I have been looking for this for YEARS! You know those Pinterest atrocities - chunks and hunks of images, half the text cut off - abominations, really. I found a piece of this image several years ago and went looking for the rest of it, and couldn't find anything. Nothing whole, anyway. People carve things up into Facebook profile pictures/covers, YouTube avatars, etc. But at last, when I least expected it, when I was looking for something else, this popped out at me.
I think it is simply glorious, and in pristine condition. It is THE post-War spirit, complete freedom from care and restriction. No more rationing of happiness or anything else! The fierce glare of the car only adds to the atmosphere, the bared teeth and aggressive, staring headlights. And then I found this:
I think this was originally two pages in a magazine. I have seen, somewhere, a poster-ish version of the first page, but it's inaccessible to me.
I am having a George Takei moment.
OH MY.
Meanwhile, please join my Festival of Old Red Buicks. I would have made a slideshow out of this, as usual, but the proportions didn't work, so I'll glom them all together into one "thing".
These are a few thoughts from late at night. I didn't know I was going to say them. Please forgive the cliche-y thumbnail. There was no thumbnail to this one at all, because the video was so dark. I'm slowly learning that a video needs a decent thumbnail. For years my eye has been caught by them, but I didn't know it was happening. At any rate, these are the thoughts that come to you late at night, just from wherever, from your life.
So what is this? Anyway?? For a long time, I posted a gif at the bottom of my blog entries, along with a link to my Amazon author page. It was a kind of signature, along with a little publicity for my actual work. So why did I stop? I got soooooooo sick of doing it, and felt it was so utterly futile ( I mean, WHO goes on my Amazon author page?) that I dropped it. But I was left with this super-cute collection of signature gifs. I have a few thousand gifs in my collection, most of which I made myself. It would be nice to think that SOMEONE might go on my page, just to take a look at everything I've written - and by the way, all three of my novels are still for sale! Maybe I'll start doing it again. Doesn't seem likely, but maybe.
I! Love!! This!!! I cannot tell you how elated I feel! I guess that reveals how I will grasp at any little scrap of hope in the miserable slag-heap of the Trump administration. But I have never been more proud to be a Canadian. Justin Trudeau may look like a pretty boy, but he is actually very tough, a trained boxer and athlete who has a sort of martial-arts-style grace. So when it came time to meet his adversary, Trump soon became prey. Justin had obviously sized up his opponent and realized he had to jump in with ferocious confidence. He literally grabbed the man by the arm while squeezing his hand, disabling that infamous arrogant jerk-you-around "handshake". He had him in his grip, from both sides! I keep watching and watching this video because for some absurd, insane reason, it gives me hope.
A strange animation. This was put together from a half-dozen still pictures gleaned from Psycho, the famous parlour scene in which Norman eerily proclaims, "We all go a little mad sometimes." As you can see, there is a frame or two missing here and there.
This was an unusual project. I tried to get as many facial expressions out of six frames as possible. Norman's kind of a strange character anyway, so watching him twitch around and go from ranty to sweet in a nanosecond is nothing new.
But it was also an eerie feeling. These are just still pictures taken from a movie from more than 50 years ago. Yet there are moments - seconds - when something seems to be happening. Some kind of movement, an integrity between the frames that creates - something. Animation fools the eye. Film itself is an illusion, a lot of still pictures that the eye or the brain kindly blurs together and interprets as motion. It's also kind of strange that the background is so similar, though the fact that it kind of seethes in and out adds a special weirdness. The pictures aren't all framed exactly the same, though they're closer than most groups of movie stills even approach. Only one of them is way out of proportion, but the expression was so good that I had to use it. It gives the whole thing a weird lurching quality that I like.
Norman seems to be yelling "stop!" - or is it "stab"?
· PUBLISHED: 16:49 GMT, 14 August 2014 | UPDATED: 08:55 GMT, 15 August
The body of a woman whose daughter promised would be buried beside her late husband has been found four years later - mummified and decaying in her home in Gilbert, Arizona.
