Leon Gaspard was a Taos painter of the early 20th century, with an eccentric style that makes him marginally less popular than some of his straightforwardly impressionist colleagues. He was a Russian who traveled in the the Soviet Union in the 20’s. Like his predecessor , the poet and novelist Lermontov (grandfather Scot “Learmont”), his …
Month: October 2014
Desideratum
I would like to get this, if I can figure out how to afford it, quite difficult– perhaps my last best chance for a Best gun… There’s always a way…
St Giles Cathedral
Guy Boyd was in Edinborough, and captured not only the cathedral but its amazing animal carvings. Says Guy, “… When they’re visiting, I wonder if these folks contemplate their long tradition of partnership with the animals depicted here in contrast to current restrictive laws.”
Hot Links
The BBC had an interesting write-up on “aircraft boneyards” around the world with lots of emphasis on the USAF facility at Davis-Monthan AFB in Tucson. It’s quite impressive just driving around outside of it. They offer tours and taking one is on my list. Back in my aerospace days I worked at the Mojave Airport where …
Photoblogging: Kurdish Turkey II: Village Life
Hounds, houses, house partridge, sheep, field pigeons… Partridge, called “Keklik” are kept as pets and for calling their wild relatives, which they catch with fine nooses… demonstrated below These “swift” pigeons are bred for show in the west but fly free here. The one on the ground had just evaded a wild Peregrine and was …
Quote
Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn’t go away. – Philip K. Dick, I Hope I Shall Arrive Soon
Not New England
A lot of people think of New Mexico, especially southern New Mexico, as all arid. But our landscape is vertical; ecologically and biologically, we can go from the Mexican border to Canada, from Hepatic tanagers through Red faced warblers to Steller’s jays and Hermit thrushes to Clark’s nutcrackers, in a four- mile stretch. I need …
Scotch
I love single malts. Not everybody does.
“Washington and Moscow”
In 1983, artist and evolutionary biologist John Mcloughlin was so sure of feathered Dinos that, in his novel The Helix and the Sword, he gave the role of the pets and executioners of his post -Apocalyptic Asteroid Belt civilization’s cruel “Regent” to a pair of eagle- like, genetically re- created Deinonychids, with feathers like Golden …
Snaphance Locks
The first, made by a Mongolian blacksmith, is younger than I am. No date on the ornate Italian one, from a Twitter photo recycled by David Zincavage. But remember, the invention of the flintlock , in this form, dates back to almost 1600, and Cherkassov who published the drawing, called them “Primitive” in 1865…