#1954-55

[chicinsilk]

N°155

Givenchy Haute Couture Collection Fall/Winter 1954-55 Black and white wool suit, the collar opens onto a black otter modesty.

Givenchy Collection Haute Couture Automne/Hiver 1954-55 Tailleur en lainage noir et blanc, le col s'ouvre sur une modestie de loutre noire.

Photo Jean Chevalier

[justrambles]

(Beauty and the beast steddie)

No.6 — Stay

As Erica stated, the kids are nerds — surprisingly, even Erica herself.

So obviously the kids get interested in Eddie's stuff, the fantasy books and Dungeons and Dragons manuals and more (turns out they have been big fans of Lord of the Rings since the 50s). And now Eddie is indulging them in the world of fantasy within and beyond Lord of the Rings — that means, he's started to recount his memorable Dungeons and Dragons campaigns to them in the living room. He loves introducing dnd to kids, loved it when he ran the Hellfire club. He wonders if he can play it with these kids. Hopefully.

Eddie thinks he's got the time for it anyway. The storm is still evergoing, painting the world in a gray hue. He didn't expect to be staying here—for two days already— but he guesses it's nice. The kids. Nancy. Steve.

Steve. Since last night's talk, he already feels close to the guy. Eddie feels curious, about why he won't come out, and he nearly gets bitten by Erica when he spaces out thinking about Steve.

That's when a crow runs in.

It's a weird thing to say in your head. Why is it not flying? And how does a crow look so excited? But the kids all act like this is a normal occurrence, so Eddie decides to stay chill, too.

Not having noticed Eddie yet, (which is surprising because he is the biggest lump there) the crow urgently asks,

"Is the Eddie guy still here?"

And quickly finds him herself.

"Good, you're still here. You're staying. I mean, I'm not forcing you to stay, but I'd really like if you did. For a bit longer. You're like, a crazy good thing that's happened to us. Those dorks love you, Nance likes you okay too, And Steve, Steve likes you, he's in a good mood and that's—"

"ROBIN!"

The crow's rambling is only stopped by Steve's voice yelling from upstairs, and Eddie is honestly impressed. He's never seen anyone talk so fast, without control. The crow, Robin, only turns her head towards the stairs and shouts, "Shut up, dingus! I'm trying to do something here, for all of us!"

That causes Steve to grumble, very loudly, from upstairs and shut the door with a bang. Robin doesn't even flinch and turns back to Eddie.

"So, will you stay? With us, for a while?"

Eddie makes a pondering gesture, as if he's thinking it through thoroughly. The kids twitch beside him, waiting for his answer.

"I mean, I couldn't have left if I wanted to right now—not that I want to anyway— but yeah I'll stay, under one condition. That is, only if you answer this question."

"Shoot."

Eddie turns his expression serious, as if he's asking the most difficult question to ever exist.

"Why are you not flying?"

He doesn't know how it's possible, but Robin gives him an incredulous look.

"Have you-, have you tried flying? It takes up more energy than you can imagine. Like, I flap my wings a bit and they get really tired, it gets sore for days after, so it's best if I walk. Or hitch a ride from Steve and Max."

And that... kind of makes sense, okay. So Eddie shrugs to show he's satisfied with the answer.

"Alright, guess I'll be staying then."

***

"So," Eddie begins, leaning his head on the doorframe.

"I guess I'll be in your hair for a while."

Steve's voice comes from behind the door, maybe as close to it as Eddie is right now.

"I guess you will be."

They are talking with the door between them again, Eddie and Steve. This is the fourth time it's happening, because Eddie couldn't stay away after last night and just came back to the door whenever he could. He kind of likes talking like this, he's never talked through doors and somehow it feels more private, more intimate.

"Eddie, about what Robin said—"

Eddie hums, recalling the talk from before.

"Don't-, don't feel pressured to stay, okay? We, uh, the kids love you here but that doesn't mean you have to stay for us. Do... whatever you want. Go wherever you want."

Eddie gives another hum.

"You know, Steve, thanks for the offer but I like it here. Don't have anywhere else to go, anyway. I was only moving out of Indiana because I finished high school and had nothing to do and nowhere to go. Had no place in mind, actually."