Janet Pallone Delatorre found her 98-year-old mother Josephine Pallone dead in her bed in September 2010, and told her son that she would be buried in Chicago.
But now her remains have been found still in that very same same bed, in what police have described as a rubbish-filled 'hoarder house' on Leah Lane.
The Gilbert, Arizona 'hoarder house', where Josephine Pallone's body has lay rotting for four years
A police report says: 'Janet stated she "panicked" and believed police would think Janet killed her based on the condition of the house. Janet assumed the police would think Janet neglected her and that is why she died.'
For this reason, she bizarrely decided to leave her mother where she had found her, and she remained there until police discovered her gripping an old blanket on June 28.
They said it was obvious that she had been dead for a very long time.
Police made the gruesome discovery because Ms Pallone Delatorre's ex-husband, William Delatorre, had gained control of the house through the courts, after she had fallen behind on payments.
Acting as a court commissioner, a real estate agent went into the house to find it in awful condition. Concerned, police searched the house to find it full of rubbish, with clothes stacked in piles in many of the rooms, and Mrs Pallone's remains in one of the bedrooms.
They also found a pet bird, which was in healthy, cared-for condition.
Ms Pallone Delatorre's son Nathan told police he had moved out of the house four years ago to go to university, and not long after had been told by his mother over the phone that his grandmother had died.
He said he had not been to the house since, but had been told that his mother's plan had been to bury Mrs Pallone next to her husband in Chicago.
Sgt. Jesse Sanger told AZCentral that the Maricopa County Medical Examiner's Office still has not officially identified the body, and the case is still an active death investigation.
But it is expected the body will soon be announced as Mrs Pallone's.
He added that there are currently no signs of fraud or any other criminal activity.
Police are also looking into the rough date of death, and also to see whether the body has suffered any broken bones or other damage.
The Myanmar hot air balloon festival (complete with detonation of a few tons of fireworks) is a new low in jaw-dropping public danger. But it's fascinating to watch. I don't have any mortality statistics on this incredible event, but just watching it - thousands and thousands of people running away screaming as nuclear-intensity bombs go off and live cinders rain down out of the sky - is compelling in an awful sort of way.
Does this distract me from the awfulness that is going on in the world? You bet it does. I don't know what else to do.
Believe it or not, this is an example of a "successful" launch. Even that looks too hair-raising to contemplate.
The more I watch this video, the more disturbing it is.
This is a video of a horrendous accident in a fireworks factory in Denmark. What set it off was one careless slip by an employee who dropped a box of small firecrackers. There was no taking it back.
What's disturbing about it is - well, a lot of things are. It's the sense something is being destroyed before our eyes - something normally associated with joy and celebration. But that's not the half of it. All the fireworks seem to be going off crazily at once, in some sort of mad twisted version of those lovely, orderly, gorgeously-coloured displays we see at picnics in the park.
Every once in a while, there is a hideous white-hot explosion of unbelievable intensity, forming a kind of sickeningly-bright mushroom cloud. Then more chitter-chattering of insane fireworks, their direction lost. It's as if their usual symmetry and beauty has been horribly corrupted. They've gone insane.
I think one life was lost - I don't know much about it, and am almost afraid to find out. Originally I was going to post some video that fascinates me, from a celebration in Myanmar (formerly Burma). Every year they take a gigantic paper balloon, put an immense open torch under it, pack the basket with a heavy load of explosive fireworks, and send it aloft. Something awful seems to happen at this event every year, and the one I was watching earlier today was the worst. The balloon almost seemed to be making its way upward where, at some timed point, the fireworks were supposed to shoot up into the sky. Then it began to sink. Something was happening to the hot air, it was escaping, or the open flame was shooting out sideways, but for whatever reason the balloon landed on the ground and then decided to let go with an upside-down version of the (homemade) fireworks which rained down live cinders all over the spectators. This was followed by the inevitable nuclear-strength explosion, with scenes of panicked people running around in thick smoke with fire hoses gushing everywhere.
