Yes, it is sexy – like Georgia O’Keeffe and Robert Mapplethorpe’s pictures are – but I have to admit (to my shame really, I’m not a prude) that although I get it, I’ve never much seen them that way. I can mostly only enjoy them as flowers. However, my wife pointed out, when I asked her about it, that pornography is about cutting – showing bits of bodies where the head is cropped, etc. – so there’s also that.
I won’t go on about my new macro lens, but yes, it’s fantastic.
Thanks, Sig. I like being able to make use of your seemingly endless erudition. Les fleurs d’automne are, of course, just as interesting and beautiful as the new buds, just different.
oh lovely, and I admit to being envious — both of your lens and the flowers. Don’t you find you crave bright flowers in the winter? There’s something both decadent and heartening about bright spring flowers in the house when outside there is just white and shades of brown.
I loved the poem Sig gave us, thanks!
The sensuality of these photos lies for me in the silky texture of the petals that the close-ups reveal . You do not often see things from so close and with that crop of reality. That’s one thing I love of fotography.
I think I was being deliberately provocative by using that word. Certainly after the fact I was a little worried that I might have offended someone.
A memory from years ago: We used to get mail-order catalogues from both this place and this one, and Tesi used to enjoy reading them, maybe especially in the winter*. I remember she pointed out that the one had an almost prudish way of photographing flowers when they were not quite at the peak of their bloom, while the other had a more exciting way of showing them just a little bit ravaged by time.
Anyway, the pictures are ravishing, and grow more so with every zoom in.
*So did our then very young son. Well, he couldn’t read yet, but he loved to look at the different kinds of flowers and ask his mother what they were all called.
Oh, and the scrawny little pink rose that blooms outside our window in the cold autumn still has its three blooms, now very faded of course. The recent snow buried its head (twice), but I carefully freed it (twice).
Who gives (¿’throw’ is too rude?) Empty a digital camera, please?
It’s a wonderful day here, we’re staying at my parents house, full of green and flowers (well actually the ones the dogs forgave …) so I salute you and go to the swimming-pool =) A cold breeze would be welcome here, though.
Tesi’s quite right. It reminds me that growing plants doesn’t utilise the same aesthetic brain cells that you use to make a beautiful garden.
mab, yes, color when everything is black and white (mostly white). mab, did you see the movie Russian Ark, about the Hermitage? It’s pretty old – 2001, or something – we watched it last night, I thought it was beautiful to watch, but a bit trite “Oh, and here comes Catherine the Great. She’s dying to take a piss.” But I’m pretty sure I missed some stuff about the characters who were playing themselves.
I agree that Ø should get a camera; it’s not very time-consuming to learn it. Otherwise Ø, couldn’t you pay your children to take pictures for you? I don’t mean to interfere in their upbringing.
Thanks Julia. The whole thing is about time that passes by, Saturn, i.e. Kronos, being the one responsible for that matter. The stanza before the one I have copied above talks about the ageing beloved one who had to pay the worrisome god the tax on salt (gabelle), the price being a grain of salt in her hair:
Cette saison, c’est toi, ma belle,
Qui as fait les frais de son jeu,
Toi qui a payé la gabelle,
Un grain de sel dans tes cheveux.
Toi qui a payé la gabelle,
Un grain de sel dans tes cheveux.
Crown must be a powerful wizard to have kept these flowers alive so long after the end of autumn. I’d say it’s pretty weird, if not creepy. If I were Mrs Crown I’d try to find out.
Yes, I did see the Ark. It’s a trick film, you know — all one continuous shot — so I remember getting caught up in that. But not an awful lot stuck in my head.
When it’s Spring again I’ll bring again
Tulips from Amsterdam
With a heart thats true I’ll give to you
Tulips from Amsterdam
I can’t wait until the day you fill
These eager arms of mine
Like the windmill keeps on turning
That’s how my heart keeps on yearning
For the day I know we can share these
Tulips from Amsterdam
¡jajaja! / hahaha!
