2024 Miscellany #13

Brendan Murphy. The sitting spaceman. 2024. Beachwood Ohio.

 "Hey Mr. Spaceman, won't you please take me along for a ride"

There are five sculptures on a medical center campus of a hospital system. Eleven more are expected. This one is carbon fiber with a topping of shiny chrome. It is to be remembered that the order of cosmonauts, and astronauts was: dog, chimp, man. The artist has made several spaceman sculptures, and the marker scribbles are his.

For centuries Merino sheep were a Spanish monopoly. Their wool is very fine and soft, and much prised. Currently on Simon Perkins farm in Akron there are seven pregnant ewes. Now on a completely different matter. When you have more than one ewe, you have ewes. There is no place for ya'll.

An arbor on Simon Perkins farm, Akron.

   carousel lion at Akron Zoo

Feeding the birds.

Sometimes, creatures are not interested.

Nigerian dwarf goat, American child

insurance salesman 

 She likes Frank Sinatra, and named them Jupiter, and Mars. Jupiter is a female.

Labor Day

 

art is good for you

 

Joel Jackson. Mandala with Seven Chakras. Now. Columbus.

 

A building marked for dental in Grandview had two American Indian statues out front. Inside, there was more art, paintings and sculptures, mostly of the same theme. Some of the offices were being painted. This one was the only one with an artist. He was enjoyed speaking on art, and was happy with my interruption.  Joel lives in Columbus, but came from south of Pittsburgh. He showed me his stencils, and computer drawing, and how the piece would look with various colours. We both agreed, art is good for you.

Columbus Ohio has a lot of painted murals, and some other outdoor (and indoor) public art. Here is some that i enjoyed on the hottest day of the year, so far [about 10 weeks ago, was my last visit, also on the hottest day of the year to that point]. I have posted others previously.  Some can no longer be viewed. One that i missed, some years ago (1999-2004), Botticelli's Venus was painted on a now no longer existing building. I wonder whether that was a conscious effort to show outdoor versions of master works. There is a version of Da Vinci's Mona Lisa, and Grant Wood's American Gothic.

A recent Star Trek Mr Spock has been painted over. This outdoor art is often temporary, while spray vandalism may last a long time. One wall painting, which i would have liked to see, has been painted over maybe a couple of years ago, maybe a little longer. Most of the wall was not painted with illustrations. Since then, the whole wall has been spray painted with a street hip hop crew. Well, that wall has been painted over several times. Good art was replaced with a loud and garish scene. One of the two obliterated ones was a Memento Mori, which portrays in art something that brings attention that death is coming.  The Latin means “remember that you will die”, or some would translate as:  “remember that you must die”.  Latin is more inflected than current English, so grammatical distinctions are embedded in the word, and additional words are not needed to clarify.

So there are paintings, and sculptures with skulls, and people contemplating death. Now this reminds us life is short, remember that, and do well. The Grim Reaper cuts and collects people with his scythe. In stories, he is death personified. Here he said, "Live, because I am coming.", a slight variation.

 Mandi Caskey & Jacob Tanner. Football Players. 2013. Franklinton.

Perhaps, Harvard-Yale is not the big game. The football collegiate yearly rivalry game is Michigan-Ohio State. Their first match was in 1897, and Michigan, Their next match was  a tie in 1900. Continuing to 1912:  Michigan won 13 times, Ohio State not at all, two games were tied. There was no game from 1913 to 1917. Ohio State's initial victory was in 1919. They have played yearly since. Michigan has retained the edge in the series.

Here we see the school colors. The ball carrier is in scarlet red, and light grey; the tackler in blue, and "maize". The ball players look a wee too old for college. That handlebar mustache is pre-1900, and the clothes maybe too.

Well, Ohio State takes the seriousness of the game rivalry to ridiculousness, and obnoxiousness. Ohio State has a chip on their shoulders. Michigan is the older (1817-21 as Catholepistemiad*, or 1837 in Ann Arbor), and much more highly regarded academic school. The name of the brewery is Land Grant. The first land grant school was Michigan State 1862, by that name 1925, it began in 1855 as Agricultural College of the State of Michigan. 1870 saw Ohio Agricultural and Mechanical College founded, and eventually (1878) changed their name to Ohio State. 

