Fairy Tale Friday--Old French Fairy Tales

This week I'd like to tout this whole book, because all the illustrations are gorgeous!  I'm including some of the color plates here, but don't miss the black-and-white ones in the book.

Old French Fairy Tales

by Sophie Segur

Illustrations by Virginia Frances Sterrett

Easter Without Eggs

My neighbor and I went to the MFA to see the Quilts and Color exhibit.  Fortunately, Easter-related activities kept the crowds elsewhere, so we could see the quilts easily.  I bought the catalogue for this exhibit.

Next, after a lovely meal at Cafe Jaffa, Rosemary and I strolled to the Marathon finish line to check stuff out.

On Patriots' Day I am back at work, since Harvard is not patriotic enough to give us the day off.  Chris has used rubber bands to make love beads.

Oil Paint

The new Photoshop has a filter called oil paint that is a bit weird.

The Big Wind-Maker

 Anna gave me a big fan she wasn't using.  It has a lot of text on one side.

Gwang-Ho was able to translate.  These are several poems about a lovely lake near Hangzhou.

Sunday in Salem

Went to Salem on Sunday with Rosemary.  These metal, slotted boards had something to do with parking a long time ago..

 

 

 

We went to the PEM to see the Fabergé eggs.  But I only took pictures of non-egg items.  Some weren't even by Fabergé.

 

 

Rosemary wanted to pose with Kevin Garnet's picture before it was whisked away.

London by Night

I'm currently reading The Victorian City by Judith Flanders.  In the chapter on prostitution (The Red-Lit Streets to Death) Flanders mentioned a cheap novel about a nice girl's descent into prostitution.  This is how I discovered London by Night.  I only read bits of it, but the colored plates interested me.

The author, Anonyma, had written many similar books.

This one has lots of illustrations.

I'm pretty sure these are in the public domain, so go ahead and check out these and others here.  However, if you purchased the copyright to the illustrations of William Gray, just let me know.

Brunch

I wanted to have brunch here last Sunday, but they were already reserved up through 2:30.  We went today. 

Here are my brunching partners.

On April 27 I went with Rosemary to the preview of Art in Bloom at the MFA.  I only took pictures of the arrangements I liked.  The hands-down winner was this green lady:

For my other photos, go here.

New Stuff on the Christian Science Church Plaza

I actually don't know if it's called the Christian Science Church Plaza, but that's what it is.  Rosemary and I were there on Saturday, because she had seen stuff going up and wanted to investigate.  One proud sculptress, who was installing her 2 "Tiger Mom" figures, said that on the following Saturday there would be a big reception with politicians speaking, etc.

This wind sculpture had many moving parts.

For No Reason--Photoshop

I photoshopped this figure drawing today.

Doing Stuff is Hard

I had my Charters to the Moon brochure framed.  (The top is the original; the bottom is a scan.)

I haven't hung it up yet.  That will be a major project!

SOS Sunday

Today Rosemary and I decided to check out Somerville Open Studios.  We took the T to Davis Square* for starters.

Consuelo Perez makes art out of recycled stuff.  Since these 2 pieces were outside, I thought it would be OK to photograph them.

The Museum of Modern Renaissance was easy to spot.

The Davis Square neighborhood is full of huge old houses with character.

 This is an especially nice bird house along the bike path.

It says "BRYANT CHAMBERS" in stone.  You'll just have to trust me.

*When I moved up east, I was surprised to find out that a "Square"  was an intersection and an undefined area around it.  I expected a Square to be square, like a Plaza.

A Nice Old Post Card

This nice old post card is from a Map Collection collection not-yet-processed, so I cannot provide a call number.  They are using the image to advertise an exibition of the Panama Canal in maps.  It is a rare illustration of Aqua-eroticism.

Missed Kay Ryan

I was going to hear Kay Ryan at the MFA last night.  But the heavy, cold rain held me back; I just wanted to go home and get in bed with the cats.  Here is a poem of hers based on a museum experience.

Outsider Art
by Kay Ryan

Most of it’s too dreary
or too cherry red
If it’s a chair, it’s
covered with things
the savior said
or should have said—
dense admonishments
in nail polish
too small to be read.
If it’s a picture,
the frame is either
burnt matches glued together
or a regular frame painted over
to extend the picture. There never
seems to be a surface equal
to the needs of these people.
Their purpose wraps
around the backs of things
and under arms;
they gouge and hatch
and glue on charms
till likable materials—
apple crates and canning funnels—
lose their rural ease. We are not
pleased the way we thought
we would be pleased.

Attribution Can Be Hell (or The Web of Deceit)

Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.

Some months ago we got an attribution question from a Professor who wanted to use the quotation above in an article or book (I can't remember which).  The internet attributes it to Leonardo da Vinci; but the internet does not give a citation.  So I looked in every quotation book and every online quotation thing, but it's not there.  I did a JSTOR search in art history titles.  No results. Then I did Google Books searches and found Leonardo's notebooks and Thoughts on Art and Life (translated into English).  But I couldn't find anything like it in there.  Finally I asked an art librarian who asked a friend of hers who is a Leonardo da Vinci scholar.  The scholar had never heard that quotation.

Widespread quotation misinformation predates the internet.  William Safire got himself embroiled in just such a scandal.  He had used a quotation attributed to Edmund Burke in a column, and then a reader wrote him a letter asking when and where Burke had said said quotation.  Safire checked his copy of Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 14th edition, which placed the quotation in a certain letter.  Safire sent a reply.  The guy wrote back: he'd examined that letter, and the quotation wasn't in it.  So then Safire embarked on a fruitless quest to prove that Burke really wrote, " The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing."*
The 16th edition of Bartlett's lists this under Burke as "Attributed."

Now it is possible that Leo from Vinci said something that could be translated as the above quotation and that somebody found it somewhere written down by Leo on some forgotten manuscript in a hidden archive.  So if you are that somebody, I wish you would identify yourself and cough up a citation.

It is also possible that some person has, through error or evil design, perpetrated a web-lie.  If you are that person, please fess up.  And tell the world who really said "Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication."

* William Safire On Language, NY: Times Books, 1980, pp 224-227.

UPDATE 11/08/11 I find a reference to this problem in Wikiquote.
ANOTHER UPDATE 4/3/15 Quote Investigator did a thorough investigation!

Gorey Hallelujah!

Yesterday was commencement day, an extra holiday for me and my library buddies.  So Sue, Julie, Laureen, Lynn, and I decided to see the Gorey exhibit at the Boston Athenaeum.  I'd never been there before.

Sue, Laureen, Lynn, Julie

Inside, photography was strictly forbidden, so you will have to take my word that the exhibition was awesome, or buy the exhibition catalogue.  My favorite items were the envelopes young Gorey used to mail letters to his mother when he was an undergraduate at Harvard.  He decorated them with weird watercolor pictures.  He must have been well-known by the post office.

Next we visited the Granary Burying Ground, which is visible from Athenaeum windows.

 

Note that the woman buried on the left was named Silence.  Talk about Puritan names.

Next we backtracked and ate lunch at Zen Grille and Sushi Bar.  I had noodles;  I don't eat anything raw.  The sushi was very attractive.  Take a look at Julie's lunch.

Next we stopped to look at a Memorial Day installation on Boston Common.

Now go to Youtube to see our  our Swanboat ride.