Maybe this is where I was supposed to end up.

"So... yeah. I'm not staying only for the kids but for me, too."

There's a pause.

"Yeah?" It's a soft question, looking for affirmation.

"Yeah," Eddie answers.

And then he hastily adds, "And for you, too— since you like me sooo much, Stevie," just because he loves being a menace.

Eddie hears Steve's groan slip out through the crack and cackles.

"Well, don't worry— I like you too, man."

[atrusofmyst]

Not that it changes the main point re: racism and imperialism in LotR, but the quote in question is (emphasis mine):

"And embassies came from many lands and peoples, from the East and the South, and from the borders of Mirkwood, and from Dunland in the west. And the King pardoned the Easterlings that had given themselves up, and sent them away free, and he made peace with the peoples of Harad; and the slaves of Mordor he released and gave to them all the lands about Lake Núrnen to be their own."

The pardon is not for the East and South at large, but for the prisoners of war, specifically those who had given themselves up and asked for mercy after the Ring had been destroyed. Sending them free without even requiring ransom is a huge hand offering, especially compared to the Gondor of old that used to keep the sons of the kings of Harad as hostages to guarantee their tribute (file under "Why Harad hates Gondor, part 27").

mixed feelings about Tolkien making people of the east and south come to Aragorn for pardon like he's actual jesus christ on judgement day, but I really appreciate that Tolkien's idea of a good king is 1) realising that the true enemy is defeated, and not making the war last longer that it needs to last 2) sending free the people who used to be on the other side of the war, but now come to you in peace 3) freeing slaves 4) giving people their land (the woses's land is their own and no-one is allowed to enter without their permission, same for the shire, rohan does not become a part of the Reunited Kingdom, slaves of mordor get land of their own)

[weirdlookindog]

Peter Birkhäuser (1911–1976) - The Inward Gaze, c. 1954-55

[huariqueje]

Soft winter sky , Périgord - Julian Taylor

British , b. 1954 -

Acrylic on canvas . 55 38 cm.

[freetheshit-outofyou]

December 27, 2015, Harlem Globetrotter Meadowlark G. Lemon died at 83.

Meadowlark George Lemon III was born in Wilmington, North Carolina, on April 25, 1932. He discovered the Harlem Globetrotters at 11 years old while watching a newsreel at the local theater. He was determined to one day make the team. Lemon didn’t have enough money to buy basketball equipment, so he made his own. He made the Basketball hoop out of an onion sack and a coat hanger and used an empty carnation milk can as his ball. According to Lemon, he made his first shot, a two-pointer.

He continued to play basketball in high school. Realizing the fierce competition, he logged long hours on the court to strengthen his skills. He briefly attended Florida Agriculture and Mechanical University, a historically black university in Tallahassee, Florida. He was drafted into the Army in 1952. He completed basic training at Fort Jackson, South Carolina, before serving two years in Salzburg, Germany.

While in Germany, Lemon played on an Army base’s basketball team, averaging 55 points a game. He was discharged in 1954. He then played for the Kansas City All-Stars for a year before joining the Harlem Globetrotters. Lemon played for 23 consecutive years with the Harlem Globetrotters and earned the name “Clown Prince of Basketball.” In the 1980s, he started his comedic basketball team “Meadowlark Lemon’s Bucketeers,” and then he established “The Shooting Stars” before founding “Meadowlark Lemon’s Harlem All-Stars.” Lemon returned to the Harlem Globetrotters in 1993 for a 50-game season.

In 1986, Lemon became an ordained minister. In 1989, he founded “Camp Meadowlark,” a camp designed to improve young people’s basketball skills while teaching them the importance of education and staying healthy. He earned his Doctor of Divinity in 1998. In 2003, Lemon was inducted into the NBA Basketball Hall of Fame.

Photo: Meadowlark Lemon. Courtesy of Veterans Affairs

[germanpostwarmodern]

Pniëlkerk (1954-55) in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, by B.T. Boeyinga

[alphynix]

Cadurcodon ardynensis was an odd-toed ungulate that lived in what is now Mongolia during the late Eocene, about 37-34 million years ago.