Jesse Owens went to Ohio State, and i see fotos, and sculptures with him wearing a red track shirt,  the word OHIO. Ohio U's colors are green and white, and he went to Ohio State. Well, Ohio State wanted to be Ohio, and lost. Ohio was the first college in the Old Northwest in 1803.

And right close by is this message and plea for the honey bees.

Chinos Art. This part was painted first after 2020. W. Broad Str. Hilltop.

 Our Lady of Guadalupe (Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe) is the Mexican Madonna (Mary). There is no cultural image that identifies Mexico more than this. Her image is also an image of social justice, for and beyond Mexico.

It was expanded to show Mexico before the coming of the Spanish.

Jack Greaves. Unicorn in the Garden [with lily]. 1987.

Outside and across the street from the Thurber House is a small park. On the ground there is a bronze tablet that has James Thurber's fable of The Unicorn in the Garden. 

Jack Greaves. Unicorn in the Garden [with rose]. 1987.

This one is at the Columbus School for Girls in Bexley. In the story 'the mythical beast' eats flowers in the garden. When the statues were put in place, there was a procession from the one to the other. In 1992. Greaves made a different unicorn for the Scioto River downtown.

Joan Wobst. The Opera Pot. 2002. Bexley.

On the campus a few feet away is another sculpture with a small fountain in a cauldron surrounded by Wagner's Brunhild, Leoncavallo's Pagliacci, Puccini's Madame Butterfly, and Marcello from La Bohème.

One of three dog sculptures in a soon to be opened little park in Dublin Ohio. They had put in most of the cement, and paving blocks. Some flowers and mulch was there to surround the dogs. We were taking pictures, and some guy came to tell us go away. We talked a bit. He said grass sees was just put sown. We saw that under the straw. It has to have just been put down. The seed was visible, nothing was close to germination. I said, i saw a golf ball. He tells us, they took four buckets of balls out, it was a driving range before. The area is crowded with new apartments and such, and with signs threatening towing if parked on lots off a narrow two lane road.

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*Catholepistemiad:  I read that and thought it was a joke, Cat-hole-piss-the-mud. No, it was ridiculous Greco-Latin nonsense with inflated arrogance.

2024 Miscellany #12

Tinman has been shot again, previous holes were patched. e.152nd Cleveland.

Taking a mannequin pose while waiting for friends to meet at Monet exhibit Cleveland.

just past afternoon, 19 August, middle 60s, with a north wind, with washboard waves

Upper Edgewater Cleveland, Lake Erie

Truck riding Teen age Mutant Ninja Turtle with nunchuks.

Karma had to read a pee-mail.

We were at a dog park recently, and met Orin (L) and Luka (R). These two ere very easy to approach, and showed no anxiety. Silken Windhounds are a new breed, bred from Borzois and Lurchers, they also are sight hounds. The first litter came in 1985.

narcissistic collapse

O yea, Orange Caligula is rattled.  For some reason being called weird really bothers him. Perhaps in his distant past he was called that. Trumple-thin-skin is a malignant narcissist.  Donny Dipshit is a racist, and a misogynist. A black woman is not acceptable. Unlike most psychopaths with his personality disorder, Don the Con is really stupid. Orange Cheato is vindictive. The melted circus peanut is a sadist. Cadet Spanky Bonespurs has dementia. The Devil's protege expects center ring in the circus always. Attention to him has been diverted. Perhaps, he is entering a mental death spiral. Trump is a psychopath, and hates being mocked.

Monday begins the Democratic Convention in the Chicago Lands. It is going to be unique.  A sitting president, Joseph Biden, who easily won all the primaries, will not be nominated. He deserves to be president for four more years. He really earned it. Instead, he succumbed to electoral pressure and abdicated. Biden sacrificed the position of the presidency, so that the party would have an easier time winning against anti-democratic forces.

Biden deferred to his vice-president, Kamala Harris. She will be the first of several demographics to claim the presidency. She quickly won support from the entire party. She kindled interest from outside the party. Harris was something new for the press, and at first they were welcoming.

The first question was who will the new vice-president be? Tim Walz was a most excellent choice. The man is very congenial, He has a good history: teacher, coach, soldier, congressman, governor. The contrast to the weird billet the Repukes have chosen is remarkable.  Walz, more than anyone else, found the magic word to rattle the fascist opponents. 'Weird' is accurate, understated, non-aggressive, humourous , and dismissive. Harris and Walz are happy, they laugh, they act like humans. This is beyond annoying to the Republicans. Trump and Vance are malevolent frauds.

