then to the tailor. Tarzan doesn't like his new pants:  Haw, haw! Notice the bicycle - for lovers of Flann O'Brien's The Third Policeman and mindful of the De Selby theory of molecular exchange, this is a very sinister sight, but I think that in this case, it's an unintended homage. Once he's broken in to staying in his clothes, Tarzan is a surprisingly commonplace-looking guy - one wonders what Ruby sees in him. In the fantasy, Ruby gets Tarzan a job as a male model. They marry, and Ruby has seven kids - all at once - she's still singing Do Re Mi, for god's sake. Ruby's fantasy fades as the seven kids gambol about in their loincloths, with everyone still singing Do Re Mi. The fantasy doesn't include Tarzan's certain eventual disillusionment with civilization, his job, and Ruby; we don't get to see his tragic longing for the jungle and his former noble life. Perhaps it's better that way.  Tarzan joins the circus, but involuntarily - he's captured and made to perform under the big tent. Much of his performance appears to be getting lashed, but the crowd loves it; much applause as Tarzan gets flogged - very, very strange. But the bad guys get theirs; virtue and studliness triumph. Here's a more detailed synopsis with screen captures. I was fascinated by this description of Tarzan from the Baba Digital DVD case - I can't imagine how I've neglected this aspect of Bollywoodiana for so long. My comments are in italics: An archeologist, Dr. Raina goes to jungle to find an ancient tribe, leaving wife and child behind at their camp. He is attacked and killed by the same tribals and kidnap his wife. An Ape somehow gets hold of the child (This must happen off-stage - sadly, no Ape appears in the movie) and this child grows up to be - T A R Z A N. See this movie - please. link home 21 June - Opera in the Park  Cat Leroy, noted baritone, belts out Papageno's Der Vogelfänger bin ich ja from Zauberflöte to the applause of the other Circle Cats; I have to say it was only a middling performance - it is not done well, but you are suprised to find it done at all... link home 19 June - Cat Napping Activities Continue  As summer approaches, the level of activity of the local cats declines. Cat Natasha catches a few zzz's on the carriage house porch. link home 19 June - Vexillology in the Air  Southwest Airlines has introduced Maryland One, a 737 decorated with a Maryland flag paint scheme. There are five other state-themed aircraft in the Southwest fleet (Arizona One, California One, Lone Star One (Texas), Nevada One, and New Mexico One), but Maryland One must be the best of all possible schemes, the Maryland flag being the most vexillogically interesting of all state flags. Here's its description in heraldic terms: The State flag is quartered. It's the arms of the Calvert and Crossland families, you see. The current flag has an interesting history, too. In addition to the modern flag, we like to fly various historic Maryland flags at the Museum, such as the Maryland Colors and the Calvert's Arms/King's Colors. Though I confess we don't use the gold cross bottony on any of 'em.
18 June - We Now Resume Our Normal Programming We were knocked offline for a few days by the Slashdot effect - our report on Mr. Rumsfeld was picked up by Wonkette, and the visitors that brought swamped our measly web traffic allowance. The Curator reluctantly agreed to pony up for a larger allowance, and here we are. That'll teach us to venture into political blogging - maybe we'll stick to cat matters:  Friend of the Museum Winthrop P. of the Washington Grove Pacer Farm submitted this superb portrait of Cat Peake on his favorite stump. link home 13 June - Staggerwing 
Friend of the Museum Brian Nicklas is the luckiest boy in town - he scored a ride in one of the most elegant aircraft ever made - the Beech 17 Staggerwing. He tagged along in Charlie Maples' Staggerwing No. 6883 from its home base in Culpeper, Virginia to Dulles Airport for the National Air and Space Museum's Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center's fly-in on Saturday. Here's Brian's report: We took off into the haze early in the morning from Culpeper, and I enjoyed the view and plush rear seat of the Staggerwing. After a few vectors, we landed at Dulles without incident. The tower at Dulles had become so accustomed to small aircraft landing at that time requesting Museum parking, that a flight of three Mooneys was directed to Hazy when they wanted to go to Signature Flight Support, the FBO [fixed base operator] on the exact opposite side of the field. They had wanted to see the Museum anyway, so they became part of the display and saved cab fare. link home 13 June - Münchhausen  Hans Albers as Münchhausen We saw Josef von Báky's lush 1943 Münchhausen recently - not to be confused with Terry Gilliam's Adventures of Baron Munchausen (1989), of course. Báky's version of Raspe's account of the adventures of the tale-telling baron is affectionate and funny - much less frenetic than the Gilliam version - but I still couldn't get around the queasy feeling of enjoying an artistic product of Nazi Germany. Münchhausen was an especially lavish production, especially considering that it was produced in the middle of the war - it was released not long after Stalingrad; it was meant to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the famous Ufa Studios, and was regarded as the National Socialist answer to such Hollywood extravaganzas as The Wizard of Oz. It's not vile Nazi trash like Triumph of the Will or Jud Süss - I did enjoy it, but didn't really enjoy the experience of enjoying a blockbuster of the Third Reich, if the distinction makes any sense. But I did like the revealing bath scene in the sultan's harem, and, of course, the hats: 'Twas Christmas in the harem link home 12 June - The Heat 
Cat Booper was present but not voting at last evening's annual town meeting. It's hot - we're fortunate that Washington Grove is well shaded with its handsome oaks, but the heat and humidity is beginning to tell on us all. I find that frequent doses of pisco and tonic are a great relief, and the Grove cats are taking it easy - or easier. Wallowing is giving way to plain hunkering and shedding, and catwalks are interrupted frequently when the cats interrupt their scampering and ambushing for a little sitdown:
Cat Natasha takes a break on a nice cool mulch pile in the Janus Museum Forest Preserve.