Principal, your warning came one hour late for me… The tune is in my head too. But I love the link: music, lyrics and dancing so funny for us nowadays!
Why was the music of that time so tremendously silly? Must have something to do with the light-headed spirit between the wars…
Hey, did you know this guy, Tiny Tim?
Here’s a video where he sings the mentioned song.
The interesting thing for me is the explanation that comes with the video. Here it is, so you don’t need to listen to the song ….
(It’s a bit long, sorry AJP for using so much A Bad Guide’s space ;-)
Herbert Khaury (April 12, 1932 November 30, 1996), better known by the stage name Tiny Tim, was an American singer, ukulele player, and musical archivist. He was most famous for his rendition of “Tiptoe Through the Tulips” sung in a distinctive high falsetto/vibrato voice (though his normal singing voice was in a standard male range). He was generally regarded as a novelty act, though his records indicate his wide knowledge of American songs. He had no official middle name, though some web sites report it to be “Butros”, his father’s first name, while during his televised wedding his middle name was given as “Buckingham”. His headstone reads “Khaury/Herbert B/Tiny Tim/1932-1996”.
Throughout the 1950s and early 1960s, Tiny Tim developed something of a cult following. In the 1960s he was seen regularly near the Harvard University campus as a street performer, singing old Tin Pan Alley tunes. His choice of repertoire and his encyclopedic knowledge of vintage popular music impressed many of the spectators. One admirer, Norman Kay, recalled that Tiny Tim’s outrageous public persona was a false front belying a quiet, studious personality: “Herb Khaury was the greatest put-on artist in the world. Here he was with the long hair and the cheap suit and the high voice, but when you spoke to him he talked like a college professor. He knew everything about the old songs.
Between 1962 and 1966 Tiny Tim recorded a number of songs at small (almost microscopic) recording companies, with several of them being made as “acetates” and one actually released as a 45 record. These songs illustrate that even very early on he had a decided drive for success and was getting noticed in a positive way, despite his looks and unusual manner. However he also recorded one entire batch of songs that would come back to disastrously haunt him at the peak of his greatest fame.
Tiny Tim appeared in Jack Smith’s Normal Love, as well as the independent feature film You Are What You Eat (his appearance in this film featured him singing the old Ronettes hit, “Be My Baby” in his falsetto range; also featured was a rendition of Sonny and Cher’s I Got You Babe, with Tim singing the Cher parts in his falsetto voice, along with Eleanor Barooshian reprising Sonny Bono’s baritone part. These tracks were recorded with Robbie Robertson and the other members of what was going to become known as The Band. The latter performance led to a booking on Rowan and Martin’s Laugh-In, an American television comedy-variety show. Dan Rowan announced that Laugh-In believed in showcasing new talent, and introduced Tiny Tim. The singer entered, blowing kisses, and sang “Tiptoe Through the Tulips” to Dick Martin.[citation needed]
This stunt was followed by several more appearances on Laugh-In and a recording contract with Reprise Records. He made a name for himself as a novelty performer, guesting with Johnny Carson, Ed Sullivan, and Jackie Gleason. At the height of his career, he was commanding a weekly salary of $50,000 in Las Vegas, Nevada. “Tiptoe Through the Tulips” became Tiny Tim’s signature song. He sang it in homage to its originator, singer-guitarist Nick Lucas. He invited Lucas to sing at his wedding in 1969.
In 1968, his first album, God Bless Tiny Tim, was released. It contained an orchestrated version of “Tiptoe Through the Tulips”, which became a hit after being released as a single. The other songs displayed his wide-ranging knowledge of the American songbook, and also allowed him to demonstrate his baritone voice, which was less often heard than his falsetto. He did his second recorded version of “I Got You Babe”, this time singing a “duet” with himself, taking Cher’s part in falsetto, and Sonny’s part in the baritone range.[citation needed] “On the Old Front Porch” extends this to a trio, including a boy (Billy Murray), the girl he is courting (Ada Jones), and her father (probably Murray again). Another notable song was a cover of “Stay Down Here Where You Belong”, written by Irving Berlin in 1914 to protest the Great War. It is written from the standpoint of Satan talking to his son, and is a powerful condemnation of those who foment war: To please their kings, they’ve all gone out to war, and not a one of them knows what they’re fighting for Kings up there are bigger devils than your dad. (The comedian Groucho Marx also used this song as part of his own act, at least in part to irk Berlin, who in later years tried in vain to disown the song.
