A Blog

Jayne Mansfield and Sophia Loren

2009-08-02T17:08:00.000-07:00

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During a 1957 party at Romanoff's in Beverly Hills to officially welcome Sophia Loren to Hollywood an infamous encounter with Jayne Mansfield occurred ...

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Sophia Loren, Jayne Mansfield & Louella Parson

Sophia Loren, Mansfield and Clifton Webb

Sophia Loren and Jayne Mansfield

OMG!

Jayne Mansfield exposed

Sophia & Jayne seated at Romanoff's
What happened to Clifton Webb?
photographed by Joe Shere | b&w image | color image

IMAGES:
. Romanoff, Loren, Mansfield & Clifton Webb
. Sophia Loren and Jayne Mansfield | 2
. Sophia Loren looking at Jayne Mansfield

LINKS:
. IMDb: 236 photos of Sophia Loren
. Blog: Sophia Loren @ Stirred, Straight Up, with a Twist
. . When Trouble Begins to Brew...
. Notorious cleavage . . .
. Java's Bachelor Pad
• Jayne Mansfield
• Sophia Loren | more
• Sophia Loren | Cleopatra
• The Sophia Loren Archives | Chronicles 1955
• Gold of Naples/L'oro di Napoli
• Abbracci e pop corn | L'oro di Napoli
• L'oro di Napoli - film clip
. image from Night's of Cleo...

A NEW DAY

2009-01-21T07:37:00.001-08:00

THE 44th PRESIDENT OF UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

President ~ Barack "Barry" Hussein Obama, Jr.
• Born on August 4, 1961, in Honolulu, Hawaii.
• Barack means "one who is blessed" in Swahili.
• Raised in Hawaii and Indonesia.

First Lady ~ Michelle LaVaughn Robinson Obama
• Born on January 17, 1964 in Chicago, Illinois.

MORE HERE

FORMER VEEP DICK CHENEY

EXITS WASHINGTON IN A WHEELCHAIR!

IT SHOULD HAVE BEEN CHAINS & LEG SHACKLES!

"Miss B: The Dancing Bird Figure"

2009-01-17T08:11:00.001-08:00

Miss B: The Dancing Bird Figure marionette was made from piano mechanisms, cabinet parts, wire and felt by The Pianistas, a very busy people who were also adept at utilizing their free time. During the long winter months, activities were created to pass the time and entertain... Children would use whatever scraps of materials leftover to make their own figurines, dolls, games and other amusements... like the Dancing Bird Figure... During the turn of the 20th Century, at a road-side general store in New Jersey, Cyrus Braintree acquired the Dancing Bird Figure from a member of the Pianistas tribe... Braintree gave the bird figure the name: Miss 'B', the Incredible Dancing Bird and created one of the most popular Vaudeville shows of its time. With the help of a friend who was a bicycle repairman, he made a coin operated juke box outfitted with a mechanism that would cause the small bird figurine to dance to the music... Miss "B" reached the height of popularity in 1927... Tragically, the bird figurine was destroyed in a hotel fire on East 42nd Street in Manhattan during November of 1929, where Braintree, down on his luck, was trying to stage a comeback tour. Braintree survived the fire, but never recovered from the loss. He made several attempts to create new versions of the bird figure (of which the 10 inch tall "Dancing Bird Figure" is an example), but with no success...

Thanks to M. Frassinelli, for information on this video clip

SELECTED LINKS:

The People have spoken

2008-11-07T08:07:00.000-08:00

1st panel: Obama (image by Shepard Fairey)
2nd panel: McCain/Palin (image by Scattergood-Moore)
3rd palel: Fist (based on 1960s Black Panther poster)

The Imperial President

2008-08-22T10:01:00.000-07:00

GEORGE W. BUSH

based on the Ingres painting
Napoleon on His Imperial Throne, 1806
image created by PantherProUSA, © 2008

The Limits of Power: The End of American Exceptionalism. By Andrew Bacevich. Published by Metropolitan Books. "...identifies a profound triple crisis facing America: the economy, in remarkable disarray, can no longer be fixed by relying on expansion abroad; the government, transformed by an imperial presidency, is a democracy in form only; U.S. involvement in endless wars, driven by a deep infatuation with military power, has been a catastrophe for the body politic. These pressing problems threaten all of us, Republicans and Democrats. If the nation is to solve its predicament, it will need the revival of a distinctly American approach: the neglected tradition of realism..." - The American Empire Project

