Dicta, Visuals & Misc.

personal chills

2007-04-16T15:52:00.000-07:00

photo-montage by phD

Style: geo-political fashion redux

2007-04-01T03:12:00.000-07:00

The high fashion industry artists are at it still...

...and the irony is that when the Taliban first started their devastation of Afghanistan, the same magazines alerted their readers to the situation of the invisible women in several insightful [no pun intended] articles.

--collage & comment by phd.

identity illusions.2

2007-03-31T04:25:00.000-07:00

Seems to be a lot of "woman," or do we say "chick," themes going on here lately.
The old homestead, the white bride v. the colorful woman...stuff like that.
Don't understand why, but whenever phd sees pics of women in burkhas, articles on sexual harassment (is that still going on?), or babes showing boobs bigger than they were designed to drag around, bells start ringing. No, tolling...as in doleful.
Maybe it was the eye surgery that allowed clear vision, or the guy who failed to show up to deliver the visually impaired to said surgery. The life view in general is more sharp and yet more fuzzed and poignant.
But then, this time has been set aside for reflection and inner vision...that sight metaphor again. The inner vision has sharpened, also. The true and the false are more easily separated. Form and function are moving closer together.
The next phase may be the female version of curmudgeon, which was so elegantly described as Witch with a B.
Or maybe just Old. Well, it happens to the best of us.

visual editorial.2

2007-03-31T04:01:00.000-07:00

art by phDilettante

signify.2

2007-03-04T17:47:00.000-08:00

Depending on which study one reads, recent statistics show that 28 - 32% of "families" or households are women living without a man.
Much has been made of this.

Primarily much has been made of this by men who question, "Who is raising the children?" As far as phd can determine, the study did not detail whether these feminine living arrangements involved children, single women, divorced women, widowed women, lesbian women or women between 21 and 30 who may be students (who never have living arrangements at all or none anyone cares to know about.)

After exhausting the discussion of The Children, subtle inferences came into play: must be kept women; must be on welfare; must be mentally ill; or ugly. In other words, Something is Wrong with Women. C'mon now, let's all say it up front - if a woman doesn't live with a man, she is unnatural. She is fragmented; she doesn't fit in the box; she does not wear white but is a growing grey mold on the culture of America. Or is she so startling in her brilliant multicolored parts that she cannot be seen at all.

--art and comment by PhD.

Longing

2007-02-28T05:49:00.000-08:00

Maybe they will return.

It will be in Spring at Dusk.

...it had been a long journey but it was still there as they remembered as only those from the South remember.

"Rivington" - because of course it was their home and of course all great houses are named.

This is the dream.

Reality is a bit different, but may become the dream of another person, another family in another time.

The entry light must have wiring;

the grounds could certainly be tidied by local help or helpful goats;

perhaps flowers again.

Horses.

But not in my lifetime.

visual editorial

2007-02-13T03:21:00.000-08:00

provide the comment

of your choice.

Soy Hom Tip

2007-02-11T22:51:00.000-08:00

...or if you prefer, skip the info below, and pick up the telephone.

Gung Hay Fat Choy

2007-02-11T01:16:00.000-08:00

In China, this sign is called Wild Boar but since in America and Europe one doesn't meet up much with wild boars (except for the incident in PhD's neighborhood), this zodiac sign is usually called a Pig.

When wallowing contentedly along, Pigs are sensible, sensual and sensitive, sweetly naive, self-sacrificing, erudite, obliging and generous.

But when their elastic generosity has been stretched beyond its limit, out pops Piggy's darker side. He becomes hot-tempered, pessimistic, sardonic, snobbish, snide, authoritarian, know-it-all, and sometimes downright mad at the world.

The Chinese Year of the Pig begins this year on February 18.

It is a Fire Pig year. Other Fire Pigs include Arnold Schwarznegger, Carlos Santana and Steven Spielberg.

Source: The New Chinese Astrology, Suzanne White

Be mine

2007-02-10T19:35:00.000-08:00

Since the day no valentine appeared on the desk in third grade, PhD has refused to recognize Valentine's Day.

It was the first recognition of hurt. Of course after that day, hurt appeared in the form of being too tall, too thin, glasses, braces and being chosen last for softball.

Valentine' Day, however, became the lifetime symbol of not being good enough for someone or something.

The end of innocence because of a missing red heart with a paper doily on a worn wooden desk.