It was around 2m long (6'6") and, despite its very tapir-like appearance and lack of horns, it was actually closer related to modern rhinoceroses – it was part of a group of early rhino-cousins known as amynodontids, which convergently evolved both hippo-like and tapir-like lifestyles.

Cadurcodon was the most tapir-like of the tapir-like amynodontids, with a short deep skull and retracted nasal bones that indicate it had a well-developed prehensile trunk. Males also had large tusks formed from their upper and lower canine teeth, which may have been used for fighting each other.

———

NixIllustration.com | Tumblr | Patreon

References:

Averianov, Alexander, et al. "A new amynodontid from the Eocene of South China and phylogeny of Amynodontidae (Perissodactyla: Rhinocerotoidea)." Journal of Systematic Palaeontology 15.11 (2017): 927-945. https://doi.org/10.1080/14772019.2016.1256914

Громова, В. [Gromova, V.] Болотные носороги (Amydontidae) Монголии. [Swamp rhinoceroses (Amynodontidae) of Mongolia.] Trudi Paleontol. Inst., Akad. Nauk SSSR 55:85-189 (1954) https://www.geokniga.org/books/13983

Prothero, Donald R., and Robert M. Schoch. Horns, tusks, and flippers: the evolution of hoofed mammals. JHU Press, 2002. http://www.rhinoresourcecenter.com/pdf_files/141/1415340780.pdf

Wall, William P. "Cranial evidence for a proboscis in Cadurcodon and a review of snout structure in the family Amynodontidae (Perissodactyla, Rhinocerotoidea)." Journal of Paleontology (1980): 968-977. https://www.jstor.org/stable/1304363

Wikipedia contributors. “Amynodontidae.” Wikipedia, 17 Dec. 2023, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amynodontidae

Wikipedia contributors. “Ergilin Dzo Formation.” Wikipedia, 12 Feb. 2024, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ergilin_Dzo_Formation

[werrrrrrrrrrrrrrrcat]

Inspired by the scene from 1954-55 series with Ronald Howard as Holmes!

Absolutely loved it, redrew it with my designs

[vintagelasvegas]

1500-1506 Las Vegas Blvd. Leavitt Building AKA Lincoln Market and Shopping Center (1954), today’s Travelers B&B Hotel (2020s).

In the 1940s, Lincoln Auto Court operated here at the intersection of Las Vegas Blvd, S. 3rd St, and Utah Ave, at a time when this was still the southern edge of town. Gerald Leavitt, fresh from the U.S. Air Force, bought Lincoln Auto Court and added Lincoln Market. Gerald and brother Vaughn Leavitt built the 2-story Leavitt Building in 1954. The building had the market on the ground floor, 20 offices upstairs, and a single story row of motel rooms in back. Sierra Construction Corp, contractor. Ray W. Baldwin & Richard C. Bledsoe, architects. Lincoln Market and Shopping Center had a grand opening Jan. ’55.

Leavitt brothers also opened the modern Towne & Country Motel.

Several businesses have come and gone from the retail space. In the '70s-2010s the lodging in back was Silver Spur Hotel.

Circa early 50s, facing South 3rd St facing south towards Utah Ave. Sign for Lincoln Auto Court on the far block. In the center of the photo is Ritz Vegas Motel, a sign which still stands in the 2020s.

Construction of the Leavitt Building. Review-Journal, 9/20/54.

Gerald (left) and Vaughn (right) in front of Lincoln Market, Leavitt Building, 1950s.

Interior of Lincoln Market. Review-Journal, 1/26/55.

Photos and source information from Lisa Messenger. Lincoln Market photo, yearbook scan from Dane Michael Bruce. Other sources include New Oil Company Opens in Vegas. Review-Journal, 3/13/42; A Few New and Used Mattresses (advt). Review-Journal, 12/1/42 p9; Western Finance (advt). Review-Journal, 11/30/42 p5; Parade (advt). Review-Journal, 11/20/47 p17; New Building. Review-Journal, 9/20/54 p7; New Grocery Market Open On Thursday. Review-Journal, 1/26/55 p15.

