Showing posts with label Van Gogh. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Van Gogh. Show all posts

Tuesday, June 7, 2022

Taking One For the Team and Immersing in Art, a Random and Happy Tuesday Post

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It's time once again for a random and happy Tuesday, linking up with Stacy's Random Thoughts at Stacy Uncorked and Sandee at Comedy Plus 


Carl has to go to work early this week.


This is a good thing.  It means i didn't have to leave him to sleep another hour in the chair after i came to clean his room.  Instead i blasted him up that minute, let him take his morning meds, then chivvied him into the shower right away.


When he walked out of the shower, i put his clean apron on him over his work clothes and told him he was not allowed to take it off until he was ready to walk out the door.


it was absolutely spotless when he put it on...


His apron, after.  Yes, it's his younger brother's barista apron from the coffee place he worked at when he was in college becoming a rocket scientist.


If you're thinking his parents, having a rocket scientist son working for NASA and a special needs son who pushes carts at the MallMart have a wildly varied life when it comes to relating to their two boys, you'd be right.


Anyway, Carl took the apron off and then went to brush his teeth, and i had to act fast.  When i told him to leave it on until the moment he walked out the door, i meant it, but he gets distracted.  Seeing him over at the sink brushing with no apron on, i rushed over with a towel and reached my hand to stretch the towel across his shirt front just as he spit.


It didn't land on his nice, clean work shirt, that's the main point.  My hand is more easily washable, thankyouverymuch, and i figured it was all in the line of taking one for the team.  After all, i'm a mom, a weird creature who asks small people to "spit it out" and then thanks those small people for expurgating something disgusting into my palm.


Parenthood ain't for sissies, and neither is taking care of Carl.


To get back to the subject of the Van Gogh Immersive Event this weekend, it was truly special.  (Pictures were posted on Sunday, if anyone is interested.)  The beginning is a timeline of his life, information about his world and his family, and reproductions of many of his most famous works.  You can walk into the bedroom he painted, and see the three depictions he did of it, playing a guessing game to spot the four major differences between them, among other things.     


The main part is a huge room where you are surrounded by his art projected onto the walls and floor.  You sit and just soak it in, while music plays and his art swirls around you.


There's a gallery of his self-portraits, astounding to see lined up in chronological order.  It made me wonder how much of the changes were the havoc time wreaks on most of us, and how much was his developing style.


In the coloring room, i got to pretend to be five years old again, sitting and coloring one of his works drawn on a coloring sheet and then it was projected on the wall.  It's been a while since i sat and colored a sheet with oversize crayons, surrounded by children from as young as 4 all the way up to gray hair and canes.  We were all children in there.


Our VIP part of the ticket allowed us to put on the virtual reality headsets for a tour through Arles.  You can look around, up, down, almost even behind you and see the whole town rendered in 3D, from the fields of wheat with crows flying up from it all the way to laundry on clothes lines and watching the water with the lights reflecting on it.  The technology is amazing.


If you ever do get the chance, please go, you won't be sorry.


Now for some funnies.
















Have a blessed and beautiful day, everyone!






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Today is:


Birthday of Prince Joachim -- Denmark


Daniel Boone Day -- Kentucky, US (date in he first sighted, in 1767, what would become Kentucky)


Flag Day -- Peru


Journalist's Day -- Argentina (marking the first publication of a newspaper in Argentina on this day in 1810)


Judgements Day -- Fairy Calendar (Leaping songs)


National Chocolate Ice Cream Day


Sette Giugno -- Malta (commemoration of the tragedy of June 7, 1919, considered their National Day)


St. Meriadoc's Day (Patron of the deaf and against deafness)


Union Dissolution Day -- Norway


VCR Day -- the first Sony Betamax went on sale today in 1975


Vestalia -- Ancient Roman Calendar (multi-day festival for Vesta, goddess of the hearth, this first day termed the Vesta Asperit; through the 15th)


Vivien Kellems Memorial Day -- born this date in 1896, she fought the IRS and income tax for her whole life



Anniversaries Today:


Jimmy Osmond marries Michele Larson, 1991

YMCA is founded by George Williams, 1844



Birthdays Today:


