Without Lifting A Finger

Don't know if I ever sat through the whole movie before (but, except for a few ups and downs, I did last night -- after convincing the wife it wasn't too scary), but how could you forget that themesong. The movie was so-so. Very slow by modern standards. Hokey special effects. That said, I don't think Max von Sydow can ever be bad (i.e., I'm always impressed). 

L E N S C R A T C H: Susan Swihart : Los Angeles photographer Susan Swihart has a front row seat as she observes the phenomenon of identical twins.  She has begun a long-term p... * Didn't know her (do now, a little). Found her because of her name.

Christa Wolf quotes from a Brecht poem on Los Angeles (in translation here of course): Reflecting, so I hear, on hell My brother Shelley found it to be a place Much like the city of London. I Who live not in London but in Los Angeles Find, reflecting on hell, that it must be Even more like Los Angeles. 

brecht haus ii , a photo by mrlange on Flickr. Bertolt Brecht's house in Santa Monica. Another place I could easily get to (though it was easier when I was at UCLA) but haven't.

Villa Aurora , a photo by NH567 on Flickr. Lion Feuchtwanger's house in Pacific Palisades

Though I've heard of him, I've never read him (another name for the "list"). Apparently a major German writer in the "Weimar under the palms." * Lion Feuchtwanger (7 July 1884 – 21 December 1958) was a German-Jewish novelist and playwright. A prominent figure in the literary world of Weimar Germany , he influenced contemporaries including playwright Bertolt Brecht . Feuchtwanger's fierce criticism of the Nazi Party —years before it assumed power—ensured that he would be a target of government-sponsored persecution after Adolf Hitler 's appointment as chancellor of Germany in January 1933. Following a brief period of internment in France, and a harrowing escape from Continental Europe , he sought asylum in the United States, where he died in 1958. Feuchtwanger is often praised for his efforts to expose the brutality of the Nazis and occasionally criticized for his failure to acknowledge the brutality of the rule of Joseph Stalin . [

One of my favorite trees:       A very patient but private fellow:                        

I'd say more Shore than Heights, but what do I know. Used to hear them all the time, mostly toward evening, when we lived across from the pier. They gathered in the palms outside Vons. Rarely hear their ruckus above us now. Anyway, seems like every "public box" is a canvas these days. This one's for the noisy but beautiful parrots (saw the artist painting it last weekend).         

Also mentioned in Wolf's City of Angels : It was morning. You heard on the radio that Ethel and Julius Rosenberg had been put to death in the electric chair that night in the USA. You cried. You stroked your small daughter's little head. I can still feel today, in my fingertips, how soft and fragile it was. I still remember that you thought: I will never forget this day. And I never did forget it.   * Ethel Greenglass Rosenberg (September 25, 1915 [1] – June 19, 1953) and Julius Rosenberg (May 12, 1918 – June 19, 1953) were convicted of conspiracy to commit espionage during a time of war and executed on June 19, 1953. Their charges were related to the passing of information about the atomic bomb to the Soviet Union . This has been the only case in the history of the United States in which those accused of espionage were executed as a result. [2] In 1995, the U.S. government released a series of decoded Soviet cables, codenamed VENONA , which confirmed that Juliu...

I would've recognized the name Adrian Leverkühn (it's been years since I've read Doctor Faustus and I need to give it a "reread" eventually), but I didn't recognize Serenus Zeitblom. * Doctor Faustus (in German , Doktor Faustus ) is a German novel written by Thomas Mann , begun in 1943 and published in 1947 as Doktor Faustus. Das Leben des deutschen Tonsetzers Adrian Leverkühn, erzählt von einem Freunde ("Doctor Faustus. The Life of the German composer Adrian Leverkühn, told by a friend"). The story is narrated by Leverkühn's childhood friend Serenus Zeitblom. Much like Settembrini and Naphta in “ The Magic Mountain ” the “serene” humanist Zeitblom and the tragical Leverkühn represent the dualism of the German character, its Apollonian (reason, democracy, progress) and Dionysian (passion, tragedy, fate) aspects. Writing in Germany between 1943 and 1946, Zeitblom describes the rise and downfall of Nazi Germany in parallel with his ac...

thomas mann haus , a photo by mrlange on Flickr. 1550 San Remo Drive, Pacific Palisades. Have always intended on seeing it, but never have. Christa Wolf visited Mann's house and in City of Angels she quotes a bit from Mann's Diaries. As you can see, I couldn't find a good photo on Flickr that gets beyond the front gate (some day). On the Net I also saw that the house (apparently very different from when Mann lived there) rents for $15,500 per month. Pocket change. * Wolf, quoting from Mann's Diaries: Pacific Palisades, Saturday, 10/15/49:... Letter to a German man who sent me a note declaring his love for Serenus Zeitblom ... It does me good to see that there are still people  in Germany who find something to love in the work of my old age, in my work at all -- not just something to carp about. When it comes right down to it, it's a stupid German trait always to have to tear down and belittle the best they have, anything that represents them nobly and...

