#metropolitan museum of art (1981)

[memories-of-ancients]

Model of a shield and quiver with javelins, Egypt, Middle Kingdom circa 1981-1802 BC

from The Metropolitan Museum of Art

[digitalfashionmuseum]

Blue Quilted Silk Robe à la Française, ca. 1750, European.

Met Museum.

[egypt-museum]

Model of a Slaughter House

Middle Kingdom, 12th Dynasty, ca. 1981-1975 BC. Tomb of Meketre (TT280), Sheikh Abd el-Qurna, Thebes. Now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. 20.3.10

This model of a slaughter house was discovered in a hidden chamber beside twenty-three other models of boats, gardens, and workshops that led to the royal chief steward Meketre’s rock-cut tomb. Meketre started working for the kings of the 11th Dynasty under King Nebhepetre Mentuhotep II and continued to serve them until the early 12th Dynasty.

In the big hall, two oxen are being slaughtered. Two men are stabbing their necks while their legs are trussed together. Two guys stand beside them, holding bowls to gather the blood that the men in the corner, fanning fires beneath kettles, will turn into pudding. Holding batons, a supervisor and a clerk supervise the slaughtering and plucking of a goose. Meat joints dangle overhead on the balcony. Meat joints are held together by repaired cords.

Read more

[lionofchaeronea]

Ancient Egyptian model boat (painted wood) belonging to one Ukhhotep. Artist unknown; ca. 1981-1802 BCE (12th Dynasty, Middle Kingdom). Now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

[surra-de-bunda]

Iman with Calvin Klein photographed by Ron Galella at the Eighteenth-Century Woman exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Costume Institute (December 1981). This was Iman's first Met Gala.

[modelsof-color]

Rei Kawakubo ( 川久保 玲) is a Japanese avant-gardist of few words, and she changed women’s fashion.

Kawakubo was born in 1942 in Tokio, three years before the atomic bombs landed on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. She studied the history of aesthetics—both Japanese and Western—at Keio University, worked in advertising for a spell at a textile company, and then started working as a freelance stylist in 1967. Kawakubo opened her first office in Paris and staged her first Comme des Garçons ("Comme des garçons” means “like some boys), show there in 1981. Not surprisingly, one of her favorite themes is punk, which was waking up the world to the principles of individual choice and just-do-it spirit just as her brand was finding its feet. Her conceptual clothes, mostly black and often tattered with holes, were an affront to the sexy, body-conscious fashions of the time—such as Mugler and Montana. But over the course of the '80s, Kawakubo's intellectual and feminist take on fashion often mirrored the cultural and emotional turmoil of women infiltrating the male-dominated work world. It also began to influence a new generation of designers

Being one of fashion's most influential designers, Rei Kawakubo strives to challenge the form the traditional garment. Kawakubo is the second living designer to be honored for an exhibition at the Institute of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. This Comme des Garçons exhibition in particular highlights key themes that have inspired and continue to inspire her creativity as a designer.In the context of the human form, the body is radically reconsidered. She proposes new ideas of beauty by creating organic forms and protrusions in her garments, creating outfits that discard standard sizes. An example of an exhibition in which she radically questions form is her spring/summer 1997 collection, known as "Body Meets Dress, Dress Meets Body". Through this exhibition Kawakubo is targeting body modification through dress, generating unstructured dresses and forms that don't highlight on erogenous zones of the body. By doing this, she is also questioning ideas surrounding gender and the body creating transgressive forms, discarding stereotypes surrounding the female.

Kawakubo’s clothes may have the rigor of modernist architecture but there are loose flaps, extraneous arms, and asymmetrical edges that let the wearer improvise her own particular style of dress. It is not rare to see shredded dresses, blood-red hoods, or large bulges protruding from odd places on the “Comme” runway. The clothes look like they are designed to reject description, indeed, they seem to be deliberately constructed to confuse and repel bystanders. This act of rebellion may come off as shock theater, but it actually offers something much more compelling: distance that allows for self-expression. In avoiding trends and convention, Kawakubo’s clothes embody a clear mantra: when others do not understand you, they are unable to define you. Ultimately, it is up to you to define yourself, be it through your clothes or the things that you say. Dressing for yourself, as opposed to dressing to make others comfortable, is an act of freedom that only fashion can offer.

