Do you realize?

The Flaming Lips, Do you realize?

is now the

OFFICIAL STATE SONG (link)

as proclaimed by Governor....

First glance I thought it was FLA, not OKLA.

Yes, I thought, the lyrics really make sense...

(especially the last line - for a retirement state)

Do You Realize - that you have the most beautiful face
Do You Realize - we're floating in space -
Do You Realize - that happiness makes you cry
Do You Realize - that everyone you know someday will die

Anyway, it works for OKLA too (they are native sons of course).

A Green Horizon.

I needed a picture for a "Horizons" theme.

I took this picture April 22nd a couple of years ago.

(How ironic. The same day as EARTH DAY!)

This scene was begging to be photographed.

This is just over the Illinois border into Wisconsin.

Notice the other farms and tree way back in the horizon.

In previous years one would be looking at the rich brown

of a freshly plowed field, not last year's cornstalks.

Not anymore. Farmers today are eco-friendly.

This is a no-till (or zero-till) field.

Rather than turning over the soil,

the next crop (probably soybeans)

will be planted between the corn rows.

A Green Thing.

Less soil erosion.

From Red Barn

From Red Barn

From Red Barn

"Ay, prithee. Talketh like me"

LINK - Mayor Daley has proclaimed it "Talk like Shakespeare Day" in Chicago.

Instead of the stereotypical Chicago "da" for "the",

(thanks Saturday Night Live)

I suspect it will be replaced with a much erudite sounding "tis".

Ha.

In case you didn't understand the title...

Prithee: 'please', 'if you don't mind'

Example from Shakespeare:
'Ay; prithee, sing.' - Orsino to Feste, asking him to sing. (Twelfth Night)

INSULT GENERATOR

or the real thing.

This is Christopher the Insulter. I've seen him at our local Ren Faire. He gets a person up on stage and then the audience pays him money to insult the victim. We got Clint up there - he was so much fun, Christopher made more money on him than anyone else that day.

The following word could have come out of a Harry Potter novel...

Huggermugger: a secret act done too quickly, without thinking it through.

Example from Shakespeare:
'And we have done but greenly in huggermugger to inter him' - Claudius regretting having buried Polonius in such a hurry in secret. (Hamlet)

And some insults I thought humorous....

Shakespeare Insult 1 - The Two Gentlemen of Verona

Thou subtle, perjur'd, false, disloyal man!

Shakespeare Insult 2 - As You Like It

Thou art like a toad; ugly and venemous.

Shakespeare Insult 3 - The Tempest

Thine forward voice, now, is to speak well of thine friend; thine backward voice is to utter foul speeches and to detract.

Shakespeare Insult 4 - Measure For Measure

Thou art a flesh-monger, a fool and a coward.

Shakespeare Insult 5 - All's Well That Ends Well

A most notable coward, an infinite and endless liar, an hourly promise breaker, the owner of no one good quality.

Shakespeare Insult 6 - Cymbeline

Thy tongue outvenoms all the worms of Nile.

Shakespeare Insult 7 - Henry IV Part 2

You scullion! You rampallian! You fustilarian! I'll tickle your catastrophe!

Shakespeare Insult 8 - All's Well That Ends Well

Methink'st thou art a general offence and every man should beat thee.

Shakespeare Insult 9 - Macbeth

Go, prick thy face, and over-red thy fear, Thou lily-liver'd boy.

Shakespeare Insult 10 - Troilus and Cressida

Thou art as loathsome as a toad.

Shakespeare Insult 11 - Macbeth

Go, prick thy face, and over-red thy fear, Thou lily-liver'd boy.

Shakespeare Insult 12 - Henry IV Part 1

Thou clay-brained guts, thou knotty-pated fool, thou whoreson obscene greasy tallow-catch!

Shakespeare Insult 13 - Measure for Measure

A flesh monger, a fool, and a coward.

Leonardo da Vinci.

Happy Birthday Leonardo...

From The Mona Lisa's Sister album (and what a classic it is)

Graham Parker on David Letterman, Latenight: Get Started, Start a Fire,

The Mona Lisa's sister doesn't smile
She tried to pose but only for a while
Leonardo sent her home Since then she has lived alone
With her few belongings and a copy Of a painting of herself unhappy
She is going to burn it when she's ready

Chorus:
Get started, start a fire (4 times)

Marilyn was lying all alone With an empty bottle by the phone
Kennedy was not around She was cold when she was found
But she'd gone where goddesses are sleeping
Where the molten tongues of flame are leaping
Or where the angel's hearts are heating

Joan of Arc was burning at the stake Somebody had made a big mistake
She had lit a cigarette In an aiport where you get
Your fingers taken off for smoking.
Meanwhile up the road a factory's choking
The ones who killed her work there I'm not joking

Powerlinerflyers.

Spring is in the air. And many birds now and then...

I do remember the song from Amelie (uplifting movie, worth catching up with).

The video is a great composition.

powerlinerflyers from wes johnson on Vimeo.

All the following from SLATE:

powerlinerflyers from wes johnson on Vimeo. technology YouTube for Artistes.

The Web video site Vimeo goes after an audience tired of the poorly lit basement aesthetic.

By Farhad Manjoo Posted Tuesday, April 7, 2009, at 5:54 PM ET

My nomination for the most mesmerizing minute and 34 seconds of video on the Web is nothing more than a meditation on a stretch of power lines as thousands of birds come and go at sunset.

What the clip lacks in plot, it makes up for with fantastic production.

Wes Johnson, a photographer in Mesa, Ariz., who created the piece, shot the scene with a high-definition camera that allows you ! make out individual birds as they come and go on the swaying lines. Jo hnson sets the video to Yann Tiersen's "L'autre Valse d'Amélie," from the Amelie soundtrack, laid down with startling synchronicity to the images.

Close Range.

You have to watch the video for this to make sense.

Your Walls Just Got Bloodier Poster Size: 28"x36"

For a limited-time only, you can own the incredible and breath-taking official wall poster from the hot, new video game, Close Range, featured on the Onion News Network.

A video game like Close Range only comes around once, maybe twice, in a lifetime.

And a poster like this comes around even less.

Watch the Close Range video featured on the Onion News Network.

Hot New Video Game Consists Solely Of Shooting People Point-Blank In The Face

The Go-Getter.

This is a really pleasant indie movie with a first rate soundtrack.

Zooey Deschanel (my fav), is charming and a bit flakey as usual. Many times she is off camera, only present vocally (over the phone), but she still conveys a strong essence of her personality. Jena Malone (Donnie Darko) and Maura Tierney (ER) are a couple recognizable faces. I wasn't that familiar with Lou Taylor Pucci (only seeing him in the movie Thumbsucker) but feel he ended up perfect playing the main character.

From Rotten Tomatoes:

The Go-Getter is the story of Mercer White (Lou Taylor Pucci), a straight-arrow 19 year-old who, eight months after the death of his mother, steals a car and sets out to find his older half-brother he hasn't seen in fourteen years.

He's barely out of town when a cell phone left behind in the stolen car begins to ring. Mercer immediately finds himself talking to the car's owner, Kate (Zooey Deschanel).

Surprisingly open to Mercer’s journey, she does not threaten to call the police, but instead offers him the most curious deal: Mercer can use her car until he’s done with it on one condition: that he call her and tell her about his trip all along the way.

Singer and guitarist M. Ward provided most of the music for the film, complemented by songs from The Black Keys, Elliott Smith, The Replacements and Animal Collective.

Helen Levitt: most celebrated and least known.

Alfred Eisenstaedt's most famous picture is V-J day in Times Square. I have a large collection of his photographs in book form.

He is known for his candid photographs and also had many grace LIFE magazine. Very famous.

Another famous photographer I know much less about just passed away a couple days ago: Helen Levitt.

Interestingly Wiki says pretty much the same thing in it's first paragraph about her:

Helen Levitt (August 31, 1913 – March 29, 2009) was an American photographer. She was particularly noted for "street photography" around New York City, and has been called "the most celebrated and least known photographer of her time."

Here is a sampling of some of her photographs.

I'm no expert but have heard about the one with the kids in halloween masks on the porch. Haunting in a way. And what about the second one with the kids playing over (and dangling near) the doorway? Unbelievable shot.

I plan on looking deeper into her volume of work. I really like what I've seen so far.

From Helen Levitt

From Helen Levitt

From Helen Levitt

From Helen Levitt

From Helen Levitt