Haggis , a photo by onecreativesource on Flickr.

Haggis is a savoury pudding containing sheep's pluck ( heart, liver and lungs ); minced with onion , oatmeal, suet , spices, and salt, mixed with stock , and traditionally encased in the animal's stomach and simmered for approximately three hours. Most modern commercial haggis is prepared in a sausage casing rather than an actual stomach. As the 2001 English edition of the Larousse Gastronomique puts it, "Although its description is not immediately appealing, haggis has an excellent nutty texture and delicious savoury flavour". [1] Haggis is a traditional Scottish dish, considered the national dish of Scotland as a result of Robert Burns' poem Address to a Haggis of 1787. Haggis is traditionally served with "neeps and tatties" (Scots: turnip and potato ), boiled and mashed separately and a dram (a glass of Scotch whisky ), especially as the main course of a Burns supper . However it is also often eaten with other accompaniments. [From Wik...

Beautiful day, even if you're not a Scot. The Queen Mary as a backdrop, shortbread, big guys throwing big rocks and telephone poles, beer tasting (I was too "under the weather" for that), a little haggis and neeps. Eventually the sun got too bright and the shrill bagpipes got to my already aching head, and we departed. Alas, . . .                                                                 

Got this from the German Wiki: translated. Kurt Barthel (also spelled Kurt Bartel), pseudonym of Cuba (* June 8 1914 in Garnsdorf in Chemnitz , † 12 November 1967 in Frankfurt am Main ) was a German writer , poet , dramatist and playwright . [From Wikipedia: http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=de&u=http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kurt_Barthel&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dkuba%2Bkurt%2Bbarthel%26hl%3Den%26biw%3D1366%26bih%3D599&sa=X&ei=sAkhUd3lBOSbjAKyuYEg&ved=0CDYQ7gEwAA ] *** In City of Angels , Wolf quotes from one of his poems: People will say about      our times: They had old iron and      little courage since they had little      strength left after      their defeat. People will say about      our times: Their hearts were full of      bitter blood. And their life ran on      worn-o...

Read most of her major works years ago: some of it I liked, some of it was so-so. Hadn't thought much of her work lately (didn't even know she died) and I was e-fingering through Amazon (can't remember exactly how I got to her) and stumbled on her last work, City of Angels .  Seeing how the backdrop was LA--her fictional self is staying in Santa Monica--I couldn't resist. So far so good . . . * Christa Wolf (née Ihlenfeld; 18 March 1929, Landsberg an der Warthe – 1 December 2011, Berlin ) was a German literary critic , novelist , and essayist . [1] [2] She was one of the best-known writers to have emerged from the former East Germany . [3] [4] Biography Wolf was born in Landsberg an der Warthe in the Province of Brandenburg ; [3] the city is now Gorzów Wielkopolski, Poland. After World War II , Wolf and her family, being Germans, were expelled from their home on what had become Polish territory. They crossed the new Oder-Neisse border in 1945 and ...

Missing half of Courbet’s ‘Origin of the World’ found: claim | euronews, world news Oh, leave her in "piece."

Finally finished Broch's Sleepwalkers (enjoyed but IMHO a bit "overkill" re the writing). Have moved from WWI to WWII re milieu in switching from Broch to Boll (started reading his voluminous  short stories via my phone's Kindle App). * Heinrich Theodor Böll (December 21, 1917 – July 16, 1985) was one of Germany 's foremost post- World War II writers. Böll was awarded the Georg Büchner Prize in 1967 and the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1972. [ 1 ] Biography Böll was born in Cologne , Germany, to a Catholic , pacifist family that later opposed the rise of Nazism . He refused to join the Hitler Youth during the 1930s. [ 2 ] He was apprenticed to a bookseller before studying German at the University of Cologne . Conscripted into the Wehrmacht , he served in France , Romania , Hungary and the Soviet Union , and was wounded four times before being captured by Americans in April 1945 and sent to a prisoner-of-war camp . [ 3 ] Böll became a full-time ...

