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Please Buy a Copy A Cat Compendium DVD by the Museum's Video Unit  |
May 2010 Archive 31 May - More Catheadgear  Cat Leroy does not appear very pleased as he models his new miniature World War II M1C paratrooper helmet. I can't blame him - it's a bit snug, and it offers little or no ballistic protection. I told him to wait for our new cat pickelhaubes to arrive. Not that they offer any more protection, but at least the fit's better, and it's got lots more bling. link 31 May - Veterans  From the Museum's collections - an old Rebel shakes the hands of two Yankees, Gettysburg - probably at the Great Reunion of 1913. The northerners are veterans of the 134th New York Infantry - that's the Regiment's marker for the first day fight, 1 July. The New Yorkers were heavily engaged on the second day in the defense of Cemetery Hill. Altogether, at Gettysburg the Regiment lost 252 men - killed, wounded, missing - out of 400. Here's their monument on Cemetery Hill. Veterans shake hands at the last Gettysburg reunion, 1938, the 75th anniversary of the battle. And the Rebs give a slightly shaky, but immensely moving Rebel Yell. Here's We are Coming, Father Abra'am, performed by the Eastman Wind Ensemble on their album The Civil War: Its Music and Its Sounds. link 30 May - Nutmeg Models the Prototype  How fierce Cat Nutmeg looks in our new katzenpickelhaube! This is the prototype helmet, just received from the factory in Bangalore. The Museum's regents and the curator must pass judgment on it, and if approved, we'll pass the word to Mr. Pradeep in Bangalore, production will begin, and the Museum Shop will soon have it available for purchase at an amazingly reasonable price. Reasonable, that is, to people who wish to equip their cats and small dogs with miniature Model 1897 Prussian other ranks pickelhaubes. What the rest of the wide world will have to say about it I can only imagine. link 30 May - Octopus vs. Radiant Light  Here's another fine cephalopod-related ex voto recently on offer on eBay from seller grancronopio. The inscription: When I was swimming I have been caught by a huge octopus and it began to crowd me with it's tentacles, I believed that I would die in that moment, but when I felt that the force to fight and my life were escaping, a radiant light appeared and the octopus loosed me and I reached to arrive to the beach, I thanks to the Virgen de la Soledad for this amazing miracle.A survey of the other cephalopod-related ex votos featured here reveals that octopodes appear to be attracted by skimpy bathing costumes; one might want to consider one of these outfits when swimming in octopus waters. Previous Octopus-Related Ex Votos: Unconcerned Octopode Bystanders Guitar vs. Octopus The Threatening Tentacle Swimming with Octopi My Husband's Octopus The Heroic Octopus Graciela and the Octopus An Octopus by Moonlight link 23 May - One Morning In May  Here's good old Socks, AKA Cat Van Beek, having a relaxing wash in the meadow off First Avenue. link 22 May - Egrets and Slivovitz  I'm back from Tampa and the ALTGEM conference, but am still feeling a bit fragile. My talk on fund-raising through the production and sale of azalea petals for dugyeonju (Korean azalea wine) went over pretty well; I expect that small museums all over will be getting into the game, depressing azalea petal prices. I knew we should have locked in our contract for the 2011 harvest before the talk... Above, some sort of egret, cadging handouts on the dock near the Dali Museum in St. Petersburg, where we had a nice tour.  Very handsome, but it can't compare with a Wallingford's heron (Ardea wallingfordensis). Meanwhile...  ... I can't believe I missed observing Straw Hat Day this year. In my absence, Gus and Nutmeg celebrate with a cool Balkan Bombshell - slivovitz and tonic. link 9 May - In Advance of Folk Song Day  From A Short Treatise of Hunting, Thomas Cockaine, 1591. Since I'll be away on May 14 - Folk Song Day (so-called because of the quantities of songs that take place on that date) - I'll post the songs today. Don't listen to 'em before the 14th, though. First off, we have The Bonny Black Hare, in which the narrator lucks out romantically on the 14th. It's performed here by Martin Carthy and David Swarbick, from the album Byker Hill. Also a variant; a bit strange... ... The Bonny Spotted Cuckoo from the classic Kipper Family album In the Family Way. It's sung by Ruby and P.C. Chubb; but I'm afraid my recording is tragically truncated - will look for a full version. And now... ... A song with the highly evocative title Cod Banging, sung by Bob Hart from the CD My Ship Shall Sail the Ocean. And now... ... Maddy Prior sings of a lad who has a tragic but unexplained downfall on the 14th in When I was on Horseback with Steeleye Span - from their album Present. And finally... ... The action described in Willie Moore takes place "around the 10th of May" - which could mean the 14th, right? This version's performed by Bruce Hutton (of the Double Decker Stringband) and Hesperus from their excellent album For No Good Reason at All. link 9 May - One Morning in May in 3D  Cat Leroy once again demonstrates his superior contemplativeness, so useful in a cat who poses for 3D photographs using the one camera system. Previous Adventures in Stereoscopy The Revival of Stereo Cards Tank/Tabby Tableau Contemplative Cat View Wallingford's Heron in 3D Therapeutic Cat-3D Imagery Aphrodite and Wicker Stereo Leroy Dramatic Dog - Dramatic Cat The Historic Cottage Cat Leroy Cat Leroy, Again Vintage Dog and Cat Stereoviews link 8 May - Encore Here's our final video from the superb Gut, Wind and Wire concert from March - Ronn McFarlane, Mindy Rosenfeld and Mark Cudek perform a rousing encore, Les Bouffons. By the way, posting activity may be a bit slim for a bit, as I'm heading off soon to this year's ALTGEM conference in Tampa. I'm doing a little talk on our experience with azalea petal harvesting as a revenue enhancement tool; also anti-azalea petal rustling techniques. link 2 May - St.-Cloud  A view of St.-Cloud, near Paris. The dog statue to the left of the nice lady statue was featured previously here, when we noted that St.-Cloud is well endowed with dogs. link 1 May - New Acquisition  Cat Max tries out the pile on a new acquisition, an Afghani rug featuring fine woven cats and helicopters and something like peacocks. Long-time Museum site visitors may recall that we once enhanced our revenue through the sale of Afghan war rugs. The business got... difficult in 2001, and we've only just re-established contact with our old buyer in Kabul - this is the first rug he's been able to ship to us. It's very nice. Wonder when it'll attract its first hairball? link 1 May - Happy Calends  It being May Day, and May Day being a good day for a song, and us having featured The Padstow May Song some years back - why not have a listen to a really ancient song for May Day, Calenda Maia? Composed around 1200 by the Provençal knight and troubador Raimbaut de Vaqueiras, the tune still has an immediacy and freshness to it, as if it had been composed this morning: Calenda maia ni fučlhs de faia Not May Day,... A rather too free translation of Raimbaut's lyric by a former Janus Museum fellow, Alistair Bassanelli. The song is performed here by Anne Azéma and the Boston Camerata, from a great recording, New Britain. Above, Natasha and Gus, still on Azalea Petal Patrol. link |
