30 March - The Beast of the Grove



Forget about

29 March - Easter Gymkhana Translated



Our old friend Tsarina Lisa Grossman has very kindly sent us her transcription and translation of My Name is Anthony Gonsalves, the fabulous song performed by Amitabh Bachchan in

WAIT WAIT WAIT!

You see the whole country of the system is juxtaposition by the haemoglobin in the atmosphere because you are a sophisticated rhetorician intoxicated by the exuberance of your own verbosity!¹

WHAT?

My name is Anthony Gonsalves.
(main duniya mein akela hoon)
I am all alone in this world.
(dil bhi hai khaali ghar bhi hai khaali)
My heart is empty and so is my house.
(ismein rahegi koi kismat wali)
Some fortunate one will reside in them!
(haay jise meri yaad aaye jab chaahe chali aaye)
Anyone who misses me may come any time.
(roopanagar premagali kholi nambar chaar sau bees)
The address is: Palace of Beauty, Love Lane, Room Number 420.²

You see such extenuating circumstances coerce me to preclude you from such extravagance!

WHAT?

(abhi-abhi isi jagah pe ik ladki dekhi hai
are dekhi hai aji dekhi hai)
Just now, right here, I have seen a girl.
(jo mujhe ishaare karti hai par kisi se shaayad darti hai are darti hai aaha darti hai)
She signals at me but seems to be afraid of someone.
(pyaar karegi kya darane wali)
What would a scared girl love?
(meri banegi koi himmat wali)
A courageous one will become my lady love.

You see the coefficient of the linear... is juxtaposition... by the haemoglobin of the atmospheric pressure in the country!

(bade-bade log yahaan hain lekin ye yaad rahe
are yaad rahe aji yaad rahe)
So many bigshots are here, but they should remember this.
(sachha pyaar gareebon ka baaki hai khel naseebon ka)
Only the poor can love truly.
Everything rests on destiny.
(dil ki ye baaten jag se niraali)
These matters of heart are unique.
(ye kya samajhegi koi daulat wali)
What would a girl, loaded with money, understand this?

23 March - Easter Gymkhana


Amitabh Bachchan in Amar Akbar Anthony

23 March - Two More by Max Gray



Too busy with the Museum visitors today to give

22 March - Daff Season Opener



The daffodils are beginning to bloom, which means that

Of all the animals I have photographed, the alpacas were the biggest wimps.

I heard Lord Spencer tell Gladstone in 1892 at a dinner given by Arnold Morley, M.P., that the Prince of Wales (Edward VII) begged him to ride beside him in Rotten Row (at the request of the hatters) in a silk hat. They rode for a week so apparelled, but could not restore the old headgear...

Fashion's chief aid to ... progress was a vital change in underclothing. This was the substitution of knickers for thick petticoats, which came in around 1890. It began cautiously, the earliest knickers being long and frilled at the bottom; so that, if anything were sen of them, they might be mistaken for petticoats. But the change lasted, and its eventual importance was immense, not merely because it encouraged the shortening of skirts, but because it vastly lessened the weight and volume of material which had hitherto cramped women's movements from the waist downward. it made a very real contribution to women's emancipation.

19 March - Heroic Pigeon Reference



Watching Enchanted last evening, we noticed a nice homage, though possibly unintentional, to

15 March - Whiskey Aloft



Found in the files, this fine advertisement in which a bottle of Garrick Club Whiskey is repurposed as the fuselage of a proto flying machine. Could it have been published in the wake of the famous

Dear Mr Segy,

I refer to the item in your Journal, Amelia's World. Surely everyone knows the risks of working unprotected with the alpaca. Normally such a trick as you show would be carried out by a highly experienced alpaca trainer, backed up by a number of assistants and safety personnel. That you should show a child undertaking the trick without the twenty years of close contact with these dangerous beasts shocks me deeply. The alpaca is slow to trust and will spit first and ask questions later until it is truly familiar with its trainer. We in Littlebourne have not forgotten the anteater!

13 March - Amelia's World


Feeding Flat, Photograph by Robin Schwartz

I'm sorry I probably won't be able to travel up to Cranford, New Jersey to see Friend of the Museum

Robin's exhibit opens tomorrow, March 14, and runs through April 17 at the Tomasulo Gallery, Union County College, Cranford, New Jersey - check it out if you can. Hours and location at the link above.