That cheered me up, I’d forgotten how funny it is. My piano teacher used to say, ‘One does not laugh at Mozart, one laughs at Beethoven, but one does not understand the jokes he makes.’
BRAVO! Fantastic. I love watching him. We should do this once a month. Don’t you have any more films of him, Julia? Can we buy his records?
I start by watching Dudley Moore, and then I watch Peter Cooke, and pretty soon an hour has passed. I’m glad to see from the comments that people like Dudley Moore again; for a while there was an audience that only knew him from films. Poor old Dud.
A Bad Guide
I think there’s something very sexy about tulips past their best.
Your macro lens is behaving very well! =)
Those pictures remind me of my years in BC. Those were the days!
Oops, I thought I was still on the Plough topic.
But some of the tulip pictures remind me of Georgia O’Keeffe’s flower paintings.
(Georges Brassens, Saturne.)
Yes, it is sexy – like Georgia O’Keeffe and Robert Mapplethorpe’s pictures are – but I have to admit (to my shame really, I’m not a prude) that although I get it, I’ve never much seen them that way. I can mostly only enjoy them as flowers. However, my wife pointed out, when I asked her about it, that pornography is about cutting – showing bits of bodies where the head is cropped, etc. – so there’s also that.
I won’t go on about my new macro lens, but yes, it’s fantastic.
Thanks, Sig. I like being able to make use of your seemingly endless erudition. Les fleurs d’automne are, of course, just as interesting and beautiful as the new buds, just different.
oh lovely, and I admit to being envious — both of your lens and the flowers. Don’t you find you crave bright flowers in the winter? There’s something both decadent and heartening about bright spring flowers in the house when outside there is just white and shades of brown.
I loved the poem Sig gave us, thanks!
The sensuality of these photos lies for me in the silky texture of the petals that the close-ups reveal . You do not often see things from so close and with that crop of reality. That’s one thing I love of fotography.
I think I was being deliberately provocative by using that word. Certainly after the fact I was a little worried that I might have offended someone.
A memory from years ago: We used to get mail-order catalogues from both this place and this one, and Tesi used to enjoy reading them, maybe especially in the winter*. I remember she pointed out that the one had an almost prudish way of photographing flowers when they were not quite at the peak of their bloom, while the other had a more exciting way of showing them just a little bit ravaged by time.
Anyway, the pictures are ravishing, and grow more so with every zoom in.
*So did our then very young son. Well, he couldn’t read yet, but he loved to look at the different kinds of flowers and ask his mother what they were all called.
Oh, and the scrawny little pink rose that blooms outside our window in the cold autumn still has its three blooms, now very faded of course. The recent snow buried its head (twice), but I carefully freed it (twice).
Who gives (¿’throw’ is too rude?) Empty a digital camera, please?
It’s a wonderful day here, we’re staying at my parents house, full of green and flowers (well actually the ones the dogs forgave …) so I salute you and go to the swimming-pool =) A cold breeze would be welcome here, though.
the pictures are ravishing
Crown’s, that is!
Tesi’s quite right. It reminds me that growing plants doesn’t utilise the same aesthetic brain cells that you use to make a beautiful garden.
mab, yes, color when everything is black and white (mostly white). mab, did you see the movie Russian Ark, about the Hermitage? It’s pretty old – 2001, or something – we watched it last night, I thought it was beautiful to watch, but a bit trite “Oh, and here comes Catherine the Great. She’s dying to take a piss.” But I’m pretty sure I missed some stuff about the characters who were playing themselves.
I agree that Ø should get a camera; it’s not very time-consuming to learn it. Otherwise Ø, couldn’t you pay your children to take pictures for you? I don’t mean to interfere in their upbringing.
