Daily Entries for the week of
Sunday, July 11, 2021
through
Saturday, July 17, 2021
__________________________________________________________
It’s Saturday, July 17, 2021
Welcome to the 1,161st consecutive post to the blog,
existentialautotrip.com
______________________________________
1.0 Lead Picture
William Johnson
Self-Portrait
Hand-colored woodcut with blue clothing, brown skin tone, and pale green background
William H. Johnson - Smithsonian Institution
Ethnic\African-American
______________________________________
2.0 Commentary
One employment concept as part of the New Social Contract is the improvement of the employable skills of the workers.
A new hire, with no previous work, gets paid $15.00/hour. For this, the worker learns basic concepts: show up on time, be industrious, contribute to a happy work environment, learn the job, follow orders. Some months later this new hire has become a decent worker. Rather than pay extra money to the experienced worker, the employer is involved in preparing his employees for a higher paying job either within the company or outside of it.
The ongoing upgrading of the workforce throughout the economy, often with government aid, results in a more capable, upwardly mobile labor pool, earning more money, buying more products, expanding our economy.
I finally got some work in on the manuscript. I reviewed the dialog between two characters in the first scene of the book.
Hoping this is the start of a regular attendance to the work.
______________________________________
4.0 Chuckles and Thoughts
“This is who Shakespeare was meant for: not The New York Times! Not intellectuals.
Just plain folks.
You play Shakespeare’s music right for a real house and that shit goes up all by itself.”
~Ethan Hawke, A Bright Ray of Darkness
_____________________________________
5.0 Mail and other Conversation
We love getting mail, email, or texts.
Send comments to domcapossela@hotmail.com
or text to 617.852.7192
This one a shout out from a blogger with a health issue. Recently, he experienced a sharp stomach pain and rather than ‘waiting it out’ entered an Urgent Care facility and had it examined. Turned out that if he hadn’t responded as promptly as he did, within the next twenty-four hours a serious situation would have developed. As it was, the medical people administered some anti-bacterial medication and sent him on his way.
Blog meister responds: A happy ending. Congratulations, of course. But a caution: Unusual? check it out.
_____________________________________
6.0 Dinner/Food/Recipes
Tuesday night Katherine and I shared a slow-roasted game hen, spatchcocked.
Isn’t that an ugly word?
But cutting out the hen’s backbone and flattening the bird after the slow-roasting, simplifies the browning of the bird under the broiler and gives it that burnt flavor that we are all so fond of.
Such a great tasting dinner.
In addition, I used some chicken gravy that I have in my freezer and bought some prepared vegetables from the supermarket.
__________________________________
11.0 Thumbnail
William Henry Johnson (March 18, 1901 – April 13, 1970) was an American painter. Born in Florence, South Carolina, he became a student at the National Academy of Design in New York City, working with Charles Webster Hawthorne. He later lived and worked in France, where he was exposed to modernism. After Johnson married Danish textile artist Holcha Krake, the couple lived for some time in Scandinavia. There he was influenced by the strong folk art tradition. The couple moved to the United States in 1938. Johnson eventually found work as a teacher at the Harlem Community Art Center, through the Federal Art Project.
Johnson's style evolved from realism to expressionism to a powerful folk style, for which he is best known. Cezanne was one of his inspirations. A substantial collection of his paintings, watercolors, and prints is held by the Smithsonian American Art Museum, which has organized and circulated major exhibitions of his works.
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
__________________________________________________________
It’s Friday, July 16, 2021
Welcome to the 1,160th consecutive post to the blog,
existentialautotrip.com
______________________________________
1.0 Lead Picture
Storming of the Bastille
Visible in the center is the arrest of Bernard René Jourdan, marquis de Launay (1740-1789).
Jean-Pierre Houël - Bibliothèque nationale de France
______________________________________
2.0 Commentary
At the MFA, when I want to take a break from my writing, I’m studying a small exhibition tracing the influence of Cezanne as a bridge between the Impressionists and the modern artists (Picasso, Matisse), as well as several paintings by masters who influenced Cezanne, including Corot and Chardin.
It’s like a dream come true for me.