[chicinsilk]

Marc Bohan for Jean Patou Haute Couture Collection Fall/Winter 1954-55. Marie-Hélène Arnaud wears a cocktail ensemble, dress and coat. The puffy skirt is in gold faille.

Marc Bohan pour Jean Patou Collection Haute Couture Automne/Hiver 1954-55. Marie-Hélène Arnaud porte un ensemble de cocktail, robe et manteau La jupe gonflée est en faille dorée.

Photo Philippe Pottier

[nofatclips-home]

The Ultimate Film Studies Watchlist:

Pre-1920s 4:52 The Films of the Edison Labs 6:05 The Films of Louis and Auguste Lumiére 6:57 The Big Swallow (1901) 7:56 Le Voyage Dans La Lune (1902) 9:04 The Great Train Robbery (1903) 10:07 Fantasmagorie (1908) 10:56 Suspense (1913) 11:41 The Birth of a Nation (1915) 13:48 Intolerance (1916) 14:56 J'accuse (1919)

The 1920s 15:52 The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920) 16:46 The Phantom Carriage (1921) 17:29 Haxan (1922) 18:07 Sherlock Jr. (1924) 18:51 Greed (1924) 19:33 The Last Laugh (1924) 20:25 Battleship Potemkin (1925) 22:25 A Page of Madness (1926) 23:10 Metropolis (1927) 23:51 Napoleon (1927) 25:02 Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans (1927) 25:43 The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928) 26:57 Un Chien Andalou (1929) 27:22 Man with a Movie Camera (1929)

The 1930s 28:50 M (1931) 29:35 Freaks (1932) 30:24 The Testament of Dr. Mabuse (1933) 30:54 Duck Soup (1933) 32:04 L'Atalante (1934) 33:01 Modern Times (1936) 33:36 Snow White and the Seven Dwarves (1937) 35:45 Stagecoach (1939) 36:26 The Rules of the Game (1939) 37:48 Gone with the Wind (1939)

The 1940s 39:18 The Great Dictator (1940) 39:59 Fantasia (1941) 41:20 Citizen Kane (1941) 43:15 To Be or Not To Be (1942) 44:56 Meshes of the Afternoon (1943) 45:49 Casablanca (1943) 46:56 Double Indemnity (1944) 48:18 Ivan the Terrible (1944) 48:51 Beauty and the Beast (1946) 49:50 Paisan (1946) 50:39 Brief Encounter (1946) 51:25 The Bicycle Thieves (1948) 52:43 Children of the Beehive (1948) 53:15 The Red Shoes (1948) 54:17 The Third Man (1949)

The 1950s 55:35 Sunset Blvd. (1950) 56:28 Los Olvidados (1950) 57:26 Rashomon (1951) 58:42 Singin' in the Rain (1952) 59:34 Tokyo Story (1953) 1:00:59 Ugetsu (1954) 1:01:35 Rear Window (1954) 1:02:42 The Night of the Hunter (1955) 1:03:42 Ordet (1955) 1:04:17 Pather Panchali (1955) 1:04:57 Seven Samurai (1956) 1:06:25 The Searchers (1956) 1:07:25 A Man Escaped (1957) 1:08:27 The Cranes are Flying (1957) 1:09:08 Touch of Evil (1957) 1:09:51 Vertigo (1958) 1:11:22 The 400 Blows (1959)

The 1960s 1:12:53 Psycho (1960) 1:13:42 L'Avventura (1961) 1:14:39 Lawrence of Arabia (1962) 1:15:35 La Jetee (1962) 1:16:10 Vivre Sa Vie (1963) 1:17:17 8 1/2 (1963) 1:18:04 It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963) 1:18:50 The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (1964) 1:19:26 Woman in the Dunes (1965) 1:20:01 Persona (1966) 1:21:08 The Battle of Algiers (1966) 1:21:52 Andrei Rublev (1966) 1:22:42 Playtime (1967) 1:23:18 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) 1:24:28 Kes (1969) 1:25:23 Once Upon a Time in the West (1969) 1:26:25 The Color of Pomegranates (1969) 1:27:07 Army of Shadows (1969)

