Holiday Gift Ideas: The Gift of Impeachment!

Just in time for the holiday season, March On's Fight Back PAC has opened the Impeachment Boutique with lovely holiday gifts! Their website says it all:

"Impeachment tops nearly everyone’s list to Santa this year–but we’ll never get it with the rubber-stamp Republican Congress calling the shots. That’s why we’ve opened the IMPEACH BOUTIQUE as a special holiday project of March On’s Fight Back PAC. We are working hard to take back Congress from the Republicans. We’ve launched a fundraising drive for $24 donations to help flip the 24 seats needed to put the Democrats in charge. If Special Counsel Mueller finds impeachable offenses, a Democratic Congress will act.

For the holidays, your $24 donation to March On’s Fight Back PAC becomes a Gift of Impeachment -- Donald Trump will receive a Christmas card in your name wishing him a Merry Christmas and a short-lived presidency. Want to give the Gift of Impeachment? Make donations on behalf of everyone on your holiday shopping list. And tell all of your friends and family to get the Gift of Impeachment, too!

The best part? The cards will be hand delivered en masse to the White House and to Trump Tower as our merry bands of carolers spread tidings of joy and impeachment throughout the land. The Resistance Revival Chorus will lead fellow resistance carolers to Trump Tower in a special candle-lit carolling session–join the revelry and add your voice to the Growing Chorus for Impeachment! Stay tuned for details about the postcard delivery caroling event at the White House!

A $100 donation will get you the best Ugly Christmas IMPEACH Sweater ever…..A sweater so fabulous that Putin will want to buy them for all of his oligarchs!"

Notice the Russian nesting dolls flanking the White House at the bottom of the sweater!

May this holiday wish come true! Happy Holidays!

http://impeachboutique.com/
https://www.fightbackpac.com/

Currently listening to...

...the phenomenal "Life's What You Make It" by post-rock band Talk Talk. Although released in 1986 on their "The Colour of Spring" album, this song sounds powerful and fresh today. The tumbling, abrupt drums, the otherworldly organ, the blisteringly grave guitar, and the unchained earnest vocals singing such unadorned yet crucial lyrics all meld to make this a timeless--and genreless--song.

Baby, life's what you make it
Can't escape it
Baby, yesterday's favourite
Don't you hate it?

(Everything's all right)
Life's what you make it
(Everything's all right)

Baby, life's what you make it
Don't backdate it
Baby, don't try to shade it
Beauty is naked

(Everything's all right)
Life's what you make it
(Everything's all right)
What you make it

Baby, life's what you make it
Celebrate it
Anticipate it
Yesterday's faded
Nothing can change it
Life's what you make it

(Everything's all right)
Life's what you make it

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk_Talk

BEAUTY: Installation--Michael Pederson

Here is Visitor From The Future Arrival Card, another delightful art installation from Michael Pederson (previously  here, here, and here). I love his humorous, thoughtful, and sometimes touching faux public signage. I would love to bump into one of these incognito pieces of art.

http://miguelmarquezoutside.com/

Just Good And Kind

Listen to the doggie.

"Krigsgald" by Heilung

How fascinating that there is a whole sub-genre of music dedicated to pre-Christian Northern European culture! Heilung are a band from Denmark who play a very specialized kind of music. Their official information says:

"Heilung is sounds from the Northern European Iron Age and Viking period. We used everything from running water, human bones, reconstructed swords and shields up to ancient frame drums and bronze rings in the songs.

The lyrics contain original texts from rune stones and preserved spear shafts, amulets and other artifacts. Furthermore poems, which either deal with historical events or are translations/ interpretations of the originals.

Every attempt to link the music to modern political or religious points are pointless, since Heilung tries to connect the listener to the time before Christianity and its political offsprings raped and burned itself into the Northern European mentality.

Heilung means healing in German and describes the core of the sound. It is supposed to leave the listener eased and relaxed after a sometimes turbulent musical journey."

I can see a wide audience for their music: people who listen to ethnic music or folk and neo-folk music, people who listen to spiritual music, people who listen to alternative music or even Goth music... I get a bit of a Dead Can Dance (previously here, here, and here) vibe too.

Fascinating.