LINKS:

remembering art: R B Kitaj

2008-02-25T09:32:00.000-08:00

remembering art: R B Kitaj

TODAY IS OCTOBER 1st

2007-10-01T09:48:00.000-07:00

I want freedom, the right to self-expression, everybody's right to beautiful radiant things. - Emma Goldman

Related images on MyOpera

Anthem for Doomed Youth

2007-09-16T11:14:00.001-07:00

enlarge
Anthem for Doomed Youth Tripdych
Conte crayon pencil on paper
Inspired by poem of Wilfred Owens

ANTHEM FOR DOOMED YOUTH

What passing-bells for these who die as cattle?
Only the monstruous anger of the guns.
Only the stuttering rifles' rapid rattle
Can patter out their hasty orisons.
No mockeries now for them; no prayers nor bells;
Nor any voice of mourning save the choirs, -
The shrill, demented choirs of wailing shells;
And bugles calling for them from sad shires.

What candles may be held to speed them all?
Not in the hands of boys, but in their eyes
Shall shine the holy glimmers of good-byes.
The pallor of girls' brows shall be their pall;
Their flowers the tenderness of patient minds,
And each slow dusk a drawing-down of blinds.

Wilfred Owen

Disabled

Study for a painting 'Disabled'
18" wide x 24" high
acrylic, ink and collage drawing
Inspired by poem of Wilfred Owen

DISABLED

He sat in a wheeled chair, waiting for dark,
And shivered in his ghastly suit of grey,
Legless, sewn short at elbow. Through the park
Voices of boys rang saddening like a hymn,
Voices of play and pleasure after day,
Till gathering sleep had mothered them from him.

About this time Town used to swing so gay
When glow-lamps budded in the light blue trees,
And girls glanced lovelier as the air grew dim, -
In the old times, before he threw away his knees.
Now he will never feel again how slim
Girls' waists are, or how warm their subtle hands;
All of them touch him like some queer disease.

There was an artist silly for his face,
For it was younger than his youth, last year.
Now, he is old; his back will never brace;
He's lost his colour very far from here,
Poured it down shell-holes till the veins ran dry,
And half his lifetime lapsed in the hot race
And leap of purple spurted from his thigh.

One time he liked a blood-smear down his leg,
After the matches, carried shoulder-high.
It was after football, when he'd drunk a peg,
He thought he'd better join. - He wonders why.
Someone had said he'd look a god in kilts,
That's why; and may be, too, to please his Meg;
Aye, that was it, to please the giddy jilts
He asked to join. He didn't have to beg;
Smiling they wrote his lie; aged nineteen years.
Germans he scarcely thought of; all their guilt,
And Austria's, did not move him. And no fears
Of Fear came yet. He thought of jewelled hilts
For daggers in plaid socks; of smart salutes;
And care of arms; and leave; and pay arrears;
Esprit de corps; and hints for young recruits.
And soon, he was drafted out with drums and cheers.

Some cheered him home, but not as crowds cheer Goal.
Only a solemn man who brought him fruits
Thanked him; and then inquired about his soul.

Now, he will spend a few sick years in institutes,
And do what things the rules consider wise,
And take whatever pity they may dole.
To-night he noticed how the women's eyes
Passed from him to the strong men that were whole.
How cold and late it is! Why don't they come
And put him into bed? Why don't they come?

Wilfred Owen

murder in the arts

2007-09-16T11:07:00.001-07:00

• Dan Eldon website - a tribute
• Gay For Today: Federico Garcia Lorca
• Gay For Today: Joe Orton
• Wilfred Owen: Poems (1921)
• Study for 'Disabled' (1967)
   18" w x 24" h; acrylic, ink and collage drawing
   Inspired by "Disabled," a poem of Wilfred Owen
• Disabled (1967)
   36" w x 48" h; acrylic and collage on canvas
   Inspired by "Disabled," a poem of Wilfred Owen)
• Wilfred Owen (poem) Dulce et Decorum Est
• Wilfred Owen: Anthem for Doomed Youths
   drawing inspired by Wilfred Owen's poem
   Anthem for Doomed Youths (mp3)
• Gay For Today: Wilfred Owen
• Gay For Today: Pier Paolo Pasolini
• Anton von Webern: A soldier in Burg-Mitteril
   a poem, collage and painting
• poem: Anton v. Webern - What Difference Can It Make...

