A historical art exhibit, rendered in colored drawing, capturing the perspective of a famous writer. What more could you want? Source: What Jane Saw
Posts authored by leems
Stephen Chow movies on Netflix – watch this now
Not long ago the only Stephen Chow movies you might stumble upon in any moderately sized, moderately international city in the U.S. were Kung Fu Hustle and an awfully dubbed version of Shaolin Soccer. You probably had no idea that you were being deprived of a basic right to watch one of the funniest actor/directors ever. You poor soul. Thankfully, the universe has righted itself a little and put some awesome Stephen Chow films on Netflix! Do you have Netflix? Yes? Have you watched these yet? What do you mean no?
Go forth and watch Stephen Chow. Watch The God of Cookery. Watch them all. And always remember rule number one to watching a Stephen Chow movie: Cantonese is the only language.
Annie, Misfits style
in the woods
For the love of Florida
I saw on the DVR that the next recorded episode of Stephen Fry in America was going to include Florida and I thought, ‘heh, I wonder what awfulness he’s going to find there.’ Not long ago I was actively looking for opportunities outside of Florida, and I have never been a fan of the traditional Florida fare of sunshine, beaches, mice, and water sports (citrus, I like). Maybe because I have since settled down in my birth state, or maybe because it is my birth state, I was a little disgruntled when Mr. Fry’s primary visit was Miami, and his primary reaction was understandably scathing. How, you might ask, can I be disgruntled when I understand his reaction? Well, he visited Miami. Except for The Golden Girls, there is and has never been anything tied to Miami that could entice me to visit there. It’s like having someone come visit your house and they only see the inside of your garage, dented, stained holiday decoration boxes and all.
–by the by, I am in entertainment consumer love with Stephen Fry; as in, I love to consume and am terribly entertained by all his writing, speaking and acting.
So, partially as an exercise in state love, which I am still new to, I started wracking my brains for the bits of Florida that I’d rather have been seen by Stephen Fry. What I realized, is that the bits of Florida that I think make it great are withering away. Fewer and fewer of the quaint and wholesome tourist attractions of a hopeful postwar (WWII) U.S. can still be found in our tropical peninsula. They are slowly making room for the attractions of today’s tourist.
Case in point: Cypress Gardens. I remember Cypress Gardens as a bright, hot, floral and fragrant fairy land of leisurely enjoyment. As a typical American little girl, I was in awe of the pretty ladies who twirled their gigantic ball gowns into perfect circles of fabric as they perched on the green green lawns of the gardens. At the time of my visit, Cypress Gardens was still doing well, but was most definitely the day trip that grandparents took their grandchildren on. It was of their generation. And, while they tried to pass it on to a new generation, most grandchildren, me included, didn’t spare it a second thought until it was too late. Now that I’ve come around to my grandmother’s way of thinking, Cypress gardens has been swallowed up by LegoLand.Continue reading For the love of Florida
Highly invasive New Guinea flatworm spotted in Florida
The more hours I spend in my yards the more I am becoming very aware and sensitive to how the native flora and fauna interplay. I’ve tried to be careful to avoid plants termed invasive (even if they are sold by home stores to the home-owner gardener).
Beyond being alarmed by a newly spotted, highly invasive, transplant, this thing just ticks all my squeamish boxes (and I am a lot less squeamish after playing in the dirt every weekend). This thing can climb trees!
Source: Highly invasive New Guinea flatworm spotted in U.S. – Boing Boing
Wildflowers
It is Summer in full blast here, but before Spring let go – not long ago- I was running out in advance of the lawn-mower every weekend to collect the wildflowers that kept popping up in the middle of the back yard. This is one day’s harvest; and they lasted longer than I expected them to.
