Tuesday, June 10. 2008
Thanks, reader 
Friday, June 6. 2008
The Wooden Boat Show. June 27-29, at Mystic Seaport, Mystic, CT. 
Wednesday, June 4. 2008
 "Deceptive simplicity." An "artist's artist."
Auction at Christie's of Scott's work in London on June 6. This is Blue Frying Pan.
Tuesday, June 3. 2008
Shorpy's comment: September 1940. "Mountaineer trying to change tire with a fence post as a jack. Up south fork of the Kentucky River, Breathitt County." 35mm nitrate negative by Marion Post Wolcott for the Farm Security Administration. 
Sunday, June 1. 2008
Richard Wiseman of Quirkology seeks the funniest jokes in the world. Of course, Monty Python already addressed this subject:
 A quote from a Cindy in the Wind Amazon review of Shelly Lewis' Five Lessons I Didn't Learn From Breast Cancer (And One Big One I Did):
Have you received a breast cancer diagnosis? Got a friend who has? Before you make another move, read this funny and truthful lowdown from Shelley Lewis, whose emotional viewpoint matches mine so precisely I can't shake the feeling that I should've written it myself (after all, I went through this a year before she did). Unlike just about every other book on the breast cancer "experience," with its pretty pink cover and its crapola about how dealing with breast cancer will make you a "better person" (just like it supposedly made its author!), Lewis gets down to the real nitty-gritty. Namely: Breast cancer, at least for some people, isn't a "spiritual growth program," a "journey" or a "gift." It's not the ultimate opportunity for the perfect boob makeover. It's not necessarily going to turn you into Lance Armstrong and an inspiration to everyone. It's just a DISEASE--a scary, upsetting DISEASE that makes you hope you can get through the treatment so you can get back to your life--if at all possible.
A friend who has had breast cancer sent some quotes from the book, with the comment: "I Finally Found My Club! Good laughs @ all the BC bullshit. Thought this book might be helpful if you know others who aren't using their B.C to accomplish a spiritual makeover... & don't expect B.C. to fix what's wrong w/ them." "My only growth was the one removed by the surgeon."
"Its completely life affirming to want to remain who you essentially are, good...and bad, rather than make permanent accomodations for a disease that you have to believe is just passing through."
"Lots of us decide we don't have to stop our lives to have cancer with all the trimmings - support groups, chat room visits... You don't see a lot of TV or magazine stories about those of us trying to keep b.c. impact to a miniumum."
"I felt about the Cancer Club the same way I did when I got my first invitation to join AARP."
"I draw the line at "Cancer was a gift"... You hear it a lot"
"B.C. wasn't a journey that led me to anywhere worth going...."
"Wherever you go on b.c. web sites somebody is trying to sell you an angel...I hate to say it but if you had a guardian angel before you got b.c., apparently that angel was a fuckup....(or) a slacker..and not just angels, fairies too. I don't know where fairies land on the spiritual ladder ...(but) it seems that those of us who battle serious diseases are practically being overrun with them. If Lou Dobbs weren't so concerned with Mexicans sneaking across our borders, he'd probably do a big expose about fairies..."
"Pink Ribbon Barbie" should be stripped, head shaved, (one-breasted) & forced to replace her pink tulle dress with a green hospital gown...."
"I was happy in Healthyville. Couldn't I just get a short-term sublet in b.c.world briefly then move back to my old place..? I felt pressured to go into the Pink Ghetto, but I couldn't stay there, I couldn't breathe... I couldn't wait to get the hell out of there..."
I tend to agree with Ms. Lewis. Bad disease is a plain bad deal. Scary (if you like life), with little redeeming about it.
As a contrast to our occasional New England houses, a reader thought we might like a peek at the 250-acre Rose Ranch, 50 minutes from Missoula. It's for sale, asking $995,000. Pretty nice views and nice wetlands on it, but 250 acres seems a bit small for Montana. I wonder whether they have Grizzlies. 
This is a 46' Palmer-Scotto built in 1939. She is for sale in Belfast, Maine. Details and more photos here. 
