Paintings by Michael Harrington

White Cadillac
Cowboys in the Clearing

In Strangers, a Blind Centenarian Finds a Literary Lifeline

Stephanie Sandleben, a yoga instructor with tattoos on each shoulder, just finished Chapter 19 of Tina Brown's biography of Diana, Princess of Wales. Sara Nolan, a 28-year-old graduate student, is 30 pages into a Rumer Godden novel. Mark Kalinowsky, 48 and a real estate broker, has long since stopped reading; he just comes to chat.

These three disparate characters are part of a ragtag crew that cycles through the worn one-bedroom Murray Hill walk-up where Elizabeth Goodyear, who recently celebrated her 101st birthday, is confined after two knee operations. A lifelong lover of books, Ms. Goodyear lost her sight about four years ago, but in its place has acquired a roster of readers who stop by regularly, bringing with them dogs, gifts from their international travels and offerings of dark chocolate, the elixir she has savored daily since she was 3.

Hear some of her amusing stories with a short slide show.
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2008/07/31/nyregion/20080731_read-goodyear/index.html

I enjoyed this story -read the rest here - it's not long.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/01/nyregion/01read.html?ref=nyregion

Different Places

Tristam Shandy : A Cock and Bull Story

Steven Coogan plays himself and Tristam and Tristam's father in this hillarious movie. This along with Irma Vep are my favorite making of a movie movies.

Fuseli Nightmares

Intersection in Hanoi, Vietnam

Monkey Pig

Villagers were shocked after a monkey-like piglet was born in China. Curious locals flocked to the home of owner Feng Changlin after news of the piglet spread in Fengzhang village, Xiping township.
"It's hideous. No one will be willing to buy it, and it scares the family to even look at it!" Feng told Oriental Today.
He says the piglet looks just like a monkey, with two thin lips, a small nose and two big eyes. Its rear legs are also much longer than its forelegs, causing it to jump instead of walk.

Wrong Turn: 1921 and Saks Fur: 1920

1921. "Auto wreck." Vehicular mishap on a wintry day on the streets (and sidewalks) of Washington, D.C.

"Saks Fur Co. 1920 or 1921." Wintertime window display at the Washington, D.C., furrier featuring a taxidermy tie-in with the movie "Isobel, or the Trail's End."
http://www.shorpy.com/

I love Shorpy. Everyday I check it out and there's always a few minutes of distracting pleasure looking at how things used to be in fine detail with no shortage of artistry.

Tarkovsky 1

from Stalker 1979

Tarkovsky 2

from Stalker 1979

Images from Laycock Park

The Stampede's Over

Calgary in July

Stampede Week

The National CBC 1978

Auto Motive Design

Finishing Harpers Findings

Researchers were building robot nanoworms, designed to seek out and kill cancer cells, and swarms of robot dragonflies for the U.S. military. South Korean customs authorities began training seven clones of Chase, their pre-eminent sniffer dog, and Sri Lankan researchers announced success in teaching mongoose-robot teams to detect land mines. Bornean orangutans, said naturalists, have learned to swim and spearfish. The Earl of Cranbrook put forth that Borneo's iconic pygmy elephants are actually an alien species introduced to the island centuries ago by the Sultan of Sulu. Thai doctors were unable to verify whether nang bong caterpillars, which favor the leaves of the golden-shower tree, are an effective aphrodisiac, and Chinese zoologists found that exposure to cat urine makes male mice more aggressive and makes their urine more likely to attract females. South African scientists observed an Antarctic fur seal attempting to rape a king penguin.

Photos of TV

http://www.mikesacks.com/wp/photos-of-tv/

These are really funny in a low key way. I'll have to look through mine and find the best with tv's playing in them.

Reading Harpers' Index

Minimum number of U.S. cities that have shortened the yellow light on traffic signals to under the legal limt: 6
Average percentage by which a bar-smoking ban in a U.S. county increases the rate of drunk-driving fatalities: 13
Chance that a result on an internet search relating to suicide will be an anti-suicide website: 1 in 8
Chance it will be a site offering pro-suicide advice or suggesting methods: 1 in 5
Radius in feet within which a bee can smell a flower in unpolluted air: 3,281
Radius in air downwind from a city: 650
Hours each day that house cats must engage in social "activities," according to new Swedish regulations: 2
Length, in inches, of a "living coat" made of mouse stem-cells that was exhibited in March at the Museum of Modern Art: 1.5
Months into the exhibition that a feeding malfunction forced the artists to euthanize the work: 1

For sources buy the magazine

Best Police/Criminal Movies

This is the opposite of Miami Vice, which I also love, instead of visceral action and poetic imagery it's suspenseful and and engulfing in a way few movies are. Plus the scene of the Zodiac dressed all in black coming up on the couple having a picnic in broad daylight is so strange it alone makes it a great movie.

The French Connection

A classic. Gritty 1970's New York, not a boring moment, the Academy Awards actually gave the best picture to the best picture that year, amazing.

Heat by Michael Mann

Epic. Great from start to finish.

The Experiences of a Very Unimportant Officer

By Captain Alexander Stewart who spent two years fighting with the 3rd Scottish Rifles during World War I before being sent home with a shrapnel injury in 1917. His diary, letters were published by his grandson last year.

June 2, 1916
Return to trenches. The dugouts in this part of the line are infested with rats. They frequently walk over one when asleep. I was much troubled by their licking the brilliantine off my hair; for this reason, I had to give up using grease on my head.

June 30
The finest thing that ever happened in the trenches was the rum ration, and never was it more needed than on the Somme. Yet some blasted, ignorant fool of a general-damned in this world and the next-wanted to stop it and, for a time, did. The man must be worse than the lowest type of criminal, have no knowledge of the conditions in which troops exist, and be entirely out of touch with the men who are unfortunate enough to have him as their commander. He should have been taken up to the line and frozen in the mud. I would have very willingly sat on his head, as he was a danger to the whole army. Curse him. Those who have not spent a night standing or sitting or lying in mud with an east wind blowing and the temperature below freezing may think that I am extravagant in my abuse of the man who denied the soldiers their rum rations. Those who have will know I am too temperate.

Office Holiday Decorations

Halloween
Christmas
Valentine's Day
Easter
St. Patricks Day
Canada Day
Calgary Stampede