The 1970s 1:28:25 The Conformist (1970) 1:28:53 A Touch of Zen (1971) 1:29:37 The Godfather Part I & II (1972-1974) 1:30:37 Pink Flamingos (1972) 1:31:45 The Spirit of the Beehive (1973) 1:32:39 The Exorcist (1973) 1:33:08 La Maman et la Putain (1973) 1:34:22 Badlands (1973) 1:34:53 The Conversation (1974) 1:35:32 A Woman Under the Influence (1975) 1:36:45 Jeanne Dielman 23 Quai du Commerce 1080 Bruxelle (1975) 1:37:52 Salo or the 120 Days of Sodom (1975) 1:39:05 Nashville (1975) 1:39:40 Jaws (1975) 1:40:47 Barry Lyndon (1975) 1:41:17 Taxi Driver (1976) 1:42:28 Eraserhead (1977) 1:43:37 Stars Wars (1977) 1:44:41 House (1977) 1:45:09 Alien (1979) 1:46:22 Apocalypse Now (1979) 1:47:32 Stalker (1979)

The 1980s 1:48:43 Raging Bull (1980) 1:49:33 The Shining (1980) 1:50:27 Pixote (1980) 1:51:10 Koyaanisqatsi (1982) 1:52:08 Videodrome (1983) 1:52:32 Ran (1985) 1:53:27 Come and See (1985) 1:54:23 Tenshi no Tamago (1985) 1:55:23 A Short Film About Killing (1988) 1:56:20 A City of Sadness (1989) 1:57:24 The Cook, The Thief, His Wife and Her Lover (1989) 1:58:31 Tetsuo: The Iron Man (1989) 1:59:42 Do the Right Thing (1989)

The 1990s 2:00:54 Goodfellas (1990) 2:01:48 Close-Up (1990) 2:02:49 A Brighter Summer Day (1991) 2:03:51 Man Bites Dog (1992) 2:04:42 Hardboiled (1992) 2:05:43 Satantango (1994) 2:07:12 Pulp Fiction (1994) 2:08:28 Clerks (1994) 2:09:34 The Lion King (1994) 2:10:21 La Haine (1995) 2:11:25 Cure (1997) 2:12:00 Festen (1998) 2:12:54 Beau Travail (1998) 2:13:27 Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai (1999) 2:14:22 The Matrix (1999) 2:15:10 American Movie (1999)

[monkeyssalad-blog]

Frontispiece of Film Review featuring Marilyn Monroe by totallymystified Via Flickr: From Film Review, Volume 11, 1954-55 by F. Maurice Speed.

[weirdlookindog]

Peter Birkhäuser (1911–1976) - Depression, 1954-55

[kaurwreck]

There's certainly Something about singularities in Bungou Stray Dogs presenting as massive, myth-derived creatures with more than passing resemblances to kaiju given the setting predates its analog to World War II.

Gojira and the kaiju genre were born in the aftermath of Hiroshima, Nagasaki, and the Lucky Dragon Incident (in which an American hydrogen bomb test rained radioactive ash on a Japanese fishing boat and much of the South Pacific). Life form singularities (like Chuuya and Verlaine), the Seven Traitors, the Transcendants, Mori's fixation on skill-based warfare, and everything else about the Great War all indicate that skills are akin to nuclear arms.

But unlike nuclear arms, skills are generally framed as intrinsic to their user. They're neurological; as much as part of skill users' wiring as the rest of their synapses. Even for Kyouka, whose skill was inherited but not fully integrated, her skill more resembles hereditary neurochemical wiring than it does nuclear proliferation.

Gojira (1954) ends with Dr. Serizawa's promise that hydrogen bombs would always assure nightmarish, monstrous manifestations of the horrors of war. You'd think Dazai's gift, then, would be the enigmatic focal skill of the series; he's capable of nullifying hydrogen bombs, after all.