[aistathatos]

Collage, I like destruction (name is still in progress, much like the rest of the piece) made using

Augustus of Prima Porta, unknown (1 ad)

The Wedding at Cana, Paolo Veronese (1562-1563)

Ciphers and Constellations, in love with a woman (1941)

Jeff Koon, Lobster (2003)

Untitled (Cala Lilies) - Donald Sultan 1998

Charioteer of Delphi - INIOCHOS - 470 to 478 BC

Boy and Dog in a Johnnypump - Jean-Michel Basquiat - 1982

Head (1981) Jean-Michel Basquiat

Marble Statue of Aphrodite - Roman Imperial - the metropolitan Museum of Art

ludovosi Ares - Lysippos - 4th Century BCE

Winged Victory - unknown sculptor - 4th century BC

[moneeb0930]

➡THE FIRST AFRICAN-AMERICAN TO BECOME A NOTED FASHION DESIGNER

Ann Cole Lowe (December 14, 1898 – February 25, 1981) was the first African American to become a noted fashion designer. Lowe's one-of-a-kind designs were a favorite among high society matrons from the 1920s to the 1960s. She was best known for designing the ivory silk taffeta wedding dress worn by Jacqueline Bouvier when she married John F. Kennedy in 1953.

In 1917, Lowe and her son moved to New York City, where she enrolled at S.T. Taylor Design School. As the school was segregated, Lowe was required to attend classes in a room alone. However, segregation did not stop her, and she still managed to rise above her peers in school. Her work was often shown to her white peers in recognition of her outstanding artistry, and she was eligible for graduation after attending school for only half a year. After graduating in 1919, Lowe and her son moved to Tampa, Florida.

The following year, she opened her first dress salon. The salon catered to members of high society and quickly became a success. Having saved $20,000 from her earnings, Lowe returned to New York City in 1928. During the 1950's and 1960's, she worked on commission for stores such as Henri Bendel, Montaldo's, I. Magnin, Chez Sonia, Neiman Marcus, and Saks Fifth Avenue. In 1946, she designed the dress that Olivia de Havilland wore to accept the Academy Award for Best Actress for To Each His Own, although the name on the dress was Sonia Rosenberg.

As she was not getting credit for her work, Lowe and her son opened a second salon, Ann Lowe's Gowns, in New York City on Lexington Avenue in 1950. Her one-of-a-kind designs made from the finest fabrics were an immediate success and attracted many wealthy, high society clients. Design elements for which she was known include fine handwork, signature flowers, and trapunto technique. Her signature designs are what helped her eventually become recognized for her work. In 1964, the Saturday Evening Post later called Lowe "society's best kept secret" and in 1966, Ebony magazine referred to her as "The Dean of American Designers. Throughout her career, Lowe was known for being highly selective in choosing her clientele.

In 1953, Janet Lee Auchincloss hired Lowe to design a wedding dress for her daughter, the future First Lady Jacqueline Bouvier, and the dresses for her bridal attendants for her September wedding to then-Senator John F. Kennedy. Auchincloss also chose Lowe to design her own wedding dress for her marriage to Hugh D. Auchincloss in 1942. While the Bouvier-Kennedy wedding was a highly publicized event, Lowe did not receive public credit for her work until after the assassination of John F. Kennedy.