Thanks Julia. The whole thing is about time that passes by, Saturn, i.e. Kronos, being the one responsible for that matter. The stanza before the one I have copied above talks about the ageing beloved one who had to pay the worrisome god the tax on salt (gabelle), the price being a grain of salt in her hair:
Crown must be a powerful wizard to have kept these flowers alive so long after the end of autumn. I’d say it’s pretty weird, if not creepy. If I were Mrs Crown I’d try to find out.
Yes, I did see the Ark. It’s a trick film, you know — all one continuous shot — so I remember getting caught up in that. But not an awful lot stuck in my head.
I’d forgotten that, about it being one continuous shot. Damn, now I’ll have to watch it again.
Sig, Like Ø, we have red roses still holding out in the snow. It is pretty creepy in a way. I don’t think it’s happened before.
Tulips should always be past their best.
Can it be a coincidence that the mildly naughty song of yesteryear enjoins us to ‘tiptoe through the tulips with me’? (Wait for the tulips to open.)
Ach, so. Then there’s Tulips From Amsterdam.
Now I can’t get the bloody tune out of my head. Whatever you do, o ye badly guided, don’t click on that link.
Me too. I’ve been banging my head against the wall, but it won’t stop. Heed the words of the Principal.
¡jajaja! / hahaha!
Principal, your warning came one hour late for me… The tune is in my head too. But I love the link: music, lyrics and dancing so funny for us nowadays!
Why was the music of that time so tremendously silly? Must have something to do with the light-headed spirit between the wars…
And now I’ll listen again…
Hey, did you know this guy, Tiny Tim?
Here’s a video where he sings the mentioned song.
The interesting thing for me is the explanation that comes with the video. Here it is, so you don’t need to listen to the song ….
(It’s a bit long, sorry AJP for using so much A Bad Guide’s space ;-)
Herbert Khaury (April 12, 1932 November 30, 1996), better known by the stage name Tiny Tim, was an American singer, ukulele player, and musical archivist. He was most famous for his rendition of “Tiptoe Through the Tulips” sung in a distinctive high falsetto/vibrato voice (though his normal singing voice was in a standard male range). He was generally regarded as a novelty act, though his records indicate his wide knowledge of American songs. He had no official middle name, though some web sites report it to be “Butros”, his father’s first name, while during his televised wedding his middle name was given as “Buckingham”. His headstone reads “Khaury/Herbert B/Tiny Tim/1932-1996”.
Throughout the 1950s and early 1960s, Tiny Tim developed something of a cult following. In the 1960s he was seen regularly near the Harvard University campus as a street performer, singing old Tin Pan Alley tunes. His choice of repertoire and his encyclopedic knowledge of vintage popular music impressed many of the spectators. One admirer, Norman Kay, recalled that Tiny Tim’s outrageous public persona was a false front belying a quiet, studious personality: “Herb Khaury was the greatest put-on artist in the world. Here he was with the long hair and the cheap suit and the high voice, but when you spoke to him he talked like a college professor. He knew everything about the old songs.
Between 1962 and 1966 Tiny Tim recorded a number of songs at small (almost microscopic) recording companies, with several of them being made as “acetates” and one actually released as a 45 record. These songs illustrate that even very early on he had a decided drive for success and was getting noticed in a positive way, despite his looks and unusual manner. However he also recorded one entire batch of songs that would come back to disastrously haunt him at the peak of his greatest fame.
Tiny Tim appeared in Jack Smith’s Normal Love, as well as the independent feature film You Are What You Eat (his appearance in this film featured him singing the old Ronettes hit, “Be My Baby” in his falsetto range; also featured was a rendition of Sonny and Cher’s I Got You Babe, with Tim singing the Cher parts in his falsetto voice, along with Eleanor Barooshian reprising Sonny Bono’s baritone part. These tracks were recorded with Robbie Robertson and the other members of what was going to become known as The Band. The latter performance led to a booking on Rowan and Martin’s Laugh-In, an American television comedy-variety show. Dan Rowan announced that Laugh-In believed in showcasing new talent, and introduced Tiny Tim. The singer entered, blowing kisses, and sang “Tiptoe Through the Tulips” to Dick Martin.[citation needed]
This stunt was followed by several more appearances on Laugh-In and a recording contract with Reprise Records. He made a name for himself as a novelty performer, guesting with Johnny Carson, Ed Sullivan, and Jackie Gleason. At the height of his career, he was commanding a weekly salary of $50,000 in Las Vegas, Nevada. “Tiptoe Through the Tulips” became Tiny Tim’s signature song. He sang it in homage to its originator, singer-guitarist Nick Lucas. He invited Lucas to sing at his wedding in 1969.
In 1968, his first album, God Bless Tiny Tim, was released. It contained an orchestrated version of “Tiptoe Through the Tulips”, which became a hit after being released as a single. The other songs displayed his wide-ranging knowledge of the American songbook, and also allowed him to demonstrate his baritone voice, which was less often heard than his falsetto. He did his second recorded version of “I Got You Babe”, this time singing a “duet” with himself, taking Cher’s part in falsetto, and Sonny’s part in the baritone range.[citation needed] “On the Old Front Porch” extends this to a trio, including a boy (Billy Murray), the girl he is courting (Ada Jones), and her father (probably Murray again). Another notable song was a cover of “Stay Down Here Where You Belong”, written by Irving Berlin in 1914 to protest the Great War. It is written from the standpoint of Satan talking to his son, and is a powerful condemnation of those who foment war: To please their kings, they’ve all gone out to war, and not a one of them knows what they’re fighting for Kings up there are bigger devils than your dad. (The comedian Groucho Marx also used this song as part of his own act, at least in part to irk Berlin, who in later years tried in vain to disown the song.
Very interesting. I like Tiny Tim’s On The Good Ship Lollypop. That should get the other one out of your heads.
That’s nice too. If all else fails, sing ‘Baa Baa Black Sheep’ to yourselves, it’s supposed to be so boring in and of itself that it cures it.
BBBS is good because you can segue into this, which is roughly the same tune. I love this guy’s facial expressions.
That cheered me up, I’d forgotten how funny it is. My piano teacher used to say, ‘One does not laugh at Mozart, one laughs at Beethoven, but one does not understand the jokes he makes.’
That’s for sure. I’m more likely to laugh at Schubert, I didn’t even know Beethoven was making jokes.
Julia’s brother is an opera star in St. Petersburg.
Beethoven, you say.
Amazing videos, AJP & dearieme!
“opera star” LOL!
Unless you think all opera singers are divos – which may be true…
He IS an opera star. I was trying to find the video to link to, you’ll have to do it.
Well if you insist… He won’t compliant :-) Thank you!
Nessum dorma?
Here it is:
Even though I think everyone here have already seen it, as well as this post:
http://melioralatent.blogspot.com/2010/03/mi-hermano.html
But thank you again.
Schubert, you say.
Dudley Moore again
BRAVO! Fantastic. I love watching him. We should do this once a month. Don’t you have any more films of him, Julia? Can we buy his records?
I start by watching Dudley Moore, and then I watch Peter Cooke, and pretty soon an hour has passed. I’m glad to see from the comments that people like Dudley Moore again; for a while there was an audience that only knew him from films. Poor old Dud.
I second BRAVO. Well done, Julia’s bro. Whoever it was who picked Nessun Dorma for use at the Italian World Cup did mankind a great service.
Oh, thank you very much! I’ll tell him now =)
Another issue:
Translation is served, Mr. Crown ;-)
http://melioralatent.blogspot.com/2011/01/maria-elena-walsh-and-round-flower.html
I mean, translation of that children’s story by María Elena Walsh.
That’s a great translation she did, I can only assume the original is as good!
Peter Ustinov sings Schubert (‘Ze Goerl and ze Halibut’).
That’s another hour. I can’t seem to watch only one of those youtube things. It’s time well spent, I should say.
A smidgen of Mozart