Tuesday night I spent an hour or so making two batches of North End Gravy, one for Katherine (no beef; no cheese) and one for me, a more traditional recipe. For Katherine, I made meatballs with half ground pork and half spicy Italian pork sausage meat. I fried her meats and mine in separate pans and cooked the Gravies separately. Not that much more work but it does take a bit extra organization.
______________________________________
3.0 Reading and Writing Events
I haven’t spent much time writing my manuscript.
So busy with I don’t know what.
Today, Wednesday, the MFA reopens (my new favorite workspace closes Mondays and Tuesdays) and I’m hoping to go there early and spend more time on my writing.
______________________________________
4.0 Chuckles and Thoughts
“Shakespeare's strengths and there are many include his unique ability to vastly improve pre-existing plots and turn them profoundly dark and tragic or lightly comedic and romantic at will. There is also The Bard's lyrical, complex dialogue encoded with hidden meaning that works both in context and out, his towering, unforgettable characterizations, and the variety and depth of his female characters.”
~Stewart Stafford
_____________________________________
6.0 Dinner/Food/Recipes
Monday night was a reconfiguration of leftovers.
A roast pork sandwich with vinegar peppers, prosciutto, and mustard.
Served with a melange of vegetables already cut up for a hor pot and not used.
Delicious, all.
__________________________________
11.0 Thumbnail
The Storming of the Bastille occurred in Paris, France, on the afternoon of 14 July 1789.
The medieval armory, fortress, and political prison known as the Bastille represented royal authority in the center of Paris. The prison contained only seven inmates at the time of its storming, but was seen by the revolutionaries as a symbol of the monarchy's abuse of power; its fall was the flashpoint of the French Revolution.
In France, 14 July is the national holiday, usually called Bastille Day in English.
Storming the Bastille (14 July 1789)
On the morning of 14 July 1789, the city of Paris was in a state of alarm. The partisans of the Third Estate in France, now under the control of the Bourgeois Militia of Paris (soon to become Revolutionary France's National Guard), had earlier stormed the Hôtel des Invalides without meeting significant opposition.
Their intention had been to gather the weapons held there (29,000 to 32,000 muskets, but without powder or shot). The commandant at the Invalides had in the previous few days taken the precaution of transferring 250 barrels of gunpowder to the Bastille for safer storage.
At this point, the Bastille was nearly empty, housing only seven prisoners: four forgers; James F.X. Whyte, a "lunatic" imprisoned at the request of his family; Auguste-Claude Tavernier, who had tried to assassinate Louis XV thirty years before; and one "deviant" aristocrat, the Comte de Solages, imprisoned by his father using a lettre de cachet (while the Marquis de Sade had been transferred out ten days earlier).
The high cost of maintaining a garrisoned medieval fortress, for what was seen as having a limited purpose, had led to a decision being made shortly before the disturbances began to replace it with an open public space. Amid the tensions of July 1789, the building remained as a symbol of royal tyranny.
The regular garrison consisted of 82 invalides (veteran soldiers no longer suitable for service in the field).[30] It had however been reinforced on 7 July by 32 grenadiers of the Swiss Salis-Samade Regiment from the regular troops on the Champ de Mars. The walls mounted 18 eight-pound guns and 12 smaller pieces. The governor was Bernard-René de Launay, son of a previous governor and actually born within the Bastille.
The official list of vainqueurs de la Bastille (conquerors of the Bastille) subsequently compiled has 954 names, and the total of the crowd was probably fewer than one thousand. A breakdown of occupations included in the list indicates that the majority were local artisans, together with some regular army deserters and a few distinctive categories, such as 21 wine merchants.
The crowd gathered outside the fortress around mid-morning, calling for the pulling back of the seemingly threatening cannon from the embrasures of the towers and walls and the release of the arms and gunpowder stored inside. Two representatives from the Hotel de Ville (municipal authorities from the Town Hall) were invited into the fortress and negotiations began, while another was admitted around noon with definite demands. The negotiations dragged on while the crowd grew and became impatient. Around 1:30 pm, the crowd surged into the undefended outer courtyard. A small party climbed onto the roof of a building next to the gate to the inner courtyard of the fortress and broke the chains on the drawbridge, crushing one vainqueur as it fell. Soldiers of the garrison called to the people to withdraw, but amid the noise and confusion these shouts were misinterpreted as encouragement to enter. Gunfire began, apparently spontaneously, turning the crowd into a mob. The crowd seems to have felt that they had been intentionally drawn into a trap and the fighting became more violent and intense, while attempts by deputies to organize a cease-fire were ignored by the attackers.
