How am I dancing?
January 7, 2015Whose birthday am I celebrating?
December 27, 2014
Today is the birthday of Ray Mala, an Alaskan actor, director and cinematographer.
Mala was born Ray Wise in the small village of Candle, Alaska to a Russian Jewish immigrant father and a Native Alaskan mother. He was born during a unique period in Alaskan history. At that time Alaska was still a territory of the United States and still a mystery to many Americans. In 1921 an explorer named Captain Frank Kleinschmidt went to Alaska on an expedition to film a picture called Primitive Love in which Mala makes his film debut at age 14. Not only does Mala act in front of the camera but he serves as a cameraman as well for the picture. From here young Mala accompanied Knud Rasmussen, the Danish Arctic explorer and writer on his trip called The Great Sled Journey from 1921 to 1924 to collect and describe Inuit songs and legends as the official cameraman.
Ray Mala (December 27, 1906 – September 23, 1952) was the first Native American movie star and the most prolific film actor Alaska has thus far produced. Mala was recently named a “Top Ten Alaskan” by TIME Magazine. He starred in MGM’s Academy Award-winning Eskimo. Wikipedia
What am I wishing you?
December 24, 2014Merry Christmas!
I am a fan of paper sculpture. These lovely zoetropes were created for Spanish television broadcaster, TVE by Comodo screen. They made me smile.
What am I conjuring on tattoo Tuesday?
December 23, 2014
If you are curious about the history of conjuring arts, or want to brush up on your card tricks, the Conjuring Arts Research Center in New York may have what you are looking for . . .
When Bill Kalush, a former magician, founded the Conjuring Arts Research Center in New York City, he wanted to create a place that “was available for anyone . . . to be able to come in and find some of the rarest material — the things that you couldn’t find, almost anywhere else in the world,” as he told PRI. The materials’ subject? The ancient arts of magic and deception.
Kalush has assembled books dating from the 15th century until now. The books themselves are available for members of the public to look through, but Kalush is also digitizing them and translating them, PRI says. (Many are in Persian, French, Italian or another language.)
The oldest book is De viribus quantitates by Luca Pacioli, which is still being translated from its original Latin. So far, the library includes scans of about 2.5 million pages of various books. All of them are accessible through the center’s database, called Ask Alexander. The center also has around 20,000 letters written by magicians, PRI writes, some of which include tricks of the trade, others the gossip of the day.
The center is open to the public, but visitors looking for insight on perfecting their card tricks or conjuring up white rabbits must make an appointment first. There might be a wait, however. As Kalush told PRI: “We try to keep it as mysterious as possible and we do have an awful lot of interesting people visit.”
What am I sappy camel blogging?
December 19, 2014
The Indian city of Bikaner hosts an annual camel festival in January. The designs are the results of trimming and dying the camel hair. Photographs by Steve Hoge and Osakabe Yasuo.
Reblogged from hovercraftdoggy.
My cousins have a camel – Maybe they will do this to Cammie.
Where am I dining?
December 18, 2014
At the DC6 Restaurant at the Coventry Airport in the UK.
Here’s the menu . . .
This is a 1958 Douglas DC6 that has been converted into a restaurant that can seat 40 people. It is also available for parties and events.
What am I wearing?
December 17, 2014
Well, hardly, but was time for a post on knitting.
I do admire the way the designer is pushing the limits of the technique. Also cool is the way the model’s hair mimics the stitches.
What is tattoo Tuesday about?
December 16, 2014
Today is the anniversary of the Boston Tea Party, which took place at Griffin’s Wharf on the evening of December 16, 1773, with the tossing of about 92,000 pounds of tea into Boston Harbor. This was in protest to taxes imposed on tea sold in the colonies to help mediate the losses Britain suffered in the French & Indian War. The colonists’ view was that they were being taxed unfairly because they had no representation in Parliament where these tax laws were enacted.
Many of the protesters were Boston citizens of English descent, but men came from a wide area to participate in the Tea Party. The party participants were also of Irish, Scottish, French, Portuguese and African descent and came from as far away as Maine to participate.
The backlash from the Tea Party resulted in the closing of Boston Harbor and further penalties imposed on the colonists until the loss of the tea was reimbursed. These actions brought the colonists closer to revolution.
I thought it was interesting that, other than tea, no looting or destruction of any other property took place that night. How times have changed.
Another thing I found interesting . . . people who were loyal to the crown found the situation in the colonies increasingly uncomfortable. Many of them fled to Canada, back to Britain, (naturally) but also went to the Bahamas and Africa where they founded Sierra Leone. I did not know that.
More Boston Tea Party Facts here.
The tattoo:
And the Lego model – sorry, I can’t help myself.
What am I Lego-loving?
December 15, 2014
Building and playing with Legos is fun. Building and playing with model railroads is just as much fun. However, there are not many things better than when the two are combined.
It doesn’t matter what your age is, model trains and Legos have withstood the test of time and remain popular with kids, adults and hobbyists alike. There is just something about the creativity and imagination that are inherent qualities of both activities, and they’re even better when the two are combined.
This was certainly the case for Henrik Ludvigsen, of Denmark, and 80 of his friends. As an avid Lego enthusiast, Ludvigsen had amassed a large number of Lego rail pieces (from the 1960s and 1970s); therefore, he decided to do something grandiose with them all. Along with his fellow Lego advocates, he set out to design one massive, continuous railroad track out of nothing but Legos – a creative adventure that would place him and his associates in the record books.
Ludvigsen and his team of helpers pooled together all of their Lego pieces and solicited the help of fans all over the world to donate additional blue and / or white Lego pieces (tracks and support pieces). By the time they were ready to construct the railway on May 10-11, 2013, the team had collected nearly 100,000 Lego pieces for the project.
Ludvigsen and his team of 80 helpers worked tirelessly for six hours to build the complicated train layout. While the final design was void of any kind of accessories, decorations or scenery, there was one thing it was not short of … tracks. The end result was a winding track (with plenty of straightaways, as well) that stretched for nearly 2.5 miles in total distance (2.485 miles to be exact, or 4,000.25 meters). The project was so large that it earned the title and distinction of being the world’s longest plastic toy train track and the world’s longest Lego railway, according to the Guinness Book of World Records.
You would probably think the venue that played host to such an enormous task would have to be rather large, and you would be correct. The team of Lego lovers set up the track in a gym in Denmark, covering a majority of the floor.
When it came time to test the railroad, they placed a small train – also made out of Legos – on the tracks (it is not the same train featured in the video above, although the track is the same). Due in large part to the length of the track, but also because of the locomotive’s slow speed, the train took approximately four hours to make one circuit around the entire railroad.
Unfortunately, the set-up was only temporary. Ludvigsen and his team dismantled the track shortly after constructing it.
While building a massive model railway system may not be something you have the space or time for, releasing your inner child and embracing your love of all things model railroading (even if they aren’t your traditional model railroads) is a great outlet and can span generations.
Gunsmoke and Knitting 