That's how they do it in Myanmar.
A little slideshow I made from some spectacular photos of this yearly human roast. How does anyone survive this event? Why is it legal?
I have a feeling the following ream of Valentine poetry was written by thirteen-year-old girls. Having spewed a few reams of it myself, I feel I must be charitable. Emily Dickinson it ain't, but at least this poetry is sincere. One of them sings the praises of Labrador and Newfoundland, which I heartily agree with. Many of the poems praise their love object's lips, fingertips, and physical features generally. And not all of them are written by girls.
I was a little disappointed at the fairly-regular rhyme and meter schemes in these. The truth is, they're really a little too good. But they have a certain charm, a sweetness that made them worthy of a Valentine post of their own. And how can these lines be surpassed for sheer emotional honesty?:
If you don't be my Valentine I'm sure I'll have to cry If you won't be my Valentine I'll look at you and sue
I have one beef, however - a big one. One of the poetesses here shamelessly signs her name to a classic poem by Dorothy Parker (One Perfect Rose). Whether this was meant as quote, tribute, or outright theft will never be known. Oh well. We DO say "she stole my heart", don't we? From that, it's a short step to "she stole my poem". And now that I look more carefully, someone else is "quoting" from the old song, "More (than the greatest love the world has known)". But it's Valentine's Day. Let's pin a big red heart on all our transgressions.
Valentine Postman If I could be a postman For just one single time, I'd choose to carry valentines so lovely and so fine. I would not mind the heavy load, Or mind my tired feet. If I could scatter happiness up and down the street. Unknown A Valentine for You Valentines, valentines, Pink, red and blue, I've made a pretty one Just for you! Unknown A Valentine Today as Valentines go out, To people near and far, This one I'm sending right to you, To say how nice you are. Unknown
Bee My Valentine Won't you bee my valentine And fly away with me? We'll bumble along together 'Cause you're my Honey Bee! Unknown ~Valentine's Day~ The Arrow strikes the Heart Never to be torn apart It is when feelings blossom and more The heart which heals by the Bandage of love and cure Roses, chocolates, cakes and some of the gifts in line just some of the things to make a Perfect Valentine. The hidden feelings of a heart that reveals The boat of love which smoothly sails How fortunate are those who enjoy this day That is the time when one is lost
In the world of fantasy without any cost The day when Cupid plays an Immense role To provoke feelings in a Lifeless Soul. Pamela Daranjo Secrets I have secrets that I hide I want to tell you, but they come from so deep inside I want to tell you that I love you and care I want to tell you that I love your hair your smile, your face and your kindness too but most of all, I want to say I love you Kendra
Valentine Love is precious Love is sweet Love is something you cannot cheat Love is kind Love is not lust Love is special its all about trust Love is for me Love is for you Love is a couple turns one to two Love is yours Love is mine Love is ours BE MY VALENTINE Lilly Mae when I saw you... when I first saw you I missed the comfort of being sad seeing you from far away without telling you about my heart I couldn't bare holding my thoughts about how much I would like to hold you and fill you with joy when I first saw you, I knew my love for you was never going to die. vanessa rodriguez
Will you be my valentine? Will you be my Valentine? I love you with all my heart. Will you be my Valentine? So we'll never be torn apart If you don't be my Valentine I'm sure I'll have to cry If you won't be my Valentine I'll look at you and sue But if you be my Valentine I'll throw you a big parade And then just maybe I'll have to shout HIP HIP HOORAY!!!!!!!!!! Stephanie Morrow Venus and Cupids Oh Venus and Cupids picture of love shining upon the stars above for thee who had melted the hurts and made them love for better or for worst Oh Venus and Cupids I all summon you to help me make my dreams come true and to make this girl love me too so I wouldn't forever be blue... Sherwin
Daydreaming Your eyes are alive and oh so blue. I see you but I'm unknown to you. Maybe one day you'll see my face. You’ll know it's me, I'm in a daze. If ever you saw me standing there... No never mind why should you care I see your smile inside my head so clear to me and I forget why I'm always feeling blue every time I think of you. These things have all been said before so I'll stop here and say no more. Sara The Way I Feel It has been awhile since we last met, but your smile my heart can never forget. Now I try to find just the right words to say, to tell you how I feel each and everyday. However, my heart cannot seem to explain just how I feel, but I hope you believe me when I say my love is real. I pray that you feel that way I do and hope you will tell me you feel the same way too. When I looked into your eyes it took my breath away, and I hope to God that I will be looking into them until I am old and gray Lucy The first and last From the first time I laid eyes on you to the last kiss on my lips, the first time I felt your soft finger tips, the way you held me tight, made love to me at night, always seemed to me that in my heart that you would see a person as loving as me someone whose heart is true someone just like you... Now I sit here all alone nothing but me and my thoughts of you all through my mind. As if I could turn back the hands of time to the moment when your soft lips touched mine
I’m sorry I didn’t mean to make you cry...