Throughout her career, Lowe continued to work for wealthy clientele who often talked her out of charging hundreds of dollars for her designs. After paying her staff, she often failed to make a profit on her designs. Lowe later admitted that at the height of her career, she was virtually broke. In 1961 she received the Couturier of the Year award but in 1962, she lost her salon in New York City after failing to pay taxes. That same year, her right eye was removed due to glaucoma. While she was recuperating, an anonymous friend paid Lowe's debts which enabled her to work again. In 1963 she declared bankruptcy. Soon after, she developed a cataract in her left eye; surgery saved her eye. In 1968, she opened a new store, Ann Lowe Originals, on Madison Avenue. She retired in 1972.

➡LEGACY

A collection of five of Ann Lowe's designs are held at the Costume Institute at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Three are on display at the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, DC. Several others were included in an exhibition on black fashion at the Museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology in Manhattan in December 2016.

A children's book, Fancy Party Gowns: The Story of Ann Cole Lowe written by Deborah Blumenthal was published in 2017. Author Piper Huguley wrote a historical fiction novel, By Design: the story of Ann Lowe, Society's Secret Fashion Designer, about Lowe's life.

Her work has been admired by the designer Christian Dior, as well as the famous costumer Edith Head.

[fleurdufeu]

Female Monkey Holding Its Baby

Middle Kingdom

Dynasty 12 ca. 1981-1802 BCE 

Carved Amethyst

“The monkey sits holding her baby (head missing) close to her chest. The piece is exquisitely carved and a hole has been drilled just below the shoulders for suspension. Monkeys, not native to Egypt, were imported as exotic pets and frequently appeared as decoration on cosmetic equipment. The pose of this pair is first seen in Old Kingdom cosmetic jars (see 30.8.134, 1992.338) that also depict mother monkeys with their young. This example probably dates to Dynasty 12 of the Middle Kingdom when amethyst was frequently used as a material for miniature representations of animals. The image of a mother and infant of any species is often interpreted as symbolizing rebirth. However, small chips and signs of wear around the edges of the suspension hole and the base suggests that the piece was used by a living owner and not designed specifically as an amulet for the dead.” via Metropolitan Museum of Art

[mybeingthere]

Nick Goss (b. Bristol, 1981) is an Anglo Dutch painter whose (essentially figurative) paintings suggest apparently contradictory readings. On one hand there is the recognisable specificity of objects and environments rooted in factual, documentary reality: a photographic starting point perhaps, or an archival image offering an intensely palpable sense of place or experience. 

On the other there is always something more liminal at play - an uncertainty and otherness that never quite explains itself.It is in this ambiguity and sometimes dreamlike strangeness that these images reveal their power and presence. They have an unreliable relationship to time, being connected to memory and a kind of nostalgia, and yet existing precisely in their own moment. They are built slowly in thin layers of often muted pigment over screen-printed images, with small shifts of focus that simultaneously coalesce and fragment. 

At times they slide towards abstraction in form, but never in mood, which almost always remains resolutely tangible.Nick Goss has exhibited widely in Europe and America and has work in many distinguished collections including the Metropolitan Museum of Art; Dallas Museum of Art; Cleveland Museum of Art and the Zabludowicz Collection, London. Recent exhibitions include: The Undercurrents at Mathew Brown, Los Angeles; Margaritas at the Mall, Contemporary Fine Arts, Berlin; Nine Mile Burn at Josh Lilley, London and Morley’s Mirror at Pallant House Art Gallery. His first exhibition at Ingleby will open in October 2023.

https://www.inglebygallery.com/.../411-nick-goss/overview/

[biktopia-arts]

Nick Goss (b. Bristol, 1981) is an Anglo Dutch painter whose (essentially figurative) paintings suggest apparently contradictory readings. On one hand there is the recognisable specificity of objects and environments rooted in factual, documentary reality: a photographic starting point perhaps, or an archival image offering an intensely palpable sense of place or experience. On the other there is always something more liminal at play - an uncertainty and otherness that never quite explains itself.

