Buenos Aires, Argentina

Back in the 1960s, my good friend Ronald Shakespear was also something of a photographer—a collection of his images were published in the book Caras y Caritas, and he’s shared some of his reminiscences in a blog posting (from which I’ve paraphrased the following snip)…

One day in 1964, I took a plane to Spain to go see Orson Welles, who lived near Juan Perón in Puerta de Hierro. I knocked on his door, without an appointment, and was surprised that he opened the door to me—it did not matter that I had arrived “just like that.” There he was, the great Orson, washing down an old Buick (which never actually ran). The fact that I had no appointment mattered not at all: “Never ask permission,” he said, “Never.”

That cemented my admiration for him. He invited me to the Plaza de Toros de Madrid, I spent a lovely afternoon and took some pictures that I still love (even though the originals were lost by Atlantis magazine after they were published). We spent an unforgettable afternoon watching the master bullfighter Curro Giron… then we went to the Plaza butchery (to buy meat) and Giron gave the bull’s ears to Orson.

Above images (all photos by Ronald Shakespear): film director Orson Welles (1915-1985) in Madrid, 1962; Argentine writer Jorge Luis Borges, (1899-1986), already blind at the time of the photo, in Mexico, 1964; Argentine jazz pianist Enrique “Mono” Villegas (1913-1986) at a friend’s house in BA, 1964. The book cover of Caras y Caritas, design by Rubén Fontana.

Anyone that knows me likely also knows that I love (and collect, and occasionally share) wise words and quotations. On the weekend I was rummaging through some paper-stacks that have lain relatively undisturbed for years in my somewhat-organized home library, and I re-encountered an assortment of odd gems—including the following good-uns…

I quote others only the better to express myself.

—Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592 )

I respect faith, but doubt is what gets you an education.

—Wilson Mizner (1876-1933)

We are no more than God’s imagination about himself.

—Thomas Mann (1875-1955)

The world is a tragedy to those who feel,
but a comedy to those who think.

—Horace Walpole (1717-1797)

A child of five would understand this.
Send someone to fetch a child of five!

—Groucho Marx (1890-1977)

Any man who can drive safely while kissing a pretty girl is simply not giving the kiss the attention it deserves.

—Albert Einstein (1879-1955)

To him who is in fear, everything rustles.

—Socrates (469 BC-399 BC)

Education is when you read the fine print.
Experience is what you get if you don’t.

—Pete Seger (1919—  )

He of whom many are afraid ought to fear many.

— Sir Francis Bacon (1561-1626)

Everything has been thought of before—
the problem is to think of it again.

—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832)

There is no such thing as a pretty good omelette.

—French proverb

Many a scarecrow serves as a roost of the enlightened crow.

—(unknown)

The man who can’t visualize a horse
galloping on a tomato is an idiot.

—André Breton (1896-1966)

Please feel free to share with me the quotations that touch your own soul, tickle your fancy, or blow your mind, OK? You can contact me here.

(tell someone today)

Tokyo, Japan

The great graphic sensei Shigeo Fukuda passed into another realm a year ago this week… I still miss you dearly and think of you often, my friend.

Graz, Austria

Actually, it’s both, ideal for a small space (such as an apartment) where you might only occasionally need a dining table. It’s not completely original (Victor Papanek and James Hennesey floated a similar idea in Nomadic Furniture back in the 1970s, as per the sketch above), but clever nonetheless…

(thanks Ev for the link to ivydesign)

Paris, France

Admittedly, I’m not a huge fan of extraneous accessories such as pillows (less is still mostly more in my world)—but if I was, these lovely typographically-themed cushions would likely make it onto a wanna-have short list… I guess what appeals to me is the re-purposing of one context/medium and its juxtaposition into another milieu entirely.

I can (almost) imagine dozing off with my head propped up by one or two of these beauties, drifting into dreams of that oh-so-long-ago tryst with my pen-pal lover, then walking off hand in hand through the echoing cobble-stoned streets of that quaint Alsatian village… OK, that’s it, I’m off to bed.

(found here, via here)

Ottawa, Canada

The anarchist professor Denis G. Rancourt argues quite compellingly that global warming, rather than being “the greatest potential threat to humankind and the planet,” is in fact a myth and a red herring that contributes conveniently to the hiding of what is the planet’s most destructive force—power-driven financiers and profit-driven corporations and their cartels backed by military might. He suggests that liberal tree-hugging activists (ouch—this stings) who buy into and feed the global warming myth have effectively been co-opted, distracted from more urgent causes, or at best neutralized. Read a piece on this that Denis wrote here. (Though I’m somewhat reluctant to admit it, I’m starting to believe the man might be right).

Rancourt’s real concern is that if/when Carbon Trade has been introduced and established (as a result of the current, wrong-headed, singular focus on global warming), this will continue to misinform and obfuscate—essentially creating a smokescreen for the genuine causal issues: unethical and unsustainable corporate and political practices.

Thanks to new e-friend Laila Rashidie for the heads-up re: Rancourt; thanks to old friend Gregor Brandt for the cartoon above (which makes me feel a bit better, should Rancourt be right).

Source: The New York Times

Today’s Times offers this ‘Op-Chart’ showing a comparison of American and allied deaths in Iraq and Afghanistan during 2009 by means of a map and legend to illustrate details. Accompanying text speaks about the tragedy of the “loss of any American life” and explains that “the colors on the chart show the extent to which the Western allies are sharing the deadly burden,”—invisible and unmentioned are the fatalities among either the “non-Western” Iraqi Army or Afghan Army and security personnel, deaths among what the U.S. considers to be ‘enemy combatants,’ deaths among civilian populations of either arena, or statistics on the massive numbers of serious injuries (physical and psychological) or refugee displacements that these wars have brought with them.

An aspect of this that I find extremely troublesome is the portrayal of an American or Western life (or death) as somehow being more valuable than that of another human being from a different hemisphere. This is consistent with a disturbing trend appearing in mainstream media over the past few years (the de-humanization of “the other”), creating further rifts between “them” and “us.” I choose to continue to believe that each life is worth as much as every other life.

Conservative estimates of total human death-tolls to date resulting from U.S.-led wars on/in Iraq (2003-2010…) and Afghanistan (2001-2010…) are in the hundreds of thousands. Canadian combatants are also engaged in Afghanistan (recent deaths shown in red) much to my chagrin and shame…

(unknown individual, location, and source)*

* Thanks to an e-mail from Rod at www.creativeroots.org I have just learned that the above image is actually of Trolltunga, “troll’s tongue”—given the hundreds of photos that show up in a Google image search for Trolltunga, obviously this horizontal slab of rock that sticks out above Skjeggedal is a very popular trekking destination in Norway. Thanks Rod!

See lots more images such as the one below, here…