humblepomp-blog

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Up Up and Away

Two images, yet it’s the same Maine schooner photographed just minutes apart.  The main difference - the direction of the sun.

www.sbbphotography.com

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Now that I'm stuck on land, I think I'm dying.

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I spent December through March working on a schooner in the Bahamas. I have sailed the Atlantic Ocean twice, been through nasty storms during said trips, and I can now successfully cook a pot of beans in 15 foot seas. I have many photos and stories that I would like to share but for now here is one of me chipping rust on the bow pulpit in Nassau harbor.

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Dark Waters: Paintings by Thierry de Cordier

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I have been meaning to write about this for over a week but unfortunately I haven't had a ton of time. On the 18th John and I took part in Mudlark Highway (http://carolinamudlark.tumblr.com), "A CROSS-CAROLINA SCAVENGER HUNT & EXPEDITION IN REVERSE ARCHAEOLOGY." I'll write a little more in depth about the experience later but for now I have to shower, do laundry, and study for some exams.  Here is the ceramic pitcher plant and sign that was positioned in Wilmington, North Carolina.

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The Ram in a Thicket, from Ur, southern Iraq, about 2600-2400 BC.

Courtesy & currently located at the British Museum, London:

It was named the ‘Ram in a Thicket’ by the excavator Leonard Woolley, who liked biblical allusions. In Genesis 22:13, God ordered Abraham to sacrifice his son Isaac, but at the last moment ‘Abraham lifted up his eyes, and looked, and behold behind him a ram caught in a thicket by his horns: and Abraham went and took the ram, and offered him up for a burnt offering in the stead of his son’.

The figure had been crushed flat by the weight of the soil and the wooden core had perished. Wax was used to keep the pieces together as it was lifted from the ground, and it was then pressed back into shape. The ram’s head and legs are covered in gold leaf, its ears are copper (now green), its twisted horns and the fleece on its shoulders are of lapis lazuli, and its body fleece is made of shell. Its genitals are gold. The tree is covered in gold leaf, with golden flowers, the whole supported on a small rectangular base decorated with a mosaic of shell, red limestone and lapis lazuli.

Photo taken by geni

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Franz von Stuck, The Murderer, 1891

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Catnatomy

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William Merritt Chase, White Cockatoo, c. 1880

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Alabaster’s Eye of Horus.  With a letterpressed cover and a silkscreened inside cover!

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What Cat Food Tastes Like

While preparing dinner at a friend’s apartment a few nights ago, I asked if their cat should eat too. Then someone fed the cat. Then I asked if I should eat cat food too. Then people said “yes” and I did. I think that’s how it happened. I know it started as a joke but then it tasted surprisingly OK. Later at a deli I excitedly selected cans of wet cat food for a taste-test experiment I promised myself I’d do first thing in the morning. After my hangover subsided, I felt more able to seriously consider two futures: the one where I’d never know what wet cat food tasted like, and the one where I would. In both futures I’d eventually end up dead, but the one where I’d eat cat food seemed more exciting. With that said, actually making myself eat the canned reconstituted meat morsels took longer than anticipated. I succumbed to misguidedly productive acts like finding “the perfect eating-cat-food outfit” (pink striped dress: too naive; button-down under a black sweater: too smart; red flannel dress: just right?), photo-testing locations for the best place to eat (a plate on the floor: obvious and kitschy; sitting at a table: unrealistically ordinary; bed: psychotic), and letting “research-based” internet activity devolve into gawking at YouTube videos about cannibalism and falling asleep with a knife under my pillow. OK. Enough explaining, I’m introducing this like I’ve committed a sex crime or something. I ate some cat food. That’s all that happened. Here’s what I thought.

Purina Cat Chow: Naturals Plus Vitamins & Minerals

Packaging: 16-ounce green bag with a Ziploc seal for freshness. Features colorful clip art-like illustrations of vegetables, grains, and a woman resembling Mona Lisa sleepily nurturing a happy, attentive cat on her lap.

Aroma: A little vitamin-y.

Texture: Harder than Captain Crunch, but denser, so it didn’t make those little cuts on the roof of my mouth. Moist enough so there was no fight to combine it with saliva, but crunchy enough to not let me forget I was chewing.

Flavor: I remember saying “it’s like those ‘Chicken in a Biscuit’ crackers” and “it’s ‘umami,’ do you guys know ‘umami,’ that new taste called ‘umami?’” There was a tangy aftertaste. It wasn’t unpleasant at all. Ate a few voluntary handfuls.

Beverage pairing: An affordable sparkling wine. I had been drinking Korbel (Brut, I think) at the time, but a sweeter Prosecco would also fare nicely.

Closing remarks: Could be transformed into larger vessels for humans to spread cheese on.

Continue

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Ludwig Deutsch, Egyptian Priest Entering a Temple, 1892

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cant find the name of this artist to save my life HNNNGGGG

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Gordon Parks, Dr. Kenneth B. Clark conducting the Doll Test, Harlem, New York, 1947

In the “doll test,” psychologists Kenneth and Mamie Clark used four plastic, diaper-clad dolls, identical except for color. They showed the dolls to black children between the ages of three and seven and asked them questions to determine racial perception and preference. Almost all of the children readily identified the race of the dolls. However, when asked which they preferred, the majority selected the white doll and attributed positive characteristics to it. The Clarks also gave the children outline drawings of a boy and girl and asked them to color the figures the same color as themselves. Many of the children with dark complexions colored the figures with a white or yellow crayon. The Clarks concluded that “prejudice, discrimination, and segregation” caused black children to develop a sense of inferiority and self-hatred. This photograph was taken by Gordon Parks for a 1947 issue of Ebony magazine. (via)