It is in this ambiguity and sometimes dreamlike strangeness that these images reveal their power and presence. They have an unreliable relationship to time, being connected to memory and a kind of nostalgia, and yet existing precisely in their own moment. They are built slowly in thin layers of often muted pigment over screen-printed images, with small shifts of focus that simultaneously coalesce and fragment. At times they slide towards abstraction in form, but never in mood, which almost always remains resolutely tangible.

Nick Goss has exhibited widely in Europe and America and has work in many distinguished collections including the Metropolitan Museum of Art; Dallas Museum of Art; Cleveland Museum of Art and the Zabludowicz Collection, London. Recent exhibitions include: The Undercurrents at Mathew Brown, Los Angeles; Margaritas at the Mall, Contemporary Fine Arts, Berlin; Nine Mile Burn at Josh Lilley, London and Morley’s Mirror at Pallant House Art Gallery.

Smickel Inn, Balcony of Europe, Ingleby's first solo exhibition with Goss, which includes a number of new paintings and watercolours, is currently on view at the gallery. To celebrate the show, a new 116pp publication, Smickel Inn, has been published by Ingleby, Matthew Brown and Anomie.

[brookston]

Holidays 2.20

Holidays

Adult Support & Protection Day (Scotland)

Ansel Adams Day

Blessed Wulfric’s Day

Bean Planting Day

Bun Day (Iceland)

Clean Out Your Bookcases Day

Day of Heavenly Hundred Heroes (Ukraine)

Deadpool Day

Dogwood Day (French Republic)

Ectodermal Dysplasia’s Awareness Day

FFA Alumni Day

FFA National Day of Service

Flying Car Day

Hoodie-Hoo Day (Northern Hemisphere)

Hotel Elevator Day

Hunter S. Thompson Remembrance Day

International Cat Day (Mexico; South America)

International Day of Commemorating Air Crash Victims & Their Families

National Day of Solidarity with Muslim, Arab and South Asian Immigrants

International Lego Classicism Day

International Pipe Smoking Day

Johnny Cash Day (Los Angeles)

Kurt Cobain Day

Love Your Pet Day

Metropolitan Museum of Art Day

Missing Day

Mystery Science Theater Day

National Comfy Day

National Day of Solidarity with Muslim, Arab and South Asian Immigrants

National Handcuff Day

National Leadership Day

National Whistleblower Reward Day

Native Agents Day

No Politics Day

Orbit Day

Princess Alice Day

Psychology Day

Rih Day (a.k.a. Rihanna Appreciation Day)

Society for Psychical Research Day

Student Volunteer Day

Thank You Plant Medicine Day

Toothpick Day

Una Asteroid Day

Women in Blue Jeans Day

World Day of Social Justice (UN)

Food & Drink Celebrations

Clam Chowder Day

National Cherry Pie Day

National Muffin Day

3rd Tuesday in February

Travel Africa Day [3rd Tuesday]

Independence & Related Days

Bardo (Declared; 2020) [unrecognized]

Castacia (Declared; 2018) [unrecognized]

Chinland (from UK, 1948) [unrecognized]

Melaka Independence Proclamation Day (Melaka, Malaysia)

Prussia Disestablishment Day

Statehood Day (Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoran; India)

Festivals Beginning February 20, 2024

Singapore Airshow (Singapore) [thru 2.25]

Taipei International Book Exhibit (Taipei, Taiwan) [thru 2.25]

Feast Days

Adopt a Goblin Orphan Day (Shamanism)

Ansel Adams (Artology)

Day of Tacita (Goddess of Silence; Ancient Rome)

Don’t Think About Elephants Day (Pastafarian)

Eleutherius of Tournai (Christian; Saint)

Eucherius of Orléans (Christian; Saint)

Francisco Marto and Jacinta Marto (Christian; Saint)

Frederick Douglass (Episcopal Church (USA))

I.G. Farben Day (Church of the SubGenius; Saint)

Ivan Albright (Artology)

Jan de Baen (Artology)

Levitation Day (Pastafarian)

Lucretius (Positivist; Saint)

Mr. Can You Guess (Muppetism)

Nine Waves Day (Celtic Book of Days)

Pierre Boulle (Writerism)

Sadoth (Christian; Martyr)

Scleucia and Ctesiphon, with 128 companions (Christian; Martyrs)

Tacita’s Day — Day of Silence (Pagan)

Tyrannio, Zenobius, et al., in Phoenicia (Christian; Martyrs)

Ulrick of England (Christian; Saint)

William Rimmer (Artology)

Wulfric of Haselbury (Christian; Saint)

Lucky & Unlucky Days

Taian (大安 Japan) [Lucky all day.]