Socks, AKA Cat Van Beek, hunkers down on a shady porch. 10 June - The Vital String We've heard from Emerson Chu, our intrepid Hong Kong airship correspondent, who occasionally sends us his free-ranging thoughts on a wide variety of subjects; he calls them odes, and we always read them with great attention. Here's a selection from Emerson's latest ode; the spelling, puncuation, and syntax are all his own: An Ode to Final Victory for Mankind in Inventions We humans on planet earth is resting on a silent prayer and a thin string Albatross chicks hatched several long months in dead of night by mothers Planet earth has a strong heart at centre hot core of planet to all humans and living animals and fishes too American continuously blundered in past historical regional warfares against many enemies big Direct when not otherwise from a lone Chinese orphaned bloke good in make belief stories? I don't know a General Davis that I'm supposed to pass on the hint about the Russian mercenaries to - I've told Emerson that I myself have very little to do with the conduct of the war, but he doesn't quite believe me, I think. 5 June - Wallowing Season Opens 
Now that it's getting too hot and humid for scampering, the Circle Cats are spending more time in The Circle's wallows. The North Wallow tends to be cool and shady, and the South Wallow's sunnier. Above, Cat Leroy has a stretch in the East Wallow, which is a bit more private than the others. 5 June - Report from Myersville  Dr. John Herrera of the High Speed Triumph Research Laboratory, Myersville, Maryland, contributes this report: Although the experiments carried out at the High Speed Triumph Research Laboratory are well known to many enthusiasts, few are aware of HSTRL's secondary mission.link home 4 June - Yard Sale; The Romance of Ruins  High excitement at the annual Washington Grove Woman's Club yard and bake sale today. As mentioned here previously, it's the unofficial opening of the season - see the neighbors and ritually exchange goods, like a suburban potlatch. I got a chocolate chip scone and a book. Later, I visited Forest Glen, just inside the Beltway. Formerly a woman's school, it was taken over by the Army during World War II and used as an annex to Walter Reed Hospital. Oh, it used to be beautiful, with grand buildings - including a pagoda, a windmill, and a castle tower. Also a wonderful assortment of statuary, including a group of caryatids: 3 June - The Old Ball Game  The Janus Museum staff, interns and docents were recently treated to a trip to see Washington's new team, the Nationals, at play against the Brewers at RFK Stadium. I'm not a huge fan, but it was an entertaining afternoon way up in the bleachers - could barely see the action, and I found myself yearning for the high drama of cricket, as portrayed in Lagaan. But I amused myself with overpriced Guinness and Italian sausages, and I brought a book with me, and the Nats won, so it was a pleasant enough way to pass the time. This being the first season of play for the Nats, I noticed that the fans' ballcaps were all brand-new. Except for Gus' cap:  Gus wore his fine reproduction 1926 Senators cap from the Cooperstown Ball Cap Company. Gus demonstrates his method of enduring a long ball game. I think I enjoy vintage baseball a bit more. Matter of fact, we tried a game using 19th century rules in Washington Grove a couple of years ago. I got hot, and needed a couple of beers to recover. link home 3 June - Kudzu in the News Our friend Hank Burchard, the Squire of Pecker Wood way down in Tappahominy County, Virginia, sends this report: "What have you Southern crackers done for us lately?" I answer: link home |
