designanator's Open Salon Blog

Deer and turkey surveillance photos from this morning

Wed, 25 Nov 2009 12:11:30 -0500

A newly installed radar system that shows deer movement in my woods yielded results this morning around 8:00. Four deer about 200' north of my house were captured by my camera as they meandered on the summit of the hill. Not far away were about 30 wild turkeys which are too small to show up on radar. As long as this group of deer and turkeys stay on our farm they are safe from hunters. A neighbor to the south of me did shoot (with a crossbow) a buck that made the fatal mistake a week ago of wandering into his area.

On the day before Thanksgiving this flock of turkeys are exhibiting lots of intelligence as I don't think they will leave the area and enter other lands where hunters are known to frequent this time of year.

My radar system shown here in the maximum zoom setting clearly indicates four deer in the immediate area:

Two of the deer are somewhat visible in this photo from 8:00 AM:

Part of the turkey flock was close enough that I could capture them in this photo. The string you see is my energy saving clothes line which doubles as an art installation called "Strings."

Best wishes for a Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours!

Bozo interfaces with Soupy Sales on old time TV

Tue, 24 Nov 2009 22:11:32 -0500

Looking for some light material tonight? Here's an YouTube video of the old TV show "What's My Line?" that includes Bozo and Soupy Sales. With the recent death of Soupy Sales, fans of his might want to check out this clip.

Looking back in time at the original Grey Gardens film

Sun, 22 Nov 2009 18:11:42 -0500

One thing I liked about art school was the range of very cool and hip visiting lecturers in various art disciplines. Among the many guest lecturers I saw while at RISD were the documentary filmmakers Albert and David Maysles in the spring of 1977. With the recent death of the artist Jeanne-Claude, wife of Christo, I posted one of the Maysles Brothers' films "Running Fence" that was shown the evening of their presentation (a year before it was released to the general public).

The main draw that night was their film "Grey Gardens." The film was made in 1975 and had already been shown in theaters. This was the first time that I ever saw it and until finding parts of the film on YouTube I hadn't seen it since 1977. After the films were shown they opened the audience up to questions and one of my classmates, Angie, asked why Little Edie always wore a scarf on her head. As I recall, Albert Maysles answered saying that he really had no explanation for that.

If by chance you are not familiar with the film here is some background from Wikipedia:

Edith "Big Edie" Ewing Bouvier Beale and her daughter Edith "Little Edie" Bouvier Beale were the aunt and first cousin of Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis. The two women lived together at Grey Gardens for decades with limited funds, resulting in squalor and almost total isolation.

The house was designed by Joseph Greenleaf Thorpe in 1897, and purchased in 1923 by Phelan Beale and Edith Ewing Bouvier Beale. After Phelan left his wife, Edith Ewing Bouvier Beale and her daughter Edith Bouvier Beale lived there for decades more, over 50 years in total for each woman. The house was called Grey Gardens because of the color of the dunes, the cement garden walls, and the sea mist.^[2]

In the fall of 1971 and throughout 1972, their living conditions—their house was infested by fleas, inhabited by numerous cats and raccoons, deprived of running water, and filled with garbage and decay—were exposed as the result of an article in the National Enquirer and a cover story in New York Magazine^[3] after a series of inspections (which the Beales called "raids") by the Suffolk County Health Department. With the Beale women facing eviction and the razing of their home, in the summer of 1972 Jacqueline Onassis and her sister Lee Radziwill provided the necessary funds to stabilize and repair the dilapidated house so that it would meet Village codes.

Albert and David Maysles became interested in their story and received permission to film a documentary about the women, which was released in 1976 to wide critical acclaim. Their cinema vérité technique left the women to tell their own stories.

***

In addition, video number two shows Albert Maysles visiting Grey Gardens on the 30th anniversary of the film made by him. His brother, David, had passed on prior to this time of the anniversary.

No one knew back in the '70s that this film would be the inspiration for a musical or an HBO film, plus a song by Rufus Wainwright (see last video.).

Some associated links:

Maysles Brothers on Wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_and_David_Maysles

Maysles Brothers corporate website:

http://www.mayslesfilms.com/

Wikipedia entries for "Big Edie" and "Little Edie:"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edith_Bouvier_Beale

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edith_Ewing_Bouvier

The 1975 Grey Gardens trailer.

Albert Maysles visits Grey Gardens upon the 30th anniversary of the documentary Grey Gardens.

Below is a set of videos of various clips of Grey Gardens.

Rufus Wainwright performing Grey Gardens.

(Note: Rufus is the grandson of Loudon Wainwright who was once managing editor of Life Magazine and a friend of both my paternal grandfather and my father. My brother who owns a sound company has worked with him, too.)

Play it again, Paul!

Sat, 21 Nov 2009 18:11:46 -0500

I live on one of the last unpaved roads in my local area of New York State and today part of the road was closed to allow for replacement of several large drain culverts. Having to detour around the nearby reservoir reminded me of The Long and Winding Road.

I always find it fun to see the same song played from different years but by the same performer. So without further delay, take it away Paul!

(I have attempted to place these in chronological order starting back when The Beatles were still together.)

The myopia of our times

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 09:11:44 -0500