Premieres

Africa Before Dark (Ub Iwerks Oswald the Lucky Rabbit Disney Cartoon; 1928)

The African Queen (Film; 1952)

The Barber of Seville, by Gioachino Rossini (Opera; 1816)

Candy (Film; 1969)

Cat Meets Mouse (Terrytoons Cartoon; 1942)

Columbo (TV Serties; 1968)

Drag-a-Long Droopy (MGM Cartoon; 1954)

The Duff (Film; 2015)

Euro Trip (Film; 2004)

Follow the Fleet (Film; 1936)

Follow the Swallow or The Inside Story (Rocky & Bullwinkle Cartoon, S3, Ep. 153; 1962)

Freddy the Freshman (WB MM Cartoon; 1932)

George Harrison, by George Harrison (Album; 1979)

Give It To Me Baby, by James Brown (Song; 1981)

The House That Cat Built (WB Tom & Jerry Cartoon; 2021)

How the West Was Won (Film; 1963)

Instant Karma, by the Plastic Ono Band (Song; 1970)

The Magnet Men, Parts 1 & 2 (Underdog Cartoon, S1, Eps. 41 & 42 1965)

The Milkman (Ub Iwerks Cartoon; 1932)

Moose Hunters (Disney Cartoon; 1937)

On A Roll (WB Tom & Jerry Cartoon; 2021)

Piano Concerto in E-flat Major, by Rudolph Ganz (Piano Concerto; 1941)

Playtime for Rollo or Rest in Pieces (Rocky & Bullwinkle Cartoon, S3, Ep. 154; 1962)

Robot Chicken (Animated TV Series; 2005)

Sixth Column, by Robert A. Heinlein (Novel; 1949)

So Big, by Edna Ferber (Novel; 1924)

Sofia the First (Animated Disney TV Series; 2015)

Still Alice (Film; 2015)

There You go, by Pink (Song; 2000)

Veronica, by Elvis Costello (Song; 1989)

Welcome to Mooseport (Film; 2004)

Wild Wife (WB MM Cartoon; 1954)

Woodpecker Wanted (Woody Woodpecker Cartoon; 1965)

Today’s Name Days

Corona, Falko, Jacinta (Austria)

Lav, Lea, Leon (Croatia)

Oldřich (Czech Republic)

Eucharias (Denmark)

Ardi, Hardi, Hardo, Kardo, Meinhard, Meino (Estonia)

Heli, Helinä, Heljä, Hely (Finland)

Aimée (France)

Corona, Falko, Jacinta (Germany)

Leon (Greece)

Aladár, Álmos (Hungary)

Eleuterio, Eros, Otokars, Otomars, Silvano, Smuidra, Ulrico, Vitauts (Italy)

Otokars, Otomārs, Smuidra, Vitauts (Latvia)

Eitvydė, Leonas, Visgintas (Lithuania)

Halldis, Halldor (Norway)

Euchariusz, Eustachiusz, Eustachy, Leon, Ludmiła, Ludomiła, Ostap, Siestrzewit (Poland)

Leon (Romania)

Lívia (Slovakia)

Eleuterio, Jacinta (Spain)

Vivianne (Sweden)

Svitlana (Ukraine)

Aimee, Alaric, Alarica, Alarice, Aimee, Ami, Amy, Amya, Cyd, Cydney, Desmond, Sid, Sidney, Syd, Sydnee, Sydney, Ulric (USA)

