Thanks, Sue!
Posts Tagged ‘whimsey’
What is tattoo Tuesday about?
August 4, 2015
Japanese Sailor Embraces US Culture With Traditional American Tattoos
“… Asked on what aspect of American culture he finds most fascinating, [Seaman 2nd Class, Hikiro]Tamagotchi seems to have trouble knowing where to even begin.
“I can’t quite put my finger on it,” he muses while methodically chewing on a hot dog. “I just feel like there’s a lot of ancient wisdom to be gleaned from Western culture. I especially respect the teachings of the martyrs Tupac and Biggie, even though they each represent conflicting schools.”
He then gestures to two fresh tattoos on his biceps: one reading “Water,” and the other, “Spam.”
“Spam is customary fare indigenous to the American island of Hawaii,” Tamagotchi explains. “And water is the essence of life, and I just think the way Americans write it is so beautifully intricate.”
“The English alphabet is really amazing when you think about it. Twenty-six letters, each with an upper and lowercase form – very yin-yang,” he continues. “I had my tattoos done in an ancient technique known as cursive. It hasn’t been taught in decades, and very few Americans still possess the knowledge to read and write it.”
What am I reading?
July 27, 2015
The stereotypical knitter is a granny with a cat at her feet who sits by the fire knitting mittens for her grandchildren. Throughout history, however, men dominated the craft and it is only recently that knitting has been thought of as the province of women.
Here is a (totally factual) story from Huffington Post that talks about the history of men and knitting:
“About 200 A.D., Arabian men were fishing for food but they had no way to catch several fish at once. They caught one fish. Then a second fish. And it was like, Geeze, this is slow as a camel. Then one day, perhaps down by the dock, one of the guys was messing with yarn, forming loops in it, and bam! Fishing net. (Other cultures likely invented knitting elsewhere around the world.)
They stuck the net it in the water and caught a boatload of fish. And someone said, “We just invented the fishing net.” And someone else said, “Let’s invent sweaters.”
Then the Middle Ages came and knitting spread like the plague. There were knitting guilds, which were labor unions–and again this is men we’re talking about. The guild’s head honcho would say, “Join us. We’ll protect your income. We’ll give you insurance. We’ll give you benefits. If your wife dies, we’ll help you with the funeral ceremony.” Nice stuff like that.”
Fast forward to 1972 when Dave Fougner thought it was time to bring men back to knitting and The Manly Art of Knitting was published. This book has been revived by Ginko Press. You too can follow along with the book’s directions for knitting saddle blankets and dog beds. Good stuff.
What am I sappy polar bear blogging?
July 24, 2015
Kaktovik, Alaska
These adorable Polar Bear cubs were staying close to their mother, and stood up to monitor another pair of cubs.
Photograph and caption by Laura Keene
What am I knitting?
July 20, 2015
In a different interpretation of Cristo’s wrapped landscapes, Portuguese artist Joanna Vasconcelos covers animal sculptures in fine, crocheted lace. The pictures below show her recent work in which she covers the sculptures of Rafael Bordalo Pinheiro.
The artist states:
Each of the pieces “are ambiguously imprisoned/protected by a second-skin in crochet-work,” says Vasconcelos. At once both beautiful and strange, the work stands as a testament to the extraordinary craftsmanship of the artist but also as a one-upmanship of maternal femininity and domesticity. The use of crochet to mummify the ceramic animals “opens up a vast and rich field of interpretation” that challenges our preconceptions of femininity, as well as our notions of tradition and modernity.
Yeah, well . . . I’m not a fan of the whole wrapping movement, but I like the little crab – and the frog – and maybe the snake.
Gunsmoke and Knitting 