But it's Atsushi and his celestial Byakko that Shibusawa calls the antithesis of all other abilities. And, as explained in 55 Minutes, Byakko doesn't heal or regenerate Atsushi, it negates his wounds. Atsushi isn't only a particularly tenacious shounen protagonist, Byakko compels him to stand when he's been cut down. When Atsushi is at the edge of death, Byakko consumes him completely, and Atsushi is lost within him, moreso than even Chuuya is in his Corruption state (Chuuya is fully conscious in Corruption— if Atsushi is conscious, he's either repressing or sluggishly recalling the memory of what occurred). Akutagawa also mentions during the Cannibalism arc that Atsushi's claws cut through skills themselves (even Rashoumon, which eats space). Akutagawa also becomes aware, in 55 Minutes, that Byakko can be triggered by Atsushi's peril, and Akutagawa does so to negate the manifestation of a seemingly transcendant skill that otherwise had utterly defanged them (although he seems sorry to have to do it).

Nevertheless, although Atsushi's Byakko seemingly negates the metaphorical horrors of the Great War illustrated by the others and their relationships with their skills, it's Atsushi who posits that perhaps skills aren't innate. He says to Kunikida, "Maybe they come from somewhere else and stick to us. Maybe they're something we can't understand... I don't really know how to put it into words, but that's how I feel."

Much of 55 Minutes is colored by Atsushi's fear of Byakko and his understanding that Byakko could devour him. His fear is seemingly validated by the antagonist, a manifestation of a skill that seemingly swallowed its human. But although textually consistent with his expressed fear, Atsushi's tone, demeanor, timing, and thought processes from when he speaks that line until the light novel ends aren't. His musings reflect his namesake's exploration of and uneasy relationship with the nature of existence, which he understood to be constructed by one's culture and environment better than most due to his somewhat rootless childhood.

I think it's interesting that someone with a skill capable of cutting through other skills, negating wounds, and antithesizing all skills challenges whether skills are innate at all. And if they're not, what does that imply about the parallels between skills, the horrors of war, and the fear of nuclear holocaust?

It's important to me that the scars of American imperialism and disregard for the sanctity of life are not erased from the narrative when discussing the world wars and nuclear proliferation. So I hesitate to posit anything about what skills may be in Bungou Stray Dogs that is too abstracted from trauma wrought by Western imperialism, Japanese imperialism, or the horrors of World Wars I & II. But perhaps that's it; when Atsushi speculates that skills are something that sticks to you, I'm reminded of how trauma has shaped and informed his own. He is certain that Byakko's negation and restless hunger are connected to his birth and subsequent suffering. At first, I thought we were being teased with his early background. But there's no need to tease; the reason so many characters in Bungou Stray Dogs are orphans directly relates to the Great War and the generational trauma still reverberating in its aftermath, and amid the threat of another, even more destructive war.

Perhaps Atsushi was implying that skills are constructs born not from any innate self, if there's such a thing, but from traumas, experiences, needs, cultures, and environments. Which is to say that skills aren't separable, exactly, from their users, but they're not innate either. They're like our personalities: immutable once shaped in the crucible of our most formative years, but nevertheless reflections of not only ourselves, but of what we need and who we become when confronted by others, in all of their beauty and horror.

Thus, perhaps it isn't Atsushi's skill that's so very antithetical to all others. It's his understanding of it, his ability to cut through to others, his compassion, his cowardice, his curiosity, and his separation from his sense of self that both inflicted him with Byakko and which will allow him to transcend it to become who he desires to be. It reminds me that, shortly before his death, his namesake decided to become a writer. And that although he wrote and lived only briefly, his sincerity, thoughtfulness, and introspective skepticism cut, and continue to cut, with a brilliance emblematic of life.

Anyway. Atsushi is both the main character and protagonist of Bungou Stray Dogs. Dazai knows this, too; even if he can nullify Byakko, he's just as impacted by Atsushi's brimming earnestness as everyone else Atsushi encounters. Atsushi liberates the narrative so that it's not a warning that the horrors of war will proliferate so long as we are capable of mass destruction, but instead it's a promise that hope needn't be intrinsic to persist all the same.

[joeinct]

Men at Racetrack, Photo by Ralph Eugene Meatyard, c. 1954-55