How dumb is that?

identity illusions.1

2007-02-05T21:32:00.000-08:00

Baby, don't you drive that.3

2007-02-05T19:03:00.000-08:00

Cats gotta have fun

but even with

nine lives

their antique

toys

must be

updated

occasion

so that cool cats remain cool...

Might Ph.d. suggest Ducati's nuovo classico Sport Classic 1000, a retro rocket suited to wear well with grey and black for the days you simply must have 992 cubic centimeters of fuel injection with your espresso...

rock on, Raypod!

Siamese if you please?

2007-02-02T00:17:00.000-08:00

There is a certain group of Oriental cats known as Fiends.

If you are an owner of one of these creatures, you know who you are, unfortunate soul.

Peace be with you.

Phd.

Don't Spray - Saute

2006-08-07T22:04:00.000-07:00

Chocolate-covered ants? So totally sixties!

The true 21st Century foodie will join with others of similar interest to forage the wilds and share honest-to-really wine & nature pairings suitable for those in tune with Nature and the drums of their primitive selves. Check it out!

Baby, don't you drive that car.2

2006-07-16T01:27:00.000-07:00

Do you drive a Freud or a Ferrari?

Incoming Nukes

2006-07-13T22:27:00.000-07:00

The times they are unsettling.
Who will throw the first stone or, in modern lingo, launch the first bomb.

Will there be anyone left to have the last laugh?

Or perhaps being bombed back several centuries might put some things back into perspective.

"Life can neither be created nor destroyed."

--detail of collage of the same name by phdilettante.

Cats Don't Lie.

2006-07-10T19:02:00.000-07:00

Yeah, yeah. We have all heard that cats are anti-intellectual -- sit on the book or the newspaper so it can't be read and all attention is claimed by the Cat.

Yeah, yeah, and we all know that every famous artist has painted, sketched or sculpted a cat.

Why bother? As critics, cats are just plain rude.

signify.1

2006-07-05T22:58:00.000-07:00

Horoscope:

Your attitude towards others pushes you to meet people who could be considered by a large majority as eccentric persons. They might be thought to be a little bit strange. You will be happy to meet one of them today, but this person will look familiar and strangely enough, will most likely be yourself.

--December 5, 2002

After-fast Freedom

2006-07-05T00:13:00.000-07:00

Hey, good idea to lie down and be counted with Ms. Butterfly and Al Sharpton (Reverend). Fast for Peace. We can do that. Just a "fast" fast for Independence Day and The Worthy Cause.

I can do that, sure. The cats can do that, especially the one who covers her ears when "weighty" is mentioned in her presence.

Growling tummy. Towards noon, an increasing decibel level of Oriental cat howling. Noises drowned out at sundown by fireworks' boom and scream over the screeching of the cats.

Midnight. We did it. Run to convenience store for sustenance. Forgot to buy cat food. Cat screeching drowned out by growling upset tummy. Hope the garbage pick-up is tomorrow.

--photo by the dilettante

signifying.1

2006-06-30T17:22:00.000-07:00

Happy Birthday!

Freedom of the Blog, Truth, Justice,

and all that stuff...

--photo courtesy of LeMa

The Splenda Molecule.1

2006-06-28T19:55:00.000-07:00

Go placidly amid the noise and the haste, and remember what peace there may be in silence.

As far as possible without surrender be on good terms with all persons.

Go on now go walk out the door

just turn around now

'cause you're not welcome anymore

Speak your truth quietly and clearly; and listen to others, even to the dull and the ignorant, they too have their story.

weren't you the one who tried to hurt me with goodbye

you think I'd crumble

you think I'd lay down and die

Oh no, not I

I will survive

as long as I know how to love

I know I will stay alive

I've got all my life to live

I've got all my love to give

and I'll survive

I will survive

Avoid loud and aggressive persons, they are vexations to the spirit.

--thank you to Anonymous for this splendid moment.

Blue Cats

2006-06-27T00:47:00.000-07:00

The Dilettante knows a Blue Cat named Hattie . We have never seen another Blue Cat, but yesterday we accidentally came across a postage stamp with, yes, a Blue Cat!

This stamp was issued by a group of islands known as The Faroes, somewhere between Iceland and Scotland.

It is a magic land with a lost Viking language. Perhaps it is also the land of Blue Cats?

The Splenda Molecule

2006-06-25T18:23:00.000-07:00

"Moochers are people who, when they are to blame, say it's the other fellow's fault for bringing it up."

--Ishmael Reed

Baby, don't you drive that car!