I’m all about identification, so I looked them all up. I had been calling the blue ones irises, but really they are Common Spiderwort. The pink, trumpet shaped flowers would spring up within a day or two of a fresh mow and wave about a foot above the grass. They are Rain Lily, and are, apparently, attached to bulbs that will sprout new flowers every year. They also spread by seed. Next year I think I am going to grow our rain lily patch. The tiny pink flowers, Meadow Beauty, are still going strong on the water’s edge along with some other crazy grasses that grow in ground too wet to mow over.
still brainstorming house colors
Added to these mock-ups is a firming idea that I want to paint the slanted brick sills to look like slanted brick sills again. The front door alcove is tiled in a terracotta color, so it would carry those red tones through the rest of the exterior. This would be something I could do before painting the whole house, as is getting a screen-door insert from Old Florida Retro or Hip Haven. Our screen door is probably original, but it is very simple.
NSA surveillance: how librarians have been on the front line to protect privacy | World news | The Guardian
NSA surveillance: how librarians have been on the front line to protect privacy | World news | The Guardian published on Read more posts by the author of NSA surveillance: how librarians have been on the front line to protect privacy | World news | The Guardian, leemsNo Comments on NSA surveillance: how librarians have been on the front line to protect privacy | World news | The Guardian
‘Librarians were the original search engine’ and long before Edward Snowden, thousands campaigned against the government violating privacy rights
Jem, superhero
There’s been talk about Jem and the Holograms, the movie and the comic re-visitation by IDW. Jem is near and dear to my childhood heart and a solid evening filler from my DVD shelves. ‘Trick or Techrat‘ is on our list of Halloween viewing every year, so I felt a little compelled to add my voice to the cacophony over the movie trailer’s laying out a to-be-successful-and-like-yourself-you-must-become-someone-else story without actual holograms.
I could re-iterate arguments on how the original Jem was empowering and the movie looks anything but, however, in thinking about just what about Jem was most important, I made an amazing discovery! Jem is the pink fashion plate Batman of superheroes! Consider, for one reason or another both Jem and Batman have to adopt alter egos. They do so with pretty amazing technology and run around fighting bad people and protecting children. They are both orphans, live in mansions, and have pretty successful real life identities. Because of their complicated issues, alter egos included, they are ridiculously bad at romance.
Now, who would go to watch a movie about how Bruce Wayne get’s a lifestyle coach in order to come out of his shell and finally have a good relationship with his sweetheart? No, Bruce Wayne’s story is great because of Batman. And Batman isn’t just a handle Bruce uses on his fitness and training discussion boards, Batman is the costumed, tech-ed out, fighter of evil doers and symbol of justice.
Similarly Jem isn’t just make-up and a costume that a paralyzed performer puts on to get through the day. Jem is a hologram extended to the entire band, misdirection that foils enemy plots, and a message to women and children a like to “Believe in Yourself,” and “Share a Little Bit of Yourself” because “Love Unites Us” and “We Can Make a Difference;” “You Already Know” that you are “Truly Outrageous.” (Wikipedia)
LeEtta 1995 ’cause I was inspired by laughter
I could not keep my composure while reading The Teen Years: 9 Cringe-Inducing Realizations | Wait But Why, because it is so spot on and hilarious. And because I am human and all humans like to think they are different, and perhaps not as ridiculous as everyone else is even though they are, I dug through my stack of old journals for your enjoyment…
I also found LeEtta circa 1997 while I was looking. I include this ’cause I actually like it and it seems much more than two years different, to me at least.
Site updates
I may not have had enough completed artwork to do an end of year roundup at the New Year, but that doesn’t mean I didn’t have enough to update the website in May.
Historypin | Mapping emotions in Victorian London
Mapping Emotions in Victorian London is a crowdsourcing project designed to expand possibilities for research in the humanities. The project has invited anonymous participants to annotate whether passages drawn from novels, published mainly in the Victorian era, represented London places in a fearful, happy, or unemotional manner.
Splat
What happens when LeEtta flips through her sketch book and is unsatisfied with the fact that she typically draws humans over and over again?
This is my theme song
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C7uidpDAHNE
The selfsearching song from The Inspector General with Danny Kay – YouTube