By the way, I believe that the beasts pictured above are alpacas (Vicugna pacos), rather than llamas. They hum and spit like llamas and build communal dung piles like llamas; but one should beware of the dread alpaca bubble (pdf) if one is thinking of raising alpacas.

link   home

11 March - Max Gray, an Edgy Young Photographer


Max Gray, Photographer

I'd like to introduce the work of a fascinating young photographer, Max Gray, currently working exclusively here in Washington Grove. That's him with his camera around his neck, above, during a recent shoot in the Janus Museum Forest Preserve. He works mainly in landscape, and in enviromental portraiture. At times, his work is a bit too impressionistic for me - swirly patterns taken with long exposures, reminiscent of futurist photography of the '20s. But I appreciate the experimental nature of much of his work - his willingness to take chances to get the shot. And his compositional sense - the way he shapes the frame - is superb, in my opinion. Students of photography may note similarities to the work of

9 March - Toscanini's Blinding Glare


Arturo Toscanini conducting the NBC Orchestra, 1952

I'm very pleased to post another tale of Toscanini from old Friend of the Museum Herb Grossman, former assistant to the Maestro (and father to Tsarina Lisa). Several short videos of Herb's stories have previously appeared here, including "

... In 1948, the recently late Kirk Browning (who became dean of the "arts" directors in his lifetime) and I were given the assignment to produce the first concerts of Toscanini and the NBC symphony for the infant TV medium, concerts which the Old Man was reluctant to perform. We sat in a remote truck outside the back door of Carnegie Hall with orchestra scores of the numbers to be performed, all marked by me, which indicated which sections and/or solo instruments we might want to focus on, and began, during rehearsals, testing what might work and what might not - all with no predecessors to use for guidance.

After the first live concert, we realized quickly that we were barking up a series of wrong trees, what with focusing on an oboe player sucking on his reed, or worse, a horn player having disengaged his spit valve, emptying the juice on the floor in the middle of Wagner, and wiping the remains on his sleeve. But we had noticed also that when we took shots of Toscanini himself, the entire meaning of the music was enveloped in that passionate face with the almost non-seeing eyes. It also had become obvious that the glare produced by the primitive cameras of the day when focused on his white dress shirt, would prevent many people from actually being able to watch the telecast, so painful could the image be, obviously not something devoutly to be desired when introducing this new format.

After the concert, Kirk and I talked about the problems at some length and came to two conclusions: 1) that we could tell the tale better by focusing much of the time on the magnificent face and body of our conductor and 2) that somehow we had to convince our short-fused leader that a concert, broadcast to millions of people who could not only hear but actually see him, would be better performed with him wearing the very jacket (not a touch of white visible) that he preferred for rehearsals.

I was delegated (not happily) to go to son Walter to tell him of our conclusions and ask him to intercede with Maestro. "Herb," said he, "if you think I'm going to father with such a suggestion, you're crazy. I'm too young to commit suicide. Why don't you ask him - and bring your best shield?" [Referring, of course, the Spartan Mother. - T.S.-L.]

So I went, full of trepidation, to Toscanini and said, "Maestro, we have a bit of a problem. After last week's concert, we got a letter from a little old lady in Ohio (an out-and-out lie) whose tears you could see on the page. She wrote that she had spent a long life praying that some day she could see Toscanini perform. Just when she thought that wish would never be fulfilled, she read of the series of concerts on TV, immediately bought a set, at great expense, and eagerly awaited the first telecast. Alas, she went on, the glare that came on the screen so affected her poor eyes that she had to look away for the entire concert. Her disappointment was profound. The old man turned to me and said, "I did that to that poor woman? Tell me, caro, how can we remedy this situation?" Using all my sophisticated guile (ha ha) and knowing that he could sometimes be almost childlike in his reactions, I said, rather timidly, something to the effect that Kirk and I had noticed in rehearsal that when wearing his Nehru jacket all the glare cause by the insufficient technology, went away. But I supposed he'd be unwilling to dress informally for a concert that could reach so many people. "Of course I will," said he, "if it will prevent such suffering, I will do it."

And so, if you go the Paley Museum of Broadcasting (formerly the Museum of Broadcasting and TV) you can see these old kines (now transferred to tape) in all their glory, with so much of the footage focused on the Old Man, that enterprising music schools have used them as teaching tools for young conductors.

Sorry to be so brief...

8 March - Crocus Update



Friend of the Museum Jeffrey contributed to our far-reaching but tragically underfunded

... A double crocus sighting (both sides of street) at latitude 39 01 33 (degrees minutes seconds) North and 77 02 34 West, morning of 03/04/08.

Using the standard wisdom tidbit that spring moves north at a rate of 200 miles/week, I calculate that you should find crocuses in Washington Grove at about 6 PM this evening.

The talent in the attached video (the occasionally moving hand) asked the very logical question: why did I take a video instead of a still, of this essentially static event? Thereby increasing size of file by a factor of 10?

The answer is, of course, that I have a new mini-video camera. Cheez!

8 March - More Ex Votos



Here's another cat-breeding ex voto from

My angora cat is very beautiful and I had to run with broom blows with to all the street cats that were around her because I didn't want that she had ugly and cheap breedings. I thank to the Virgin of San Juan because my neighboring doña Leti got a very beautiful male cat and now my cat has some pretty and hairy kittens.

When my husband left me I had to resort to begging, and I had the misfortune of getting my donations stolen by a pickpocketing monkey. I asked the Nino de Atocha for His help, and thanks to Him, the thief monkey and I are now partners, and he shares his profits with me. Everything is going great now and I even have enough left over to leave offerings for the Nino in His little basket.

2 March - Flashy



From Friend of the Museum

1 March - Update



So what's been happening since the site's tragic bandwidth-induced blackout? Let's see - Our handyman