Erich Fromm's, The Heart of Man: Its Genius for Good and Evil, 1964, Fromm used the term “malignant narcissism.” That defines Trump.
  “It is a madness that tends to grow in the lifetime of the afflicted person. The more he tries to be a god, the more he isolates himself from the human race; this isolation makes him more frightened, everybody becomes his enemy, and in order to stand the resulting fright he has to increase his power, his ruthlessness, and his narcissism.”

John Gartner has for several years tried to focus America on this.
“Trump suffers from malignant narcissism, a diagnosis [that is] far more toxic and dangerous than mere narcissistic personality disorder because it combines narcissism with three other severely pathological components: paranoia, sociopathy, and sadism. When combined, this perfect storm of psychopathology defines the ‘quintessence of evil,’ according to Fromm, the closest thing psychiatry has to describing a true human monster.”

Gartner's comrade, Howard Marks, The Shallow State @OurShallowState
“Narcissistic Mortification is when a narcissist like Trump crosses over to a place where he sees visions of his own demise. A malignant narcissist who once held the loftiest of titles, cannot cope with this. Trump's fears have become "dread." He is very unhinged, yet uncomfortable in the feeling itself, because he knows he's partly responsible. Reality is being forced upon him, that's not of his making. He can't have that!
    To put it in more psychological terms, narcissistic mortification is EXTREME fear experienced when one with a rigidly grandiose pathology sees his sense of self as exposed, defective or inferior. It was coined by Freud in his book Moses and Monotheism.”

The next stage is narcissistic collapse. What is the collapse? Is it terminal, temporary, or cyclical? What is the collapse? It is narcissistic rage.  Remember Adolf of the Third Reich? 

___________________

This is already a bit long. Bandy X. Lee is a psychiatrist also. In 2017 she edited The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump. She has spoken to many in Congress of the danger of Trump and his insanity. Lee taught at Yale School of Medicine and Yale Law School from 2003 through 2020.

In 1964 Goldwater ran for president, and was widely thought crazy. So a “Goldwater Rule” came about. Thou shant call someone that is crazy “crazy”, if  you have not personally examined the crazy person. Yale invoked it upon her over both Trump, and the vile Alan Dershowitz. Yale is acting against academic freedom, and probably is in league with supporters of Trump.

2024 Miscellany #11—summer

Karma had her stroll at Wendy Park on Whiskey Island the morning of 28 July. She is an art aficionado, and viewed Small Giants by Alex Senna. The Girl Giant was looking elsewhere.

Bucky among cucumbers.

Golden puts one foot before the other.

One of Tim's many signs.

Kite on a breezy evening, Lower Edgewater Cleveland.

Seen in Parma, might not last til election day, significant deplorable population.

Upper Edgewater Cleveland, 2 days after the storm

Have vegan relatives who go to W. 11 for eats.

 Mount Misny, Collinwood-Euclid line

Someone is having fun, no text. I don't have to say anything, you just know. 

 

For people outside the target area, northern Ohio, he is an injury lawyer, and a local personality. A few years ago, he did teevee commercials. "I'm Tim Misny. I 'll make them pay", then "You know what i do". Now, a real lot of billboards, some are meant to be funny, and are. Some people hate him, and use the term 'ambulance chaser".  He has a sense of good humour. I know nothing about his business practices. I do know companies have their own lawyers, who do the damnedest to cheat people out of compensation. Death, injury, and loss are serious. To have malefactors skate scot free is unjust.

WEIRD

Weird, what is weird? Generally it is either creepy, kooky, spooky. In Shakespeare's MacBeth, the Weird Sisters are the ones cooking horrible things in a cauldron, performing maga, ahh magic.

When someone sees something odd, they may say quizzically “that's weird”.  When someone does something silly, or odd, one might say dismissively, “you are weird”. In popular culture we have Weird Al Yankovic, and Weird Barbie from a movie. Yankovic is a musician who creates parody and novelty songs, his weirdness is benign, and entertaining. Weird Barbie was the toy Barbie that was roughly played with, and in the movie became an eccentric, but perceptive outcast in Barbie World.

Republican weird is the strange, outlandish, eerie, horrific, unnatural creepy kind. The kind that makes you feel icky, uncomfortable, it is unpleasant, and is offensive.

