Children at Play in the 1880's - Wallace G Levison for 'Life' Magazine

Wallace G. Levison sitting on a pedestal on Statue Of Liberty island looking out at boats in NY Harbor (1885)

Today, I came across Google's 'Life' Magazine Photo Archive for the second half of the C19 and much of the C20.

Perhaps most interesting for me were those of the 1880s - mostly by Wallace G Levison. I googled this photographer and surprisingly nothing came up, bio-wise. You know anything?

Levison produced much work for the magazine within a great ranges of contexts - the sea-side, cityscapes, modes of transportation, dress of the day, dining at home, work ... and children at play:

Children holding hands in a circle as they dance around a pole with their backs to it (1886)

Young Ethel Merritt jumping in the air at Coney Island (1886)

Young Isabel Harter riding a tricycle while her sister Nellie rolls a hoop, with other children and adults in background (1886)

Zelma Levison jumping in the backyard of her home at 314 Livingston St. (1886)

Young girls Isabel and Nellie Harter jumping a rope turned by Edie Dwight and Zelma Levison. Nellie Dwight on the bench and Edie Swan on the cannon wait their turns. Ft Green (1886)

Edie Swan and Harry Dwight rolling hoops in a field as other children look on in background. Ft Greene (1886)

Four young girls jumping off a waist-high wall as two women look on at Ft. Greene (1886)

What's so appealing about these photos is their seeming spontaneity and the way they catch some of the innocent pleasures of childhood.

Which is seems at odds with the current politically-correct view of that period of our lives as being trauma- and angst-ridden.

Radko and Spot-The-Difference

Ok, so let's play spot the difference! Remember it?

How bout first testing with respect to long distance acuity (Group A) ...

[1]

[2]

[3]

... and then go in a bit closer (Group B) ...

[4]

[5]

[6]

[7]

[8]

[9]

... and finally eye-to-eye, so to speak ...

[10]

[11]

[12]

There are no tricks, like doubles or triples ... so failure to spot is an indication of grave and irreparable personal inadequacy - but keep in mind that acceptance is ultimately good as it leads to growth at a higher level!

Ok, so how did you go? How many differences did you spot per group?

Or were you in some way distracted from the task at hand ... by the task in your hand!

Guido Daniele (1950-) and Extraordinary Hand Paintings

Born in Italy and now living in Milan, Guido Daniele works in the visual arts and advertising in a number of capacities: as an illustrator, theatre scene painter, make-up artist .... and body painter.

His hand paintings are particularly arresting!










Amazing aren't they?

Sometimes you miss the hand altogether!

His website is - http://www.guidodaniele.com.

Hurley - The Blond Fox Cub with Dangerously Hot Knackers!

Got my blond fox cub thing going again, big time - and reckon Hurley here, with his hot buzz cut and cute smile, fits the bill real well!

But when he drops trow, somehow his hair style, and everything else, seem quite irrelevant.



Till you get to what Hurley's really got going for him - a dangerously hot set of knackers.


And in case you missed 'em ...


... or missed 'em again ...


Hurley's other bits are pretty okay too, like his chest ...


... and pecs and nips - I'm teething again (!) ...


And then when you get to the back-end, all ya wanna do is just hop on top and go for a good long ride.



Reckon it'd only take about ... two hours, three tops ... to get there.

Even a minute less and you'd feel cheated!

Long Dead Relatives Popping Up Everywhere!

Now I'm sure you'll be thinking I'm just making this all up ... but some mid-C19 relatives might have made an appearance in my study this afternoon!

Actually should I be saying 'yet more' cos, as you may remember, I posted last month on a recently uncovered photograph sent me of two new mid C19 relations:


This is it - today, just before lunch, I was 'dismembering' these two framed colour-tinted etchings to be better able to scan them into the puter.


A kind of current mania with me!


And discovered that their glass backings were in fact silver gelatin on glass photographs!!!

One in quite good condition ...


... and showing (it seemed) a resemblance to my great grandmother (her own mother?) ...


... and the other rather too damaged to make much out ...


My paternal grandmother grew up way out in the bush, well away from towns of any kind. She told me how hawkers would drive round the countryside in horse-drawn 'vans' which functioned as shops selling 'darning wool or strong black cotton ... or new stockings'. She recalled one hawker called Bob, who used to periodically visit the farm 'to stay the night ... do his washing, give his horses a spell and tidy up his shop' (from a story she wrote about a family pet, a Shetland pony).

Last century in the bush, home decorations and ornaments were often home-made.

As a consequence and throughout her life, my grandmother created little framed pictures using images from newspapers, magazines and so on. So I always imagined she or one of her sisters had made these two beautiful little objects - perhaps as girls. And would have used whatever was available for their backing. Though it's hard to imagine she'd have used old family photographs - but equally odd that she'd have had another family's photos to use.

Mmm.

There IS one more piece to this puzzle!

I've just phoned my sister, having earlier emailed her these two images. And she said she had copies of them! In a tiny leather bound book encased in a small leather box. Really!!!

She'd been given them a year or two ago on the death of the executor of my mother's estate - apparently he'd been entrusted to their safe-keeping for some reason.

Such care-taking would suggest (to me) more than just a treasured object. Something of irreplaceable family significance.

Or is does this all have some other explanation? And these are no relations what-so-ever?

I'm waiting for the next chapter to unfold!

And at this rate, it should only be a few weeks!

Norman Gentle - Funniest 'American Idol' Audition ... Ever?

Just watch!

And if you've seen it before, enjoy again!

And?

Scrotums as Pets? No, Just Naked East African Mole Rats

No this is not the product of some rather creative Hollywood workshop - though it's probably been the inspiration for more than a few film fantasy monsters:

And I haven't been doing funny things with my scrotum just to amuse everyone, though ... I won't go there!

Or browsing installations at more avant garde art galleries ...


Just watching a David Attenborough documentary on mole rats, a kind of hairless East African burrowing rat that lives mainly underground and tunnels huge and complex networks in search of the tubers on which it subsists.


They live up to 28 years of age which, apart from being a good advertisement for tubers, has lead to investigation of its genome.

Their social structure is a bit like that of ants and bees, where there's a single breeding female and two or three consorts in each borrow complex - with the rest of the colony being tuber hunter-gatherer workers.



Only a mother could ... you know the rest!

Now if you wanna see a living example, up close and personal ... best thing to do is drop your jocks and take a good long look between your legs - LOL!!!