• Gay For Today: Death from HIV/Aids
   • Leigh Bowery
   • Keith Haring
   • Peter Hujar
   • Derek Jarman
   • Mark Morrisroe
   • David Wojnarowicz

BELA TARR

2007-08-14T05:05:00.001-07:00

BELA TARR The Prince of Hungarian Films

Original Title: Sátántangó
Director: Béla Tarr
Writer: László Krasznahorkai
Music: Víg Mihály
Year: 1994
Description: The sound of bells plague the old doctor's sanity for he is assured that the distant bell tower has collapsed. He walks over to the chapel to find a madman tolling the bells and announcing that the Turks are coming.

Satantango

2007-08-14T05:01:00.001-07:00

Opening Sequence to Bela Tarr's Satantango.

Damnation

2007-08-14T04:58:00.003-07:00

Dance sequence near the end of Bela Tarr's Damnation.

Werckmeister Harmonies

2007-08-14T04:55:00.001-07:00

Scene in hospital - filmed in one take - from Bela Tarr's Werckmeister Harmonies.

Bela Tarr Interview

2007-08-14T04:43:00.001-07:00

Interview with the Hungarian film director Bela Tarr, made during the 12th Sarajevo Film Festival. From the TV show "Kuhinja", a weekly programe on the phenomena of contemporary culture, produced by pro.ba (www.pro.ba), a Sarajevo based independent TV, film and video production company. Broadcast Thursdays 22:30 CET on BHT1 (www.pbsbih.ba).

Prologue

2007-08-14T04:41:00.001-07:00

Prologue - Bela Tarr's short film for "Visions of Europe."

"Esö" from Damnation

2007-08-14T04:40:00.001-07:00

Tracking shot in the rain from Bela Tarr's Damnation. The film is available on the DVD in the UK http://tinyurl.com/fyz4v and in the US tinyurl.com/z8aje

The music is by Mihály Vig who composed the scores to many of Tarr's films and even acted in one ("Sátántangó", as Irimiás). A great sounding selection of his work appeared on CD in Hungary: tinyurl.com/hdoc3
This piece is track 9 ("Esö").

For more information on Bela Tarr go to website on Tarr called THe PRINCE.

HOT & HUMID

2007-08-03T14:13:00.000-07:00

Anita Ekberg in La Dolce Vita by Federico Fellini

HOT and HUMID

(check out this video)

Sophia Loren in Boy on a Dolphin

Harriet Andersson in Ingmar Bergman's
Summer with Monika (1953)

Bibi Anderson in Ingmar Bergman's Persona

LINKS:

VIDEOS:

2 DIRECTORS DEAD

2007-08-03T06:26:00.000-07:00

Original poster for Persona,
Purchased in 1966, at movie theater in Cincinnati, Ohio.

Ingmar Bergman (1918-2007) has died at age 89.
He died Monday morning, July 30th 2007, at his home on the island of Fårö.

"Film as dream, film as music. No form of art goes beyond ordinary consciousness as film does, straight to our emotions, deep into the twilight room of the soul. A little twitch in our optic nerve, a shock effect: twenty-four illuminated frames in a second, darkness in between, the optic nerve incapable of registering darkness. At the editing table, when I run the trip of film through, frame by frame, I still feel that dizzy sense of magic of my childhood: in the darkness of the wardrobe, I slowly wind one frame after another, see almost imperceptible changes, wind faster - a movement." (Ingmar Bergman, The Magical Lantern, 1987)

See BBC tribute to Bergman HERE.
See more about Bergman at Find a Grave

I saw my first Bergman film in 1960 while attending Swain School of Design, in New Bedford. it was Sawdust aned Tinsel (1959) retitled Naked Night at the local "adult cinema" where I viewed it. During the week this small movie theater, in a seedy section of the city, exhibited "adult" films (mostly movies of nudists, strip-tease, and the like) but on one night a week showed "foreign" films by Bergman, Fellini, etc.. with an emphasis on any nudity in these films. Great news!!, Sawdust and Tinsel is to be re-released by Criterion Collection.

Bergman & Sven Nykvist, cameramen [AFP]

MY FAVORITE BERGMAN FILMS INCLUDE:

The Early Films:

Monika (1952)
more

Sawdust and Tinsel (1953)
aka The Naked Night
aka Sunset of a Clown

The Seventh Seal (1957)
trailer

Wild Strawberries (1957)

The Magician (1958)

aka The Face

Middle Period Films:

The Silence (1963)
more

Persona (1966)
Bergman: Face to Face | more
Susan Sontag on Persona

Shame (1968)

Hour of the Wolf (1968)
Bergmanorama

The Passion of Anna (1969)
Bergmanorama

The Later Films:

Cries and Whispers (1972)
Bergmanorama

Scenes from a Marriage (1973)
Bergmanorama

Fanny and Alexander (1982)
Bergmanorama

BLOGS:

LINKS:

Anders Ek in Sawdust & Tinsel

"Sawdust and Tinsel opens with a flashback story about the clown Frost and his wife Alma. Their story sometimes parallels and sometimes counterpoints the story of Albert and Anne which follows. Albert is the owner of a small, tawdry circus, and Anne, his mistress is a horseback rider in the circus." - Bergmanorama
"...The drama had its origin in a dream. I depicted the dream in the flashback about Frost and Alma [...]. To express it in musical terms, one could say the main theme is the episode with Frost and Alma. There follows, within an undivided time frame, a number of tematic variations of erotics and humiliation in ever-changing combination." Ingmar Bergman, ingmarbergman.se (more | more)

Michelangelo Antonioni dead at 94

On Monday, July 30th, it was Ingmar Bergman.

then on Tuesday, July 31th, Michelangelo Antonioni.

LINKS:

Senses of Cinema: Antonioni

DHS VIDEOS

2007-08-02T15:56:00.000-07:00

SCATTERED DREAMS
(trip from DHS to my art studio)

Directed/edited by Scattergood-Moore
Photographed by Michael Frassinelli
Guest appearance by The Studio Cat

SCATT MOVIE
One Step Beyond (2006)
by
Michael Frassinelli

'Miss B' The Incredible Dancing Bird
from
Internet Archive

Cyrus Braintree acquired the Dancing Bird Figure from the Pianistas at the turn of the 20th Century. He named it Miss "B" and featured it in Vaudeville shows.
'Miss B' The Incredible Dancing Bird reached the height of popularity in 1927, when a New York jazz band called "The Bird-dog Five", recorded a novelty hit called "Ain't Miss"B" Heaven"; for Okay Records, which sold thousands of copies. In that year alone, at least six short films were made of her dance routines, including 3:36 minutes of rare footage of her attempt at ballet, which some believe was the nail in the coffin of an already faltering career...
Tragically, Miss "B" was destroyed in a hotel fire on East 42nd St, Manhattan on Nov, 1929.

Producer: Michael Frassinelli

HOKOSAI (1760-1849)

2007-08-02T13:45:00.000-07:00

Self-portrait at the Age of Eighty-three
Ink on paper. Drawn on a letter written by Hokusai.
Rijksmuseum voor Volkenkunde, Leiden

"From the age of six I had a mania for drawing the shapes of things. When I was fifty I had published a universe of designs. but all I have done before the the age of seventy is not worth bothering with. At seventy five I'll have learned something of the pattern of nature, of animals, of plants, of trees, birds, fish and insects. When I am eighty you will see real progress. At ninety I shall have cut my way deeply into the mystery of life itself. At a hundred I shall be a marvelous artist. At a hundred and ten everything I create; a dot, a line, will jump to life as never before. To all of you who are going to live as long as I do, I promise to keep my word. I am writing this in my old age. I used to call myself Hokosai, but today I sign my self 'The Old Man Mad About Drawing.'"

Hokusai Katsushika, The Drawings of Hokusai

SKETCHBOOK LINKS:

THE WALL: Fancis Bacon

2007-08-01T16:55:00.000-07:00

The Wall (detail)
Portrait of Francis Bacon, 3
Scattergood Moore

". . . if you look at walls covered with many stains . . . with the idea of imagining some scene, you will see in it a similarity to landscapes adorned with mountains, rivers, rocks, tree, plains, broad vallerys, and hills of all kinds. You may also see in it battles and figures with lively gestures and strange faces and costumes and an infinity of things which you can reduce to separate and complex forms. And with these walls . . . it is as with the sound of bells; in their ringing you may find all the sounds and words that you wish to imagine."

- Leonardo da Vinci, 1492

____________________________________________________________

Georgio de Chirico

by Paul Eluard

A wall denounces another wall

And the shadows defend me from my timid shadow
O tower of my love surrounding my love
My silence turns the walls white

What do you defend? Sky unfeeling and clear,
Trembling you sheltered me. The prominent light
In the sky is no longer the mirror of the sun
But the stars of day among green leaves.

The memory of those who spoke without knowing,
Masters of my weakness. And I have replaced them
With eyes of love and hands too loyal
To depopulate a world from which I am absent.

1924

(Translated by Tom Hibbard)

JAMBO

2007-08-01T07:13:00.000-07:00

Standing in hollow Baobab Tree in the Tarangire National Park, Tanzania in East Africa.

Swahili Dictionary

Thomson Safaris

Safari Slideshow

Thomson Safari Website

SAFARI SLIDE SHOW