Saturday, May 31. 2008
Delicious, packed with flavor, and inexpensive: the Bolivar Suntuoso. I like to have some tasty everyday cigars, some moderately good cigars, and some fancy cigars (absolutely never any Habanos - no, no, no. They are quite illegal here.) on hand at all times. (Just the same as with with wines - some cheap everyday table wines, some nice wines, and then the really good special stuff for occasions.) 
I am also enjoying the Partagas Black Label mini Prontos these days. Quite a punchy cigar, and a quicker smoke.
Milford is a pleasant seaside village with a nice harbor that sits between Bridgeport and New Haven, and is a bit far for a NYC commute although it has a Metro North train station and a number of intrepid train commuters. Its fine harbor lies at the mouth of the Housatonic River. It's a comfortable but not wealthy middle-class town which doesn't put on airs but which has fairly high property taxes, and has a serious racing yacht club in the wealthiest (by income) state in the country. The house below is right in town in the historic district, in walking distance to the train and to the marina and harbor. Built in 1836 probably by a ship captain, but totally updated with a/c, 1st class kitchen, 5 bedrooms, family room addition on the back, etc. Look at the pictures of it: I think it is a perfect Yankee home which I would be very happy to live in, modestly elegant, with 1/4 acre offering enough space for flower gardens and tomatoes without burdening you with maintenance - plus a handy 3-car detached garage with room for a duck boat or a spare sports car. Asking only $749,000. (And again, no, we do not sell real estate. We just appreciate interesting shelter.) (The old house is too exposed to the street, though. I think it could benefit from a 4' hedge or picket fence out front along the sidewalk with a row of hydrangeas, and some nicer, less-random and more vigorous plantings in front of the porch - either a simple perennial border or a low hedge. And maybe a red Cherokee Dogwood or Magnolia in the middle of the the right side of the little front lawn. A cool thing about America is that, when you improve your plantings, you inspire your neighbors to do it too. It starts them thinking. The current plantings in front of this nice house insult the simple dignity of the place.) Overall, however, this house sits there like it's been there for a while and wants to be where it is, and I admire it very much. 
Friday, May 30. 2008
An excerpt from Bejart's 1959 Le Sacre de printemps. Maurice Bejart died last November. I believe this is by the Wuppertal Dance Theater:
Wednesday, May 28. 2008
Old Gorilla v. Young Gorilla: Viacom is suing YouTube owner Google for copyright infringements. (Thanks, reader.) I know nothing about copyright law, but it would seem to me that different sorts of internet ISPs and sites present different sorts of legal complications, eg whether commercial or non-commercial, whether a site is a billboard, or whether the use is innocent or educational. For example, the Liquid Kelp image posted earlier today may be a copyrighted image (I have no idea whether it is), but its appearance here consists of an unpaid advertisement for which the company would surely be grateful. A case might be made that posting major chunks of news or commentary from a newspaper, magazine or other website constitutes a copyright violation, even with attribution. However, much interesting stuff, the provenance of which is unknown and indeterminable, rockets around the internet via email and websites and ends up on posts - jokes, images, stories, videos, hoaxes, lies, quotes, etc. Who knows who produces and sends out all that fun stuff into cyberspace? Nobody, except the first person who emailed it, created it, or posted it. Blogs and other websites present interesting new areas for law to romp and play in. It's the wild West. Nobody violates a copyright malevolently, or without attribution if known. I did find the following quote at this interesting site for bloggers: The Digital Millennium Copyright Act, 17 USC § 512, creates a "safe harbor" immunity from copyright liability for service providers who "respond expeditiously" to notices claiming that they are hosting or linking to infringing material. The DMCA does not make ISPs liable if they do not remove content, but gives them a strong incentive to take the content down. That in turn gives those who want your material removed from the Net a strong incentive to make claims of copyright infringement.
Editor's comment: Any original material clearly identifiable as being produced by us at Maggie's Farm is not copyrighted at all. Not even Creative Commons: our original stuff is free for the borrowing, stealing, or linking. However, we appreciate and expect attribution just as we offer attribution to others whenever we are able to: "Do unto others..." "Fair use" and "public domain" get complicated when we are talking about email and websites. Our general disclaimer is that we are a non-commercial amateur site, and cannot always determine where some content or images originated. If asked, we will gladly and respectfully take down, link, or attribute any copyrighted material which we have innocently, educationally, or unknowingly posted or linked.