The firing continued, and after 3:00 pm, the attackers were reinforced by mutinous gardes françaises, along with two cannons. A substantial force of Royal Army troops encamped on the Champ de Mars did not intervene. With the possibility of mutual carnage suddenly apparent, Governor de Launay ordered the garrison to cease firing at 5:00 pm. A letter written by de Launay offering surrender but threatening to explode the powder stocks held if the garrison were not permitted to evacuate the fortress unharmed, was handed out to the besiegers through a gap in the inner gate. His demands were not met, but Launay nonetheless capitulated, as he realised that with limited food stocks and no water supply his troops could not hold out much longer. He accordingly opened the gates, and the vainqueurs swept in to take over the fortress at 5:30 pm.
Ninety-eight attackers and one defender had died in the actual fighting, a disparity accounted for by the protection provided to the garrison by the fortress walls.[43] Launay was seized and dragged towards the Hôtel de Ville in a storm of abuse. Outside the Hôtel, a discussion as to his fate began. The badly beaten Launay shouted "Enough! Let me die!" and kicked a pastry cook named Dulait in the groin. Launay was then stabbed repeatedly and died. An English traveler, Doctor Edward Rigby, reported what he saw, "[We] perceived two bloody heads raised on pikes, which were said to be the heads of the Marquis de Launay, Governor of the Bastille, and of Monsieur Flesselles, Prévôt des Marchands. It was a chilling and a horrid sight! ... Shocked and disgusted at this scene, [we] retired immediately from the streets."
The three officers of the permanent Bastille garrison were also killed by the crowd; surviving police reports detail their wounds and clothing.
Three of the invalides of the garrison were lynched plus two of the Swiss regulars of the Salis-Samade Regiment. The remaining Swiss were protected by the French Guards and eventually released to return to their regiment. Their officer, Lieutenant Louis de Flue of the Salis-Samade Regiment wrote a detailed report on the defense of the Bastille, which was incorporated in the logbook of the Salis-Samade and has survived. It is (perhaps unfairly) critical of the dead Marquis de Launay, whom Flue accuses of weak and indecisive leadership. The blame for the fall of the Bastille would rather appear to lie with the inertia of the commanders of the 5,000 Royal Army troops encamped on the Champ de Mars, who did not act when either the nearby Hôtel des Invalides or the Bastille were attacked.
The king first learned of the storming only the next morning through the Duke of La Rochefoucauld. "Is it a revolt?" asked Louis XVI. The duke replied: "No sire, it's not a revolt; it's a revolution."
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
__________________________________________________________
It’s Thursday, July 15, 2021
Welcome to the 1,159th consecutive post to the blog,
existentialautotrip.com
_____________________________________
1.0 Lead Picture
Iris DeMent
at Old Settler's Music Festival – Driftwood, Texas, 2007
Ron Baker (https://www.flickr.com/photos/kingsnake) - Own work
______________________________________
2.0 Commentary
Iris DeMent has a unique voice and delivery.
For those who think they hate Country or Folk music, I urge you to listen to Ms. DeMent’s Let the Mystery Be, Too Old to Cry, and Our Town.
I promise you’ll come away with an increased respect for the genres.
The weather forecast for the next ten days is not delightful for the summer tourist industry built around lovely weather. The temperatures are right but the lack of sun is disheartening.
While I was totally in favor of the Biden’s first trillion dollar response to the covid pandemic, I admit to being stunned to see that several large restaurant groups received $10,000,000. I mean, really? Without receiving an equity position and a seat of their Boards of Directors?
Here’s me thinking lots of tens of thousands of dollars awards were going to independent restaurants but discovering, No! Several $10,000,000, [ten million dollars] went to big businesses.
Hoping some public justification will be made.