2006-06-24T14:03:00.000-07:00

In 1926, a Bugatti roared through an Italian hillside town taking one of the 1500 treacherous bends in the 67 mile Targa Florio race course in Sicily. The driver was Eliska Junkova, the first woman to ever compete in the race. "The Czech racing queen of the Jazz Age," known in the West as Elizabeth Junek, went on to compete and win in races against some of the best male race drivers of the Twentieth Century.

The screech-the-oval races, currently known as NASCAR, started as an offical entity and icon of the American South in 1948. "The King" of what began as local stock car racing, Richard Petty said in 1976 regarding contender Janet Guthrie, "She's no lady. If she was she'd be at home. There's a lot of differences in being a lady and being a woman."

Thirty years later, with NASCAR courting women's, er, ladies' dollars at the gate to worship their valiant male champions, Petty says he still hasn't changed his mind about women in racing.

But then, perhaps he never met Eliska Junkova.

This catty commentary was suggested as material worthy of consideration by Her Royal Dowager Highness of The Clan Fiend (left) -- First cat to compete in the Antique Car Races.

Go Figure / Whatever

2006-06-22T02:48:00.000-07:00

for lack of another name..."The Egg."

a collage by the dilettante.

original -- 8.5 x 15"

Style: geo-political fashion chick

2006-06-20T22:21:00.000-07:00

Paola Antonelli, a curator of design at New York's Museum of Modern Art, opines that "Good Design makes you think."

Miuccia Prada, Ph.D. in political science, and present mistress of one of Italy's oldest fashion houses, recently said, "When you go out, you have to know how you feel at that precise moment. You really have to feel comfortable and at ease in what you're doing, who you're seeing, in what you are." Laura Bush, wife of President George, expressed a desire to free the women of Afghanistan from conditions most vividly represented by the garments they are forced to wear. Fashionistas of "the free world" are shamelessly borrowing the style of impoverished nations. If "good design makes you think," what are we thinking of.

--art and comment by Phd.

signify

2006-06-19T01:30:00.000-07:00

The only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars and in the middle you see the blue centerlight pop and everybody goes "Awww!"

--jack kerouac, from "On the Road"

signifying

2006-06-17T21:19:00.000-07:00

The postwar era was a time where the dominant culture was desperate for a reassuring planned order; but there was a strong intellectual undercurrent calling for spontaneity, an end to psychological repression; a romantic desire for a more chaotic, Dionysian existence.

The beats were a manifestation of this undercurrent...

"This is the jazzy story of a hip, saxophone playing cat who heads to the big city to seek fame and fortune. Once there, he finds that the top dogs own the cool clubs, and that sometimes you have to work at the Doggie Diner to make ends meet.

But he also learns how important it is to ''do what you love to do and do it well!' "

--Hip Cat, by Johnathan London

Read more here on how the dominant culture transmuted the threat of a subversive counterculture into an amusing symbol of the signifier... Rant

Suttee of the Cats

2006-06-16T00:39:00.000-07:00

On every occasion of a fire in Egypt the strangest prodigy occurs with the cats. The inhabitants allow the fire to rage as it pleases, while they stand about at intervals and watch these animals which, slipping by the men or else leaping over them, rush headlong into the flames. When this happens, the Egyptians are in deep affliction. If a cat dies in a private house by a natural death, all the inmates of the house shave their eyebrows.... The cats on their decease are taken to the city of Bubatis, where they are embalmed, after which they are buried in certain sacred repositories.

--Herodotus

Well, do you suppose, Herodotus notwithstanding, that such an intelligent animal would do this?

[original art by the dilettante]

identity illusions

2006-06-15T15:07:00.000-07:00

Note.
An evening at the theatre. It occurred to me that there is something weird about someone wanting to be someone else. And even more so about someone sitting down for a couple of hours to look at someone they don't know; pretending to be someone else, talking to someone who is also pretending to be someone else. A dialogue, furthermore, invented

by somebody who imagined they were pretending to be each of these in turn.

--alan fletcher

Note.
The kind of profound,
bred-in-the-bone superficiality that can become, when superbly mounted, a
certain kind of meaningfulness.
--author unknown

Note:

Most people feel that their present situation keeps them from doing or being all they can. The feel they're on their way somewhere, to some higher league whre they really belong.

--terry miller, playwright

Note:
The
world will end with the whimper of a Boomer under the cosmetic surgeon's
knife.
--phD.

FULL MOONS

2006-06-15T13:45:00.000-07:00

...ask any emergency room nurse; buttons were sold as fund raisers to alert the public to "be careful out there" during the Full Moon.