Today is Also…

Day of Year: Day 51 of 2024; 315 days remaining in the year

ISO: Day 2 of week 8 of 2024

Celtic Tree Calendar: Nuin (Ash) [Day 3 of 28]

Chinese: Month 1 (Bing-Yin), Day 11 (Jia-Yin)

Chinese Year of the: Dragon 4722 (until January 29, 2025)

Hebrew: 11 Adair I 5784

Islamic: 10 Sha’ban 1445

J Cal: 21 Grey; Sevenday [21 of 30]

Julian: 7 February 2024

Moon: 87%: Waxing Gibbous

Positivist: 23 Homer (2nd Month) [Lucretius]

Runic Half Month: Sigel (Sun) [Day 12 of 15]

Season: Winter (Day 62 of 89)

Week: 3rd Week of February

Zodiac: Pisces (Day 2 of 30)

[digitalfashionmuseum]

Yellow Silk Robe à la Polonaise, 1780-1785, American.

Met Museum.

[brookstonalmanac]

Holidays 2.20

Holidays

Adult Support & Protection Day (Scotland)

Ansel Adams Day

Blessed Wulfric’s Day

Bean Planting Day

Bun Day (Iceland)

Clean Out Your Bookcases Day

Day of Heavenly Hundred Heroes (Ukraine)

Deadpool Day

Dogwood Day (French Republic)

Ectodermal Dysplasia’s Awareness Day

FFA Alumni Day

FFA National Day of Service

Flying Car Day

Hoodie-Hoo Day (Northern Hemisphere)

Hotel Elevator Day

Hunter S. Thompson Remembrance Day

International Cat Day (Mexico; South America)

International Day of Commemorating Air Crash Victims & Their Families

National Day of Solidarity with Muslim, Arab and South Asian Immigrants

International Lego Classicism Day

International Pipe Smoking Day

Johnny Cash Day (Los Angeles)

Kurt Cobain Day

Love Your Pet Day

Metropolitan Museum of Art Day

Missing Day

Mystery Science Theater Day

National Comfy Day

National Day of Solidarity with Muslim, Arab and South Asian Immigrants

National Handcuff Day

National Leadership Day

National Whistleblower Reward Day

Native Agents Day

No Politics Day

Orbit Day

Princess Alice Day

Psychology Day

Rih Day (a.k.a. Rihanna Appreciation Day)

Society for Psychical Research Day

Student Volunteer Day

Thank You Plant Medicine Day

Toothpick Day

Una Asteroid Day

Women in Blue Jeans Day

World Day of Social Justice (UN)

Food & Drink Celebrations

Clam Chowder Day

National Cherry Pie Day

National Muffin Day

3rd Tuesday in February

Travel Africa Day [3rd Tuesday]

Independence & Related Days

Bardo (Declared; 2020) [unrecognized]

Castacia (Declared; 2018) [unrecognized]

Chinland (from UK, 1948) [unrecognized]

Melaka Independence Proclamation Day (Melaka, Malaysia)

Prussia Disestablishment Day

Statehood Day (Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoran; India)

Festivals Beginning February 20, 2024

Singapore Airshow (Singapore) [thru 2.25]

Taipei International Book Exhibit (Taipei, Taiwan) [thru 2.25]

Feast Days

Adopt a Goblin Orphan Day (Shamanism)

Ansel Adams (Artology)

Day of Tacita (Goddess of Silence; Ancient Rome)

Don’t Think About Elephants Day (Pastafarian)

Eleutherius of Tournai (Christian; Saint)

Eucherius of Orléans (Christian; Saint)

Francisco Marto and Jacinta Marto (Christian; Saint)

Frederick Douglass (Episcopal Church (USA))

I.G. Farben Day (Church of the SubGenius; Saint)

Ivan Albright (Artology)

Jan de Baen (Artology)

Levitation Day (Pastafarian)