Kamala Harris is so much better as a candidate now than four years ago. In a a campaign statement she has “Trump is old and quite weird”.  Trump mocked her as laughing too much. Trump never laughs, he has no humour. What he has is spite, malice, and viciousness in its place. If he smiles, it is a false one, or a gloat taking evil enjoyment. Why the absence, or antipathy to laughter and genuine smiling?  Laughing can be happy, or mocking, or recognising some truth. Look at trump on film and fotos: he looks angry, goofy, or false.

Harris has picked up on the weirdness. I read that Tim Walz (Gov. Minn.) was the first one to repeatedly mention it. Since the Orange Weirdo kept mentioning a fictive serial killer in speeches, it was not understood whether he thought Hannibal Lector was real. Oh, and the shark fixation, killer windmills, and a slew of other weird things that are part of his act. Do not forget, the hair, and orange paint.

The Repukes are full of weirdness. And they don't like being called on it. They always were putting out that Democrats were some horrible other, not like normal Americans. The lie was/is that Republicans are normal. They are creepy weird.  For many years, my phrasing to describe them was that they are crazier than outhouse rats. But weird is the winner. The kind of weird people warn others, when they say ominously, “stay away from him, he's weird”.

Trump, well you know.  Vance is weird toooo. He has lived through disguise. He is weird. He is a falsity. He is queer. The eyeliner, and wanting to police menstrual cycles is very creepy weird. As a whole, Republicans are abnormally fixated on everyone else's crotch.

Vance has only been Vance for some eleven years. He was born James Donald Bowman, he was then James David Hamel, and is now JD Vance.  He came to fame by writing a fictive memoir. He was born and lived in a town between Cincinnati and Dayton. In the book, he made constant reference to the bad stereotype of eastern Kentucky culture. He went to the Marines, Ohio State, Yale Law, married a Hindu, became a vulture capitalist in San Francisco, and presents himself as a hillbilly. That's alright, Trump presented himself as a Swede for years.

Calling repukes weird hurts their feelings. Traitorous psychos is more accurate.

dreck spectacle in Milwaukee

Certainly, i could not watch the trash political carnival sideshow in Wisconsin. But i did see some press coverage. The United States press has been terrible.  Dan Rather, my dear God, he was and is great. The system in place has made sure that no one will try to be another one. Of a country of 300 millions, certainly many could approach his craft and integrity.  That is not permitted. It is ratings, and corporate profit. Those who receive the profit are moneyed interests, and are deeply interested in their finances. All the big boys who control the industry are so driven. Some are pure evil fascists, some just worship Mammon. Either way they are a threat to America. It is not that the press is the enemy of the people like Herr Hitler, and Herr Trump maintain. A free press with integrity does a national service. The owners of the press are the enemies of the people.

Better than humping the flag act he does. 

Trump is not a showman. He is a cheesy barker. On the final day of the tent show, Donnie Dipshit comes on the stage (not rostrum, not podium), and there were huge lights spelling his last name; sort of like a Las Vegas celebrity's teevee special.

What is a carnival without side show freaks?

Someone made this comparative composite supra. Matt Gaetz is a reprobate. He is despised by his fellow repuke congress critters. He loves to grandstand. Sometime before his speaking slot, he had a new face put on. Kimberley Guilfoyle once was simply attractive. Now she has become donny junior's whore, she is a freak. Mugshot of the don of the criminal family, and another ass with an ear kotex.

Mostly the whole show was unending mendacity from all of its participants. As i wrote, i could not watch such animated garbage; but i wonder how probing, and skeptical the press had been. An honest press would have eviscerated and ridiculed the idiot bacchanal.

There were clowns a plenty. A former professional wrestler wore a version of his stage costume, and ripped his tee shirt apart. Is that something that Everett Dirksen would have done? There were at least two owners of such gladiatoresque entertainment franchises that spoke. Was it to show Cadet Bonespurs fighting spirit?

I read there were these billboards in the city. Was this shown on teevee? I can see that the resultant ticket is very pleasing to Vladimir Vladimirovič Putin.

Where the press has been the worst is the campaign, a press coup, to remove Joseph Biden from the presidency. That event in Atlanta, Trump was a machine gun of lies. The press was not interested. The job of a reporter is to search, and present the truth. Here are the real issues:

• Biden has achieved much against great resistance from the opposing party and economic power structure.
• NATO needs America under sanity, Biden.
• Putin must not be successful in interfering in American affairs. Putin is a threat to the world.
• Trump is both criminal, and insane. He is a narcissistic psychopath. Unlike most psychopaths, he is fundamentally ignorant and stupid.  He is a danger to the world.
• The Republican Agenda crafted by the Heritage Foundation, the Federalist Society, and rogue billionaires want to destroy the rule of law, and the spirit of American promise of freedom that has been appealing to civilisation, in order to install a corrupt oligarchy.