Take a look at this video of the group singing "Krigsgald" live in concert. Believe it or not, this spectacle is their first live concert performance ever. Filmed at Castlefest, a medieval/fantasy festival in the Netherlands, the live recording album called "LIFA" is available.

https://www.facebook.com/amplifiedhistory/
https://heilung.bandcamp.com/

"Manifesto"

Artist Julian Rosefeldt (previously here) wrote and directed "Manifesto," a fascinating and wholly unique film installation that was originally shown at art galleries on multiple screens at once. Starring the phenomenal Cate Blanchett, the film consists of thirteen segments, each ten and a half minutes long, with Blanchett playing a different character in each. For each segment, she recites all or parts of artistic manifestos from visual artists, filmmakers, writers, performers or architects. Siobhan Calafiore of The Weekly Review said each context "explores a different idea from art and originality to the subconscious and society. Yet each one resonates and moves the viewer in a surprising way." And Toby Fehily of The Guardian said that "what matters in Manifesto isn't what is said but the way it's said. Rosefeldt has found a way to shrinkwrap the ambitious spirit and poetry of these texts into humble everyday actions."

What an absolutely amazing concept.

You can purchase a 90-minute version on DVD or Blu-Ray but you can see all unedited thirteen segments at Rosefeldt's site here:

https://www.julianrosefeldt.com/film-and-video-works/manifesto-_2014-2015/

Gemstone Planets From Deskspace

Deskspace is a set of semi-precious stones representing each of the planets in our solar system. The beautiful spheres are cradled in a wooden base and while their website doesn't list the stones, I believe I can identify them as labradorite, moonstone, sodalite, jasper, tiger eye, yellow and green aventurine, and possibly lapis lazuli.

To purchase, visit their website:
http://deskx.co/

Happy Thanksgiving 2017

In these very trying times in the United States, I'd like to address all my followers and regular readers of "Oh, By The Way:" on this holiday of gratitude, let's give thanks to all the things we still have in our lives, the things that make us good, strong, honorable, and loving human beings. Let's give thanks to the people who bring light and calm and love to our lives and to the world. Because we are basically leaderless and because of a small faction of people who wish to bring ugliness and darkness to our country, let's give thanks for the actions and goodwill in our lives whether done by others or ourselves that strengthen the fabric of humanism and the choices to unite, protect, and find value in this existence. Hold dear the things that we still have left and live up to the ideals we are grateful for. Let us find value in ourselves and others and express this gratitude in our intentions, deeds, and words. Let us counteract the current dark tone with this gratitude for life and living. Let's be grateful for the value of human experience and know that their darkness cannot take that away.

Thanks, Jesus 2017

As we eat our Thanksgiving meal, let us thank not an imaginary figure in the sky but those who are TRULY responsible for bringing our food to our tables, through their numbingly long days of low-wage, backbreaking work.

Thanksgiving Serving Suggestions From Famous Artists

Multi-media artist Hannah Rothstein has playfully imagined Thanksgiving plates arranged in the style of famous artists--see if you can guess who they are before you look at the list at the bottom. And if you are looking for clever serving ideas for tomorrow's meal, let one of these inspire you. Or create one after your own favorite artist.

Top to bottom: Jean-Michel Basquiat; Christo; Dali; Haring; Hirst; Kara Walker; Magritte; Man Ray; Miro; Mondrian; Pollock; Rothko; Seurat; Van Gogh

http://www.hrothstein.com/

R.I.P. David Cassidy

If you grew up in the 70s--or were alive then--you surely recall the phenomenon that was the television show "The Partridge Family" and of course its star and teen heart throb David Cassidy who played Keith Partridge.

I had a huge crush on him when I was young, watching "The Partridge Family" every week--those eyes, that face, THAT HAIR! (Looking back now, I can see there is a sense about him that is comparable to Farrah Fawcett, another 70s obsession of mine--luxurious hair, a wide and dazzling smile...) My mom made me a large collage poster of photos of him cut from all the different teen magazines at the time like Tiger Beat. I loved that poster (thanks Mom!--coincidentally, today is the anniversary of her death in 2002).

His stardom eclipsed the show and he became a sold-out performer around the world. Although his fame was front loaded in the early part of his life, he never stopped singing or performing.

Cassidy died today of complications from dementia at the early age of 67. Rest in peace, beautiful David.

http://www.davidcassidy.com

Pringles' Thanksgiving Dinner

Pringles have created a prototype Thanksgiving dinner in a box. All chips are flavored like each dish of a traditional Thanksgiving meal. Watch the video for a cute retro-inspired commercial.

https://www.pringles.com/us/home.html

BEAUTY: Interior--cityhomeCOLLECTIVE

Salt Lake City interior design firm cityhomeCOLLECTIVE creates some fantastic, inventive, unique designs. All I can say is I wish I had a client adventurous enough to let me curate a California Spanish/ Gothic/ 1970s/ ethnic/ Bohemian/ modern home like this! What a dizzying array of styles and silhouettes and materials, and taken all together, they make a wonderful palette and tell an amazing story.

http://cityhomecollective.com/interior-design