Lucretius (Positivist; Saint)

Mr. Can You Guess (Muppetism)

Nine Waves Day (Celtic Book of Days)

Pierre Boulle (Writerism)

Sadoth (Christian; Martyr)

Scleucia and Ctesiphon, with 128 companions (Christian; Martyrs)

Tacita’s Day — Day of Silence (Pagan)

Tyrannio, Zenobius, et al., in Phoenicia (Christian; Martyrs)

Ulrick of England (Christian; Saint)

William Rimmer (Artology)

Wulfric of Haselbury (Christian; Saint)

Lucky & Unlucky Days

Taian (大安 Japan) [Lucky all day.]

Premieres

Africa Before Dark (Ub Iwerks Oswald the Lucky Rabbit Disney Cartoon; 1928)

The African Queen (Film; 1952)

The Barber of Seville, by Gioachino Rossini (Opera; 1816)

Candy (Film; 1969)

Cat Meets Mouse (Terrytoons Cartoon; 1942)

Columbo (TV Serties; 1968)

Drag-a-Long Droopy (MGM Cartoon; 1954)

The Duff (Film; 2015)

Euro Trip (Film; 2004)

Follow the Fleet (Film; 1936)

Follow the Swallow or The Inside Story (Rocky & Bullwinkle Cartoon, S3, Ep. 153; 1962)

Freddy the Freshman (WB MM Cartoon; 1932)

George Harrison, by George Harrison (Album; 1979)

Give It To Me Baby, by James Brown (Song; 1981)

The House That Cat Built (WB Tom & Jerry Cartoon; 2021)

How the West Was Won (Film; 1963)

Instant Karma, by the Plastic Ono Band (Song; 1970)

The Magnet Men, Parts 1 & 2 (Underdog Cartoon, S1, Eps. 41 & 42 1965)

The Milkman (Ub Iwerks Cartoon; 1932)

Moose Hunters (Disney Cartoon; 1937)

On A Roll (WB Tom & Jerry Cartoon; 2021)

Piano Concerto in E-flat Major, by Rudolph Ganz (Piano Concerto; 1941)

Playtime for Rollo or Rest in Pieces (Rocky & Bullwinkle Cartoon, S3, Ep. 154; 1962)

Robot Chicken (Animated TV Series; 2005)

Sixth Column, by Robert A. Heinlein (Novel; 1949)

So Big, by Edna Ferber (Novel; 1924)

Sofia the First (Animated Disney TV Series; 2015)

Still Alice (Film; 2015)

There You go, by Pink (Song; 2000)

Veronica, by Elvis Costello (Song; 1989)

Welcome to Mooseport (Film; 2004)

Wild Wife (WB MM Cartoon; 1954)

Woodpecker Wanted (Woody Woodpecker Cartoon; 1965)

Today’s Name Days

Corona, Falko, Jacinta (Austria)

Lav, Lea, Leon (Croatia)

Oldřich (Czech Republic)

Eucharias (Denmark)

Ardi, Hardi, Hardo, Kardo, Meinhard, Meino (Estonia)

Heli, Helinä, Heljä, Hely (Finland)

Aimée (France)

Corona, Falko, Jacinta (Germany)

Leon (Greece)

Aladár, Álmos (Hungary)

Eleuterio, Eros, Otokars, Otomars, Silvano, Smuidra, Ulrico, Vitauts (Italy)

Otokars, Otomārs, Smuidra, Vitauts (Latvia)

Eitvydė, Leonas, Visgintas (Lithuania)

Halldis, Halldor (Norway)

Euchariusz, Eustachiusz, Eustachy, Leon, Ludmiła, Ludomiła, Ostap, Siestrzewit (Poland)

Leon (Romania)

Lívia (Slovakia)

Eleuterio, Jacinta (Spain)

Vivianne (Sweden)

Svitlana (Ukraine)