Got there a little early so I walked out on the pier and down toward the library. Was sorry to see that Ruby's had closed (sign said it'd been there for 25 years). #1: Three views back to Long Beach (two before and one after breakfast):               #2: The Pier:         #3: The Seal:         #4: More Seals:           #5: Lifeguard houses (wintering):         #6: The Red Car Museum (Hoodied):               

Photo #1: I think it's the Hotel de Ville. Hardly the best photo, but the sun was out and turned it a white white. I'm on my way home (tgif).         Photo #2: Much harder to figure out (not a famous landmark), but I'm close to home now. Hard to get a good photo because the light is green.           

From my cursory search, it would seem so: birthdate and death seem to coincide (though I saw conflicting places of birth/death), both sculptors, both apprenticed under Ralph Stackpole, other matching bio details. If so, then Gordon Newell was married to the actress Gloria Stuart for a short while (1930's). From the Berkeley Daily Gazette (June 20, 1930):   

Bit foggy this morning. Gives everything a mysterious sheen. The Times (as if they're the only Times); Metro train on the First Street bridge.           

Post Office 91340 (San Fernando, California) , a photo by courthouselover on Flickr. Another wood-relief by Gordon Newell and Sherry Peticolas.

Power of Water , a photo by Tim McGarry on Flickr.

Jason Herron's name is on the bottom of the "buff" b-baller sculpture at Belmont HS ( see my earlier photos of the sculpture ). On the other side (also along the bottom) is something about the Federal Art Project (FAP) and a date (must be 1937). Apparently (but I could be wrong) Jason Herron = Jason (Jessie) Herron and the artist/sculptor was a female not a male. She is listed--along with Henry Lion and Sherry Peticolas--as the "artistic team" responsible for design and construction of "The Power of Water" (sculpture now in Lafayette Park in LA).

Post Office 90028 (Hollywood, California) , a photo by courthouselover on Flickr. "Horseman" by George Newell. More than one online source suggests this piece was made by George Newell and Sherry Peticolas.

I looked at the woodcut (bas relief) in the main office (Belmont HS) again this morning and the artist's signature (not easy to read) was Gordon Newell. Turns out he was a relatively big artist around LA in the 1930's (a bio I run across said he taught at the Chouinard Art School and Occidental). He died near Carmel in 1998. His "The Horseman" is apparently in the Hollywood Post Office: The United States Post Office in Hollywood , Los Angeles, California, also known as Hollywood Station , is an active U.S. post office located at 1615 Wilcox. It is on the National Register of Historic Places . Design In 1937, renowned Art Deco architect Claud Beelman , a partner at Curlett + Beelman, was commissioned by the Works Progress Administration (WPA) to design the Hollywood Post Office Building. A wooden bas-relief inside, titled "The Horseman", was carved by artist Gordon Newell as a WPA commission and still stands above a door. The ground breaking was...

Been hanging out at Belmont HS (downtown LA) this year (teaching a little math, "enjoying the ride"). I've seen these artworks for some while (two of the woodcuts stare at me when I sign in) without fully understanding their genesis. On Friday, as I was taking a few photos, the ex-dean (now an ESL teacher) told me they were found in the "basement" (or some such dusty niche for castaways) and returned to semi-prominence. He says they're WPA. Two of the pieces (a woodcut and the sculpture) have names on them, but I haven't been able to "dig up" the artists (though the sculptor: *Mason Herron is possibly listed in the Los Angeles 1940 Census). *It's not Mason Herron but Jason Herron. The other "readable" signature was Gordon Newell's (took me a long time to decipher his last name).   by Gordon Newell (1905 - 1984)                  by Jason Herron (1900 - 1984)      ...

The Works Progress Administration (renamed in 1939 as the Work Projects Administration ; WPA ) was the largest and most ambitious New Deal agency , employing millions of unemployed people (mostly unskilled men) to carry out public works projects, [ 1 ] including the construction of public buildings and roads. In much smaller but more famous projects the WPA employed musicians, artists, writers, actors and directors in large arts, drama, media, and literacy projects. [ 1 ] Almost every community in the United States had a new park, bridge or school constructed by the agency. The WPA's initial appropriation in 1935 was for $4.9 billion (about 6.7 percent of the 1935 GDP), and in total it spent $13.4 billion. [ 2 ] At its peak in 1938, it provided paid jobs for three million unemployed men (and some women), as well as youth in a separate division, the National Youth Administration . Headed by Harry Hopkins , the WPA provided jobs and income to the unemployed during the Great De...

My reading of lagoon and sky this a.m. seems to be in agreement with Punxsutawney Phil's.