YouTube is becoming an excellent outlet for short films. Anchoress posted this exquisite and gentle short by Joe Gleason, The Dinner Guest, which, to me, combines the theme of anticipation with the ancient theme of the power of the word, wherein God the Playwright, like the mystical weaver at the loom or Aslan's singing the world into existence, creates time and space and everything that was, is, and will be. Bryn Terfel is singing a Welsh folk song.
Our Dylanologist just sent us the video he recorded a week or two ago - 32 seconds in Prague. He always pans too quickly: http://www.dr-mercury.com/site/mags/prague.wvx (Thanx, Dr. Merc, for hosting his film.)
Tuesday, May 27. 2008
It's a big business now. Video at Frontline.
Monday, May 26. 2008
J.S. Bach likely never wrote any music specifically for the piano, which was a newfangled instrument at the time. He did compose for the clavichord, the harpsichord, and, of course, the organ, and people term these compositions generally as "for the keyboard" - thus permitting them to sneak in the piano. Here's a good rant on the subject. (If there are any musicologists out there, please correct me if I am in error.) So when we heard Glenn Gould playing the Italian Concerto on the blog yesterday we were not hearing anything that Bach had in mind. The clavichord is incapable of making very much noise. For fun, here's the real sound of the Prelude in C Major of Bach's The Well-tempered Clavier, which means "The well-tuned clavichord":
Sunday, May 25. 2008
Glenn Gould plays the Italian Concerto. If it puts you in an Italian state of mind, check out this on Isola Bella: that is Italian! (Click on that small photo to biggify.)
Saturday, May 24. 2008
At the NYBG in the Bronx, a Henry Moore exhibit all summer. It's the largest outdoor exhibit of Moore's sculpture ever. It's a cool photo op, and it is tough to capture the fluid, organic, muscular forms and the ways that light affects them. 
Wednesday, May 21. 2008
The Farmer's Home - Summer, by Currier and Ives, of course. This will be our summertime image this year: 
Over the transom: THE NEXT SURVIVOR SERIES
Six married men will be dropped on an island with one car and 3 kids each for six weeks.
Each kid will play two sports and either take music or dance classes.
There is no fast food.
Each man must take care of his 3 kids; keep his assigned house clean, correct all homework, and complete science projects, cook, do laundry, and pay a list of 'pretend' bills with not enough money.
In addition, each man will have to budget in money for groceries each week.
Each man must remember the birthdays of all their friends and relatives, and send cards out on time.
Each man must also take each child to a doctor's appointment, a dentist appointment and a haircut appointment.
He must make one unscheduled and inconvenient visit per child to the Urgent Care.
He must also make cookies or cupcakes for a social function.
Each man will be responsible for decorating his own assigned house, planting flowers outside and keeping it presentable at all times.
The men will only have access to television when the kids are asleep and all chores are done.
The men must shave their legs, wear makeup daily, adorn himself with jewelry, wear uncomfortable yet stylish shoes, keep fingernails polished and eyebrows groomed.
During one of the six weeks, the men will have to endure severe abdominal cramps, back aches, and have extreme, unexplained mood swings but never once complain or slow down from other duties. They must attend weekly school meetings, church, and find time at least once to spend the afternoon at the park or a similar setting.
They will need to read a book each night and in the morning, feed them, dress them, brush their teeth and comb their hair by 7:00 am.
A test will be given at the end of the six weeks, and each father will be required to know all of the following information: each child's birthday, height, weight, shoe size, clothes size and doctor's name. Also the child's weight at birth, length, time of birth, and length of labor, each child's favorite color, middle name, favorite snack, favorite song, favorite drink, favorite toy, biggest fear and what they want to be when they grow up.
The kids vote them off the island based on performance. The last man wins only if...he still has enough energy to be intimate with his spouse at a moment's notice.
If the last man does win, he can play the game over and over and over again for the next 18-25 years eventually earning the right to be called Mother!
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