Aimee, Alaric, Alarica, Alarice, Aimee, Ami, Amy, Amya, Cyd, Cydney, Desmond, Sid, Sidney, Syd, Sydnee, Sydney, Ulric (USA)

Today is Also…

Day of Year: Day 51 of 2024; 315 days remaining in the year

ISO: Day 2 of week 8 of 2024

Celtic Tree Calendar: Nuin (Ash) [Day 3 of 28]

Chinese: Month 1 (Bing-Yin), Day 11 (Jia-Yin)

Chinese Year of the: Dragon 4722 (until January 29, 2025)

Hebrew: 11 Adair I 5784

Islamic: 10 Sha’ban 1445

J Cal: 21 Grey; Sevenday [21 of 30]

Julian: 7 February 2024

Moon: 87%: Waxing Gibbous

Positivist: 23 Homer (2nd Month) [Lucretius]

Runic Half Month: Sigel (Sun) [Day 12 of 15]

Season: Winter (Day 62 of 89)

Week: 3rd Week of February

Zodiac: Pisces (Day 2 of 30)

[scrambler]

Mark Tansey, B. 1949

The Innocent Eye Test, 1981

Metropolitan Museum of Art, NYC

[cordo4ax]

Pictured: Me with a figure of Chicome coatl

Day 4: Maize significance

During my stay at Tenochtitlan, I realized how important maize was to the Aztecs. One of the days the people were celebrating a religious feast in honor of the god Cinteotl who was the god of maize. While I was walking around the city I noticed a foul metallic smell that filled the air. I didn’t know what to make of it until I saw everyone sprinkling something at the foot of their doors. It wasn’t until I got closer that I realized they were using their own blood from their ears and calves to sprinkle on reeds they placed in front of their doors. I stopped a man who just finished this task and asked him what was going on. He was the one who informed me of the ceremony and he offered to show me the other preparations the people were doing. He took me to a maize field where people were taking small stalks of maize and placing them with flowers. I participated too, because everyone was doing it and I felt I would be left out if I didn't. Then we walked over to a house they called calpulli to place our bouquets of maize and flowers. Afterwards everyone proceeded to the pyramid of the goddess Chicome coatl, where we were greeted with reenactments of battle. The Aztecs seem to relate warfare with their religion very heavily just like how they associate warfare with their ball games. Afterwards I noticed how all the girls had ears of maize on their backs and that they were moving in procession inside the pyramid. I snuck a glance inside the pyramid from the outside, and noticed they were only presenting their stalks of maize to the images of the goddess inside the pyramid. Then they would take their stalks and bring them back home. I asked my guide, why they were doing this? He told me that Chicome coatl was the creator and giver of all that was necessary for life and that the maize the girls brought was blessed by her. He also mentioned how the girls would take the seed of these blessed maize and would plant them for next year's harvest. It makes sense why they would participate in this ritual as they believed by pleasing the gods associated with the crop, next year’s harvest would be bountiful. The choice to specifically make sure the maize gods were pleased was because of how the Aztecs depended on corn, in fact for decades prior past central Mexican populations depended on maize to survive. Maize was so integral to society that those who were unable to prepare and cultivate their own maize were seen as having low social status. Maize was so important that women who had skill in preparing maize into delicacies were often rewarded and respected by all of Aztec society. I would have never guessed that a simple crop would be so important if I had not experienced this ritual.

Bibliography:

Bernardino de Sahagun, Fray. General History of the Things of New Spain: The Ceremonies, vol. 2, Translated by Charles E. Dibble and Arthur J.O. Anderson, Sante Fe, The School of American Research, 1981

Biskowski, Martin. “MAIZE PREPARATION AND THE AZTEC SUBSISTENCE ECONOMY.” Ancient Mesoamerica 11, no. 2 (2000): 293–306. http://www.jstor.org/stable/26308239.

Maize Deity (Chicomecoatl), 15th-early 16th century, basalt, 35.6 × 18.1 × 8.9 cm, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, accessed July 1, 2023, https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/307644