______________________________________
4.0 Chuckles and Thoughts
“We all know Shakespeare occupies a paradoxical place in contemporary culture. On the one hand his work is revered: quoted, performed, graded, subsidized, parodied. Shakespeare! On the other hand – cue yawns and eye rolls, or fear of personal intellectual failure – Shakespeare can be an obligation, a set text, inducing a terrible and particular weariness that can strike us sitting in the theatre at around 9.30 p.m., when we are becalmed in Act 4 and there’s still an hour to go (admit it – we’ve all been there). Shakespeare is a cultural gatekeeper, politely honoured rather than robustly challenged. Does anyone actually like reading this stuff?”
~Emma Smith
_____________________________________
6.0 Dinner/Food/Recipes
Katherine and I had a leftover North End Gravy with a piece of steak for me [Katherine no longer eats beef].
It was delicious.
I’ll remake a batch of this in the next two days.
It’s Katherine’s favorite.
I’ll be trying out all-pork meatballs for Katherine. Ground pork mixed with the filling of Italian Spicy Pork sausages: no beef; no cheese.
__________________________________
11.0 Thumbnail
Iris Luella DeMent (born January 5, 1961) is an American two-time Grammy-nominated singer and songwriter.
DeMent's musical style includes elements of folk, country and gospel.
DeMent was inspired to write her first song "Our Town" by a drive through a boarded-up Midwest town, at the age of 25. The song lyrics came to her "exactly as it is now", without need for re-writing, and she realized then that songwriting was her calling in life. "Our Town" was played during the closing scene for the final episode (July 26, 1995) of CBS's television series Northern Exposure. The song has been recorded by Kate Rusby, Kate Brislin & Jody Stecher and Trampled by Turtles.
Her first album, Infamous Angel, was released in 1992 on the Rounder-Philo label and explored such themes as religious skepticism, small-town life, and human frailty. "Let the Mystery Be" has been covered by a number of artists, including 10,000 Maniacs and Alice Stuart, and was used in the opening scenes of the film Little Buddha. In the fall of 2015, a version of "Let the Mystery Be" from the Transatlantic Sessions became the musical theme for the opening credits of the HBO series The Leftovers, replacing the original "Main Title Theme" composed by Max Richter, and it would once again serve as the opening theme for the series finale.
In her second album, My Life, released in 1994, she continued the personal and introspective approach. The record is dedicated to her father, who died two years earlier. My Life was nominated for a Grammy Award in the Best Contemporary Folk Album category.
DeMent's third album, The Way I Should, was released in 1996. Featuring the protest song "Wasteland of the Free", it is DeMent's most political work. It covers topics such as sexual abuse, religion, government policy, and Vietnam.
DeMent sang the duet "Bell Bottomed Tear" as part of The Beautiful South's Much Later with Jools live special in 1997.[citation needed]
In 1998, the song "Iris" by the rock band Goo Goo Dolls was named after her. Singer and songwriter John Rzeznik had already written the lyrics to the song but was having a problem naming it. He opened up the LA Weekly and noticed that DeMent was playing in town and thought her name was beautiful and then decided to name it after her.
Iris DeMent at Old Settler's Music Festival – Driftwood, Texas, 2007
She sang four duets with John Prine on his 1999 album In Spite of Ourselves, including the title track. She appeared in the 2000 film Songcatcher, playing the character Rose Gentry and singing on the soundtrack as well. Her duet with Ralph Stanley on "Ridin' That Midnight Train" was the opening track on his 2001 album, Clinch Mountain Sweethearts: Ralph Stanley & Friends.
In 2004 she released Lifeline, an album of gospel songs. It included 12 covers and one original composition ("He Reached Down").] It was the first album she released on Flariella Records, a label she started herself and named after her mother. A shortened version of her rendition of "Leaning on the Everlasting Arms" was later used in the closing credits of the Coen brothers' film True Grit. On October 2, 2012, DeMent released her first album of original songs in 16 years, Sing the Delta.