Baby, I do try I love you and I do know why... Gerald Lemire (Binky)
Valentines Day Valentines is very near Balloons, bears, and candy grahams. Red, Black, Pink, and White Are the colors that girls really like. Roses can be red and violets can be blue. What else can they prove to you how much they love you On this Valentines Day!! Ashley More More than the Greatest love the world have ever known This is the love I give to you alone more than the simple words I try to say I only love you more each day Longer than always is a long time but far beyond forever you'll be mine I know I’ve never lived before and my heart is very sure no one else can love you more! Jeanine Valentine oh, you are so fine so want you be mine oh, my sweet valentine your eyes are the color of honey and your braids long like ropes oh, would you be my sweet valentine!
Victoria
be mine
the smile that cleanses my soul the eyes that stop time with a single glance the touch of love from his hands I’ve been waiting for this day this special time all I can do is pray for you to be my Valentine
Christina Occhipinti
Night is falling
Night is falling my heart is calling I feel so lonely I need you only but I’ve got a teddy that I take to bed if you'll be my Valentine I’ll take you instead
Jenni-lea
if I’d wish to be anything
If I could wish to be anything I’d wish to be your tear to be conceived by your heart, born in your eye live on your cheek and die on your lips stephanie mcfarlane
Kisses
Kisses Kisses Kisses, Oh, what should I do? All I want is just one Kiss, From a special person like you.
Brenna Copley
break up on valentines
On Valentines we broke up Your friends said it was wrong But you didn't believe them Until you heard our song Maybe you will love me like I loved you But I won't give you another chance Because I won't know if it's really true
Lana
Hearts and flowers
Hearts and flowers on Valentine’s day. heart shaped candy, help me say: I Love you in a special way, because love is the reason for Valentine’s day. Valentine’s day is a special time for songs to sing and poems that rhyme, a happy time for everyone. I’m so glad you're a friend of mine
newfoundland and labrador rule Kelly Russell
such a short time
When I first saw your face I knew you were mine We have both grown to love each other in such a short time you know I’ve been looking for you all my life for the day when I become your wife you have given me security and love which I’ve only ever dreamed of I know there is a heaven and dreams do come true someone up there loves me because they sent me YOU
amanda perkins
My Valentine
I crave your honesty on this day of love, L ove you whole-heartedly my sweet dove. O ut of the blue you shot from the sky, V ividly, beautifully stunning my eye. E ver adoring you is what I do best, Y our smile, your face and all the rest. O n days like these I truly believe, U and I are meant to be!
Dedicated To Daniel Vigil!
Crystal L. Callaway
love
Love is more time to share. It’s really when you care. It’s two people joined. I was in love with you before you could drop a coin. It’s a sense of trust, but not enough lust It’s a commitment to be there, but would you always be there to share and care?
monique
One Perfect Rose
A single flower he sent me ,since we met all tenderly his messenger he chose; deep-hearted, pure with scented