Republican speak: unity = one party dictatorship

neighbour across the street within 2 hours of incident, an obscene anti-Biden flag

Only Joe from Scranton will save us from an incoming fascist dictatorship,  which is already underway. The putsch that began on January 6th 2021 has not ended. 

A corrupt midnight judge in Florida has thrown out the stolen documents case against Trump, apparently special prosecutors are not meant to be used to investigate Repukes. Earlier, the corrupt members (Repukes) on the Supreme Court have granted Trump at least partial immunity for criminal, and treasonous acts. They have avenged Nixon, "When the President does it, that means that it is not illegal." But here is the thing, trump has done acts when he was no longer president.

There has been an extreme push to shield him. Yet, a New York court found him guilty of 34 felonies. His sentencing has been repeatedly delayed. And we know, justice delayed is justice denied. 

And there has been an unrelenting press attack on Joe Biden. There was this CNN event in Atlanta, that is wrongly referred to as a "debate". Joe Biden sputtered. trump unleashed a continuous fire of ridiculous lies, and insults, and then started talking about golf. The press concentrated on Joe's inadequate performance. There is no debating the evil clown show of trump. The two moderators never corrected him on his lies. Orange Caligula would not answer the questions directed at him, and then sometimes chose to attack Biden's previous answers. Only at the end, did Dana Bash try to have him answer whether he would accept the result of the election. He would not. 

And after this, Democrats picked up the press' lead on Biden's sharpness on that stage. Only two defeated Republicans are willing to say Trump is a danger to democracy. The rest hail their leader (in the original German, Heil ihren Führer).

Saturday, a young trumpster gun nut shot into a trump hate rally, in Butler County Pennsylvania. The presumed target was this ear pillow guy. [infra: head with a small female hygiene pad.] Earlier Monday, and during Sunday's golfing, both his ears were uncovered. This was part of his costume in Milwaukee, for his coronation ceremonies.

Here is another thing: the shooter used a semi-automatic rifle in the AR-15 family, the gun of choice of mass killers. He shot from roughly 450 feet away. From 1994 to 2004, such weapons were illegal under the Federal Assault Weapons Ban. Republicans have done their damnedest to make sure such a thing never happens again. Their inglorious leader was almost hoisted by their own petard.

Well, some one else was killed, and two other trumpsters wounded severely. That was on a Saturday. Trump went golfing on Sunday. The President of the United States called the widow, she refused his call. New York Post reported, "I didn't talk to Biden. I didn't want to talk to him. My husband was a devout Republican and he would not have wanted me to talk to him." The cult is extreme.

So, television reporters interviewed rally attendees, and other Republicans, and they all complained about the divisiveness in America, and the need for "unity". 

What is unity? In Cleveland, there was a terrible Catholic bishop, who had no respect for parishioners, and their views. He quoted Jesus on all being one. Unity was needed. What was his unity? It was no opposition towards his will. That was unity.  

In republican speak, unity is subservience to trump. It is one party dictatorship, you know fascism. 

2024 Miscellany #10—here & there

sunset from Lakewood Solstice Steps 3 July 2024

Parma on Independence Day, celebrate while you still can.

1956 chevy bel air art deco jet bird hood ornament

I do take fotos of other people's dogs. She is COCO, half golden, half basset.

part of the Asian Lights Cleveland Zoo during assembly

Looking out Lorain Harbor, late in the day, into sun's glare.

On Ontario in Cleveland, is this sign collection an anthropomorphic robot?

On a Godawful hot day, we were in Columbus, stopped into COSI. This is part of Ocean with Poseidon. People could aim water jets into the urns. It was cool here, running water was in the exhibit. It was dark, i used flash, a kid operating a water cannon jumped back in shock, his father chuckled.

Well, this was before Independence Day. Next year, it may just be July 4th. As wonderful as the commemoration is, it is a day many are uneasy, especially animals. Enjoy and protect.

Scotch pine, birches, some maples, sycamore all shag off their bark. In English we do say shag bark hickory.