Michael Cera, 1988

Anna Kournikova, 1981

Larisa Oleynik, 1981

Bill Hader, 1978

Allen Iverson, 1975

Bear Grulls, 1974

Karl Urban, 1972

Roberto Alagna, 1963

Prince, 1958

Louise Erdrich, 1954

Liam Neeson, 1952

Orham Pamuk, 1952

Jenny Jones, 1946

Bill Kreutzmann, Jr, 1946

Tom Jones, 1940

John Napier Turner, 1929

Gwendolyn Brooks, 1917

Dean Martin, 1917

Jessica Tandy, 1909

Virginia Apgar, 1909

James Braddock, 1906

Paul Gauguin, 1848



Debuting/Premiering Today:


Ghostbusters(Film), 1984

"Johnny Cash Show"(TV), 1969

"The $64,000 Question"(TV), 1955

"The Seven Deadly Sins"(satirical ballet chantΓ©), 1933



Today in History:


The first Crusaders begin their Siege of Jerusalem, 1099

Port Royal, Jamaica, is devastated by an earthquake, 1692

David Thompson reaches the mouth of the Saskatchewan River in Manitoba, 1800

Asian cholera reaches Quebec, brought by Irish immigrants, and kills about 6,000 people in Lower Canada, 1832

1,800 Fenian raiders are repelled back to the United States after they loot and plunder around Saint-Armand and Frelighsburg, Quebec, 1866

Tolbert Lanston receives patents for monotype typesetting machines, 1887

Norway's parliament dissolves  its union with Sweden, 1905

Sony introduces the Betamax videocassette recorder for sale to the public, 1975

Priscilla Presley opens Graceland to the public, 1982

Mt. Pinatubo erupts, sending an ash cloud 7km/14.3mi high, 1992

The United Nations defines the Blue Line as the border between Israel and Lebanon, 2000

According to a new study, breast milk boosts brain development by 30% compared to babies who are fed formula, 2013

The journal "Science" publishes studies that show the Mars Curiosity Rover has found organic matter, including methane, on Mars, 2018

According to the UN, more than 4 million Venezuelans have left their country since 2015 due to the economic crisis, 2019

Bdelloid rotifer multicellular organisms, frozen in Siberia for about 24,000 years, "come back to life" after being thawed by Russian scientists, 2021

The Economist Intelligence Unit names Aukland, New Zealand the world's most livable city, and Damascus, Syria, the least livable city, 2021

Sunday, June 5, 2022

Artistic Feelings (Cajun Joke) and Sunday Selections

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Just because Sandee of Comedy Plus is no longer hosting a Silly Sunday blog hop, do not expect me to quit telling Cajun jokes, especially as it has now become a habit.


Yesterday, Sweetie and i were privileged to attend Van Gogh: The Immersive Experience.


We cleaned the house and then headed downtown, and it was wonderful, my late Mother's Day gift.  If you ever have the chance to see an immersive art show, take advantage of it.


Boudreaux done gone wit' Clothile to de art gallery fo' de show.  One o' Clothile's distant cousin done become a local famous artist, an' she make Boudreaux take her to the openin' day.


Boudreaux walk him in an' de firs' t'ing he see be a huge canvas wit' de orange and black splotches all over.  Den he see him a small, gray paintin' wit' purple squiggles all over'n it.


About den the artist, Clothile distant cousin done come near Boudreaux an' ax, "How do you like the paintings?"


Boudreaux scratch hims head an' say, "I's afraid I don' unnerstan' dem too much."


De artist say, "I paint what I feel inside."


An' Boudreaux say, "Mais!  If I done feel like dat inside, I won't be paintin', I be takin' me de Alka Seltzer!"



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Sunday Selections was started as a way for bloggers to use photos that might otherwise just languish in their files.  The rules have been relaxed, and it is now simply a showcase for your photos, new or old, good or bad, although nothing rude, please.  It was hosted by River, who still participates, and is now hosted by Elephant's Child.        


While i am not a big fan of greeting cards, not every mother feels that way.  These are some i've seen while cleaning clients' homes.







These are snaps taken while out and about.










Because i didn't want to spend all my time with my camera out, i just wanted to enjoy the experience, i only took a few photos of the Van Gogh show.  In some, i tried to capture how one picture becomes another at various times.  No flash was allowed, so these aren't the best, but that's allowed with Sunday Selections, isn't it.



























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Today is:


15th Khordad National Uprising -- Iran (1963)


Apple II Day -- the Apple II first went on sale today in 1977

     note that some historians say it went on sale June 10, others say the first models were shipped out that day

 

Arbor Day -- New Zealand


Children's Awareness Memorial Day -- a day to remember children who have died from violence


Father's Day -- Lithuania; Switzerland


Festival of Popular Delusions Day -- begun as this was the last day before D-Day that the Germans could delude themselves that they could win; thus a day to question your own assumptions and try to align your beliefs with facts and reality


Grundlovsdag -- Denmark and the Faroe Island (Constitution Day)


Indian Arrival Day -- Suriname (marking the arrival of indentured laborers from the Indian subcontinent)


Judgement Day -- Fairy Calendar (Nosegays)


Liberation Day -- Seychelles


Natalicio de Oblang Nguema Mbasogo -- Equatorial Guinea (President's Day)


National Attitude Day -- if this is really a day to celebrate, try to have a positive one


National Cancer Survivors Day -- US (National Cancer Survivors Day Foundation)   


National Gingerbread Day


National Moonshine Day -- with its own sponsor     


Nones of June -- Ancient Roman Calendar; related observance

     Festival of Semo Sancus -- god of loyalty, honesty and oaths (one of the oldest Roman cults, probably Etruscan or Oscan originally)


SjΓ³mannadagurinn -- Iceland (traditional Seaman's Day was alternately celebrated June 6 or the first Sunday of June, depending on which authority you ask, but is now a weekend long Festival of the Sea)


St. Boniface's Day (Patron of brewers, file cutters, tailors; Fulda, Germany; Germamy; Saint-Boniface, Manitoba, Canada)


Whit Sunday / Pentecost -- Christian

     Hvitasunnudagur -- Iceland (sleeping in on Whitsunday is detrimental to your health, but monsters are asleep through the day and can be taken by surprise)

     Romeria del Rocia -- Huelva, Spain (pilgrims transport an image of the Virgen del Rocio [Our Lady of the Dew] through Andalucia, with no motorized transport allowed, accompanied by Gypsy Caravans; when the image gets to the shrine, there is mass and a few days of fireworks and celebrating)


World Environment Day -- UN  



Birthdays Today:


Chad Allen, 1974

Mark Wahlberg, 1971

Brian McKnight, 1969

Kenny G, 1956

Jill Biden, 1951

Suze Orman, 1951

Ken Follett, 1949

Spalding Gray, 1941

Margaret Drabble, 1939

Bill Moyers, 1934

Tony Richardson, 1928

Richard Mcclure Scarry, 1919

William "Hopalong Cassidy" Boyd, 1895

Panco Villa, 1878

Adam Smith, 1723 (O.S. Date)

Thomas Chippendale, 1718

Pu Songling, 1640



Today in History:


Traditional date for the sinking of Atlantis, 8498BC

Titus and his Roman legions breach the middle wall of Jerusalem  in the Siege of Jerusalem, 70

KrakΓ³w, Poland  receives city  rights, 1257

The first Great Lakes steamer, the Frontenac, is launched, 1817

Houston, Texas is incorporated by the Republic of Texas, 1837

Denmark  becomes a constitutional monarchy, 1849

Harriet Beecher Stowe's anti-slavery serial, Uncle Tom's Cabin or, Life Among the Lowly starts a ten-month run in the National Era abolitionist newspaper, 1851

Denmark  amends its constitution to allow women's suffrage, 1915

Elvis Presley introduces his new single, "Hound Dog", on The Milton Berle Show, scandalizing the audience with his suggestive hip movements, 1956

The first government of the State of Singapore is sworn in, 1959

The Apple II, the first practical personal computer, goes on sale, 1977

Prime Minister of India Indira Gandhi orders an attack on the Golden Temple, the holiest site of the Sikh religion, 1984

A severe heat wave across Pakistan  and India  reaches its peak, as temperatures exceed 50°C (122°F) in the region, 2003

The planet Venus makes its last transit of the 21st century beginning at 22:09 UTC June 5, and ending 4:49 UTC June 6, 2012

The Swiss vote to reject the referendum to give each citizen a guaranteed income of $2,500 Swiss francs per month, 2015

Puerto Rico declares its Zika virus outbreak to be over, 2017

Montenegro joins NATO, becoming its 29th member, 2017

The science journal Environmental Science and Technology publishes a study which estimates that the average person ingests 50,000 pieces of microplastic each year, and breathes in a similar amount, 2019