DeMent has sung duets with Steve Earle and Emmylou Harris and is featured on the albums of many other performers. She sang the Merle Haggard song "Big City" on Tulare Dust: A Songwriters' Tribute to Merle Haggard. She has made frequent appearances on Garrison Keillor's radio show A Prairie Home Companion. DeMent contributed harmony vocals to "Pallbearer", a song from country artist Josh Turner's 2012 album Punching Bag.[citation needed]
In 2015, DeMent released The Trackless Woods, an album based upon and inspired by the words of Russian poet Anna Akhmatova, on her own Flariella record label. She reunited with John Prine in 2016 for his second duets album For Better, or Worse and performed on two tracks. DeMent received the Americana Trailblazer Award at the 2017 Americana Music Honors & Awards.
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
__________________________________________________________
It’s Wednesday, July 14, 2021
Welcome to the 1,158th consecutive post to the blog,
existentialautotrip.com
______________________________________
1.0 Lead Picture
Les Grandes Baigneuses
898–1905; the triumph of Poussinesque stability and geometric balance
Paul Cézanne - owGszazN_Evyvw at Google Cultural Institute maximum zoom level
______________________________________
2.0 Commentary
Two men my age: Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders, teaming to push and thrust laws and orders to advance social justice in America and to educate our workforce with the green technology necessary to grow an economy with a $25.00 minimum wage. God bless them.
And I’m liking the MFA.
My new schedule has me leaving the apartment @ 10.00am.
Read on the train and in stations.
Arrive @ MFA @ 11.00am for free general admission for members.
Write, snack, and visit the galleries until 2.30pm.
T to Prudential Center and have coffee at the Blue Bottle and a last bit of writing.
Leave Blue Bottle @ 3.15pm, arriving back at apartment @ 4pm to prepare dinner.
We’ll check back on this in a bit.
_____________________________________
4.0 Chuckles and Thoughts
“We all know Shakespeare occupies a paradoxical place in contemporary culture. On the one hand his work is revered: quoted, performed, graded, subsidized, parodied. Shakespeare! On the other hand – cue yawns and eye rolls, or fear of personal intellectual failure – Shakespeare can be an obligation, a set text, inducing a terrible and particular weariness that can strike us sitting in the theatre at around 9.30 p.m., when we are becalmed in Act 4 and there’s still an hour to go (admit it – we’ve all been there). Shakespeare is a cultural gatekeeper, politely honoured rather than robustly challenged. Does anyone actually like reading this stuff?”
~Emma Smith
_____________________________________
6.0 Dinner/Food/Recipes
Hot Pot.
Four of us had a grand time cutting and chopping
and cooking and eating and talking and laughing and drinking.
And enjoyed the harmony of scraping and rinsing and loading into the dishwasher.
__________________________________
11.0 Thumbnail
Paul Cézanne, 19 January 1839 – 22 October 1906, was a French artist and Post-Impressionist painter whose work laid the foundations of the transition from the 19th-century conception of artistic endeavor to a new and radically different world of art in the 20th century.
Cézanne is said to have formed the bridge between late 19th-century Impressionism and the early 20th century's new line of artistic enquiry, Cubism. Cézanne's often repetitive, exploratory brushstrokes are highly characteristic and clearly recognizable. He used planes of color and small brushstrokes that build up to form complex fields. The paintings convey Cézanne's intense study of his subjects. Both Matisse and Picasso are said to have remarked that Cézanne "is the father of us all".
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
__________________________________________________________
It’s Tuesday, July 13, 2021
Welcome to the 1,157th consecutive post to the blog,
existentialautotrip.com
______________________________________
1.0 Lead Picture
Jews forced to perform calisthenics
during the Eleftherias Square roundup
Bundesarchiv, Bild 101I-168-0895-06A / Dick / CC-BY-SA 3.0
For documentary purposes the German Federal Archive often retained the original image captions, which may be erroneous, biased, obsolete or politically extreme. Scherl; Griechenland: In Übereinstimmung zwischen den deutschen und griechischen Stellen werden jetzt die Juden in Griechenland erfasst und einer nutzbringenden Arbeit zugeführt. Kriegsberichter Dick, Juli 1942
______________________________________
2.0 Commentary
Amazon is helping train employees for in-demand jobs covering up to 95% of tuition for eligible employees to pursue certificates or degrees in high-demand fields. Over 40,000 Amazon employees have received training for careers in healthcare, information technology, transportation logistics and more.
Accepting their efforts on their face, we applaud any such recognition of the role of management in enhancing the lives of American workers. These workers will spend their increased wages across the economy creating new profits and job opportunities. We all win.
The MFA has returned to center stage in my daily rhythm. With the reduced attendance, the museum has plenty of sit-down opportunities for a writer to work. And, when I feel like taking a break from my writing, take a walk into one of the galleries to really look at the art.
The downside is the time it takes to get there by T: about 45 minutes.
So it’s incumbent on me to use that travel time well.
I’ll report again in a couple of days. Waiting to find the fly in the ointment.
______________________________________
4.0 Chuckles and Thoughts
“Poetry, huh?
Isn’t that what the very best writing is, in some way or another?
Aristotle laid it out in his Poetics, poetic in itself.
Dante, first and foremost a poet, invented a language for heaven’s sake.
Then there’s Shakespeare, every bit the poet that he was dramatist.”
~A.D. Aliwat
In Limbo
_____________________________________
6.0 Dinner/Food/Recipes
Friday night Katherine, William, and I had dinner at Mariel’s.
Another excellent meal.
Saturday night cousin Lauren joined the three of us and we made a communal Hot Pot.
It was fun.
Everyone helped with the cutting and the cleaning and the table.
_________________________________
11.0 Thumbnail
1942 Eleftherias Square roundup
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The 1942 Eleftherias Square roundup, sometimes called Black Sabbath occurred on Saturday, 11 July (the Jewish sabbath) and involved 9,000 Jewish men in Eleftherias Square in Salonica, northern Greece. Jointly organized by the German occupation authorities and the collaborationist General Government of Macedonia, it was the first major antisemitic measure taken in Salonica following the 1941 Axis occupation of Greece.
The conscription of all Jewish men between the ages of 18 and 45 was announced on 7 July by Generalleutnant Kurt von Krenzki, the German commander in Salonica. The Reich Main Security Office (RSHA) stated that this decision was made in agreement with Vasilis Simonides, the governor of Macedonia. Simonides published his own version of the edict the same day, stating that Jews were a racial category (similar to the 1935 Nuremberg laws). The roundup was organized by General Government of Macedonia along with Greek police, discharged military officers, and doctors. Those who did not appear faced imprisonment in Pavlos Melas concentration camp.
During the roundup, which began at 8:00 and lasted until 14:00, the Jews were forced to violate the Jewish holy day by performing calisthenics and rolling on the ground; many were beaten. Those who collapsed from the abuse were attacked by guard dogs or hosed with water and kicked until they stood up. Anyone who tried to protect himself from the sunlight was also beaten. Several Jews were injured and a few died. Both German Army and Navy units as well as the Nazi SS were involved in abusing Jews during the roundup. German actresses applauded and photographed the action from balconies above the square. Greek bystanders were reported to be indifferent or amused.
Following the action, René Burkhardt, the ICRC representative in the city, attracted the attention of the Gestapo by asking for a list of those wounded. Registration was completed the following Monday. The collaborationist newspaper Néa Evrópi [el] published photographs of the Jews' ordeal and reported that "non-Jewish spectators, gathered in the surrounding road ... had but one wish: that scenes such as the one they’d just seen would go on as long as possible".
In the following weeks, thousands of Salonica Jews were arrested for forced labor projects. A few white-collar workers were exempted from the forced labor measures. Some Jewish veterans of the Greco-Italian war managed to avoid it, as their employment was protected for one year after their discharge from the army.
The roundup is remembered as the beginning of the destruction of the Jewish community of Salonica. One survivor, Itzhak Nehama, recalled the roundup at the 1961 Eichmann trial in Jerusalem.
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
__________________________________________________________
It’s Monday, July 12, 2021
Welcome to the 1,156th consecutive post to the blog,
existentialautotrip.com
______________________________________
1.0 Lead Picture
Lady Jane Grey
The Streatham Portrait of Lady Jane Grey.
______________________________________
2.0 Commentary
An recently-signed executive order directs the federal government to step up antitrust enforcement and regulation. Biden is moving to enforce anti-monopoly statues against big business. He stated: "Let me be very clear, capitalism without competition isn't capitalism. It's exploitation."
What’s amazing to me is that this President, operating on he narrowest of margins in Congress, has actually set about restructuring American political and social life. In this effort, he deserves the support of both parties, leaving off the Trump-Republicans.
Lyndon Johnson was a doer, but in my own experience and memory, Biden stands uniquely accomplished.
______________________________________
3.0 Reading and Writing Events
I’m starting to understand the steps I need to take to redo my manuscript. No matter how long it will take, the doing of it fills me with the joy of creativity.
Very happy to be here.
3.2 Conflicted:
3.3 Storyworth:
3.4 Blog:
3.6 Trip to Tuscany
______________________________________
4.0 Chuckles and Thoughts
“A goat! A goat!
My kingdom for a scapegoat!”
~David Edgar,
Dick Deterred
_____________________________________
5.0 Mail and other Conversation
We love getting mail, email, or texts.
Send comments to domcapossela@hotmail.com
or text to 617.852.7192
These notes from two wonderfully talented poets connecting their art.
Colleen posted on our blog that she would be interested in a reader or two to give her feedback on her Young Adult manuscript.
Kali responded:
Hi Dom!
I'd love to read Colleen's work!
I have the time for it right now :)
Hope you're doing well. Your blogs are wonderful.
With love,
Kali
So the blog meister forwarded the response to Colleen who wrote:
Hi Dom! Hi Kali!
If you'd like to read it digitally I can send it along forthwith. Let me know if that works since I know everybody has their reading preferences.
You can then, also, print it yourself, I can send you a version that has half-pages and is two-sided like a book format that will take up less paper.
Let me know and thanks for being willing to read it and offer feedback to me.
Cheers,
Colleen
And Kali responded:
Colleen,
I am so excited! You can send it digital!
Can't wait to read!
Even at 35, I still love YA novels.
Thank you for emailing me !
And Colleen responded,
Excellent Kali!
I will send it along from my "author" email in my attempt to keep things organized.
So, be on the lookout. If I ever publish I hope to do it under my maiden name, hence the different email, etc.
Cheers,
Colleen
And Colleen again:
Dom,
Thanks for the Beta Reader:) I'm really looking forward to her feedback--especially since she SO enjoys poetry and this book circles around that often.
Cheers,
Colleen
Blog meister responds: It’s so warming to see the connection between two like-minded, creative souls. Only good can come out of this.
_____________________________________
6.0 Dinner/Food/Recipes
Thursday night company came. Dinner for four: the blog meister, daughter Katherine, her boyfriend William, and cousin Lauren.
Roast Pork the mainie.
It was delicious and the company great fun.
I bought the vegetables already prepared at W Foods. Easy, varied, and good.
__________________________________
11.0 Thumbnail
Lady Jane Grey (1536 or 1537[2] – 12 February 1554), later known as Lady Jane Dudley (after her marriage) and as the "Nine Days' Queen", was an English noblewoman and de facto Queen of England and Ireland from 10 July until 19 July 1553.
Jane was the great granddaughter of Henry VII through his younger daughter Mary, and was a first cousin once removed of Edward VI. She had an excellent humanist education and a reputation as one of the most learned young women of her day.[6] In May 1553, she married Lord Guildford Dudley, a younger son of Edward's chief minister John Dudley, Duke of Northumberland. In June 1553, Edward VI wrote his will, nominating Jane and her male heirs as successors to the Crown, in part because his half-sister Mary was Roman Catholic, while Jane was a committed Protestant and would support the reformed Church of England, whose foundation Edward claimed to have laid. The will removed his half-sisters, Mary and Elizabeth, from the line of succession on account of their illegitimacy, subverting their claims under the Third Succession Act.
After Edward's death, Jane was proclaimed queen on 10 July 1553 and awaited coronation in the Tower of London. Support for Mary grew very quickly, and most of Jane's supporters abandoned her. The Privy Council of England suddenly changed sides and proclaimed Mary as queen on 19 July 1553, deposing Jane. Her primary supporter, her father-in-law the Duke of Northumberland, was accused of treason and executed less than a month later. Jane was held prisoner in the Tower and was convicted of high treason in November 1553, which carried a sentence of death—though Mary initially spared her life. However, Jane soon became viewed as a threat to the Crown when her father, Henry Grey, 1st Duke of Suffolk, became involved with Wyatt's rebellion against Queen Mary's intention to marry Philip II of Spain. Both Jane and her husband were executed on 12 February 1554.
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
__________________________________________________________
It’s Sunday, July 11, 2021
Welcome to the 1,155th consecutive post to the blog,
existentialautotrip.com
______________________________________
1.0 Lead Picture
Jean-Michel Basquiat
(December 22, 1960 – August 12, 1988) was an American artist and the first artist of African descent to become an international art star.
Andy Warhol (1928–1987) - https://www.getty.edu/art/collection/objects/125802/andy-warhol-portrait-of-jean-michel-basquiat-american-1982/
______________________________________
2.0 Commentary
Toyota to hold back campaign contributions from those Republican candidates who espouse the Big Lie that Trump won the 2020 Presidential election. A significant boost to moderate Republicans since Toyota is not the only major corporation going this route.
President Biden continues to impress. His latest executive order is a major piece of work that will inure to the benefit of many working class families. Among other aspects, the order will make it easier for generic-drug makers and Canadian providers to compete with U.S. pharmaceutical companies; allow Americans to buy hearing aids without a prescription; require hospitals to be more transparent about billing; force airlines to refund money when they lose bags or when the in-flight Wi-Fi doesn’t function, and restrict “noncompete clauses,” like the ones that restaurant chains and retailers use to keep workers from accepting a job at a rival.
______________________________________
4.0 Chuckles and Thoughts
“Poetry, huh? Isn’t that what the very best writing is, in some way or another?
Aristotle laid it out in his Poetics, poetic in itself.
Dante, first and foremost a poet, invented a language for heaven’s sake.
Then there’s Shakespeare, every bit the poet that he was dramatist.”
~A.D. Aliwat
In Limbo
_____________________________________
5.0 Mail and other Conversation
We love getting mail, email, or texts.
Send comments to domcapossela@hotmail.com
or text to 617.852.7192
This from Kali P, a loyal blogger, in response to Colleen G’s request for readers of her teen-aged story of growing up.
Hi Dom!
I'd love to read Colleen's work!
I have the time for it right now :)
Hope you're doing well. Your blogs are wonderful.
With love,
Kali
Blog meister responds: I put the two women in touch with each other. They’ll work out the details.
_____________________________________
6.0 Dinner/Food/Recipes
Wednesday night Katherine and I had a fried salmon dinner.
For three-quarters of the cooking time I kept the salmon skin down resulting in a most attractive and delicious part of the meal.
I made a sauce with white wine, fresh basil, dill pickle, and spicy mustard.
It worked.
Very tasty.
__________________________________
11.0 Thumbnail
Jean-Michel Basquiat (December 22, 1960 – August 12, 1988) was an American artist who rose to success during the 1980s.
Regarded as one of the most influential artists of the 20th century, he was part of the Neo-expressionism movement.
Basquiat first achieved fame as part of SAMO, a graffiti duo who wrote enigmatic epigrams in the cultural hotbed of the Lower East Side of Manhattan during the late 1970s, where rap, punk, and street art coalesced into early hip-hop music culture. By the early 1980s, his paintings were being exhibited in galleries and museums internationally. At 21, Basquiat became the youngest artist to ever take part in documenta in Kassel. At 22, he was the youngest to exhibit at the Whitney Biennial in New York. The Whitney Museum of American Art held a retrospective of his art work in 1992.
Basquiat's art focused on dichotomies such as wealth versus poverty, integration versus segregation, and inner versus outer experience. He appropriated poetry, drawing, and painting, and married text and image, abstraction, figuration, and historical information mixed with contemporary critique. He used social commentary in his paintings as a tool for introspection and for identifying with his experiences in the Black community of his time, as well as attacks on power structures and systems of racism. His visual poetics were acutely political and direct in their criticism of colonialism and support for class struggle.
Since Basquiat's death at the age of 27 from a heroin overdose in 1988, his work has steadily increased in value. At a Sotheby's auction in May 2017, Untitled, a 1982 painting by Basquiat depicting a black skull with red and yellow rivulets, sold for $110.5 million, becoming one of the most expensive paintings ever purchased. It also set a new record high for an American artist at auction.
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!