NEW ASTRONOMICAL PHOTOS 2014

Here's two photos taken by the Curiosity Rover on Mars. What are those small stones on the ground? One is a ball and the others are star patterns of some sort.

Above is a picture of the four habitable moons of Jupiter and Saturn. It's not impossible that life may be found on these worlds, though in the case of Titan it would have to be life that could exist in liquid methane.

If you're surprised to see Ganymede on that list, that's because interior seas have recently been detected there.

 Here's (above) surface detail on the Comet Churyumov-Gerisimenko. The Rosetta probe continues to map it in an attempt to find a suitable spot for its lander. This picture was taken only a few weeks ago.

 Hubble took this picture (above) of the Bubble Nebula. It looks tiny in this photo but actually it's immense. The bubble you see is 10 light years in diameter and was ejected from a giant star that's visible inside the nebula.

Here's (above) a galaxy that's visible with the naked eye. It's a little galaxy called the Small Magellanic Cloud. It's in the process of colliding with our own galaxy, as is its  namesake, The Large Magellanic Cloud (not visible here). Our galaxy is larger and older than many and has likely absorbed other galaxies in the past. Maybe that's how the Milky Way got the bar in the middle of the pinwheel.

I never heard of this (above) til recently but evidently it's something enthususiasts have known about for a long time: the Zodiacal Light. It's dim but you can see it with the naked eye on an unusually clear night. It's a disc of dust that surrounds the sun on the same plane as most planets and asteroids. We see it edgewise because we're on the same plane.

The Milky Way has recently been identified as a member of a cluster of thousands of galaxies called The Laniakea Supercluster. That's a computer generated image of it above. The white dots in the green areas are all galaxies. The wispy white lines track the paths of galaxies toward Laniakea's center.

White dots outside the orange line belong to other super clusters, even though the picture makes it appear that they belong with us. I have a feeling there's an interesting story behind that.

BEGINNING A STORY

I've been reading some pulp-type stories and I thought it might be fun to discuss the first paragraph of one of them. I liked it so much that I whipped out an index card and quickly wrote my own bad version of it so I'd have something to compare it to. I say "quickly" because if I'd taken time to think about it I'd likely have repeated what I'd just read. I wanted to see how my own brain spontaneously organized the same facts the pro had to work with.

So here's (below) my clunky version.....

"Jane startled to wakefulness when she heard sounds on the staircase outside the bedroom door. 'Bill! Wake up! Someone's in the house,' she exclaimed, but her husband wasn't there. Could it be him making the sounds? Hesitatingly she got out of bed and pressed her ear to the bedroom door." 

I know, I know...it sounds like an accountant wrote it. Okay, here's (below) the pro version....

"Laura Standish blurted out her husband's name before she was fully awake. "Frank!" But there was no answer. Even before she realized just what it was that had awakened her, a chill little quiver of dread brushed her spine."

That's it...simple and elegant! So what are the differences? Exactly how did the pro make me look so stupid?

Well, for one thing he gave the woman a likable, dignified name that made me care about her. For another the pro had her utter only one word: "Frank." There was no need to go on about somebody being in the house. It was implied.

There's also no need to have her reason out that Frank might have made the sounds. It's too early for that. Her first thought after calling for her husband and getting no answer would be one of animal terror. Besides, terror creates a better mental picture than sleuthing does.

Last but not least, is the issue of euphony or whatever you want to call it. I had the woman "exclaim." The pro had her "blurt out." I also like the sound of "little quiver of dread that brushed her spine." This writer is alternately lean and ornate. It's a combination that works. And "brushed her spine"...what an interesting image!

Hmmm...did I leave anything out? If so, let me know.

IDEAS FOR HALLOWEEN MASKS

Here's (above) some examples of Pre-Colombian Inca sculpture. So far as I know the Incas were the world's first funny cartoonists, only their medium was pottery and sculpture, rather than paper. The L. A. County Museum has a terrific collection of these funny sculptures but it doesn't get much attention, maybe because the items are so tiny...pocket-size in some cases. Even in the Inca Golden Age officially sanctioned art was serious and large and the funny art that people actually enjoyed was small and portable.

[IMPORTANT NOTE: If the samples shown above are authentic then a major re-assessment of Inca art is in order, but I don't want to mislead anyone. I got these images from the internet by searching for things like "funny Inca art." The internet being what it is, it's possible that my sources threw Mayan and Aztec pieces into the mix without proper attribution, or that the time of origin was screwed up. I accept the pieces above as authentically pre-Colombian Inca because they're consistent with the humorous style of the curated pieces I encountered at the County Museum Inca exhibit.]

The reason I mention the Incas is to demonstrate that major trends in art are still, even today, neglected by historians. Even when good art is created under their noses historians fail to notice. Why isn't the Smithsonian beating down John K's door, begging for drawings?  Why is the work of recent Mexican folk artists ignored?

I don't know about you, but I find Mexican masks like this one (above) to be hilarious. Artful, too.

Haw! Why aren't museums collecting these!??

Wow! I can't believe how nuanced the expressions on some of these masks are! 

Some of the latest Mexican masks suffer from being too slick. Even so, they're not without interest. I'm guessing they're made to sell to tourists, but they succeed in spite of that.

For comparison here's (above) a recent African mask. It's technically well done, but it's bland and looks like it was made solely to fit the taste of black intellectuals in New York City.

I like this recent one (above) a lot better. It's funny and manages to capture the awesome vitality of youth. It also looks like it would appeal to tribal Africans, and not just to tourists.

I wish I could say the same for this recent Polynesian mask, above. Am I imagining it or does it show an anime influence?  It just doesn't feel authentically Oceanic.

New Mexican masks on the other hand, seem comfortable in their own skin. They're a bit slick but large numbers of them still manage to comment on the human condition.

I can't help thinking that Central and South America are destined to become serious cultural powerhouses in the not-too-distant future. Mexico will be a big player in that. As soon as architecture drops its silly bias against ornamental buildings the old Aztec and Mayan traditions of that country may come into play again, only in modern adaptions.

ADDITIONAL HALLOWEEN PICTURES

Vintage magic posters make great Halloween decorations. Here's (above) one of my favorites. The paniced audience has been driven mad with fright.

This (above) is for Theory Cornerites who prefer simple, easy to read faces.

Is this (above) a detail from a book cover? I'm not sure. It would make a great stage set. 

Robots (above) are a popular subject for porch decorations. IMO they're twice as effective if they're giving grief to a dummy.

This (above) is one of the all-time best magic posters. It's of Kellar and the date on it is 1894...120 years ago!

This looks like an old carnival sideshow banner, but it's rendered so beautifully that it might have been a poster.

Here's (above) another rendered sideshow banner, this time of a spider woman. I've seen this kind of thing before. I guess that was a common attraction way back when.

DonB sent a link to a site that featured plenty of women in sideshow spider outfits. I'll hazard a guess that the carnival made money by selling Polaroid-type photos of audience volunteers in costume.

TIM BURTON INSPIRED COSTUMES

Wow! Here's a beautiful costume in the Tim Burton vein.

Here's Burton's "Blue Girl with Wine." It's inspired lots of Halloween costumes. 

Here's (above) one. 

And here's (above) a similar one, inspired maybe by "Corpse Bride." It looks like this girl  has contact lenses with white corneas. 

Here's contacts with black corneas! Can you really buy things like that?

Holy Mackerel!!!! Where do I get hold of this (above)? I must have one!!!

A nice photo! No wonder photographers like cloudy days! 

Not bad, not bad!

SCARY HALLOWEEN PICTURES

Some artists have a knack for simple, dramatic graphics. It's a rare skill that adds value to whatever it's applied to. If this (above) were a book cover you'd have to check out what was inside, almost regardless of the subject. 

I think the artist was Don Heck. His work in this period was wonderfully stylish. 

Unfortunately he didn't stay that way (above). What happens to artists as they get older? Why the decline? I don't know the answer, but B. F. Skinner wrote about the subject and offered this solution: start a new career in midlife. Would that work? I wonder. 

  

Anyway, back to Halloween weirdness. Are there people with hands so big and powerful that they could grab somebody's midsection like this? It's a gruesome thought.

Maybe if Goliath had grabbed David...but no, not even then. I love the ability that art has to make the implausible seem plausible. Something like this would make a great carnival sideshow banner.

 Framed funny faces make great Halloween porch decorations.

Here's (above) a good one of Frederick March. 

Yikes!

Here's a picture by Travis Louie, the popular painter of portraits that morph into monsters. This artist deserves some kind of life achievement award because for decades he's produced new high quality pictures every year.

MORE HALLOWEEN PICTURES (2014)

 Voila!...the ultimate Halloween pictures! They're from French 19th Century stereoscopic images called "Diableries." They were the ViewMaster images of their day, sculpted in clay on tabletops.

The composition and textures are awe-inspiring.

The frontal images were monochrome but If the images were reversed and viewed from the back, some of the figures would appear in color.

That's because a gel containing watercolor tints was sandwiched inside and covered with tissue to disguise the technique.

The Diableries bear a resemblance to Mexican folk art dioramas (above). Is that a coincidence? Mexico and France were briefly joined (well, sort of) in the 19th Century. Maybe some kind of cultural pollination occurred during that time.

Many thanks to Brian May and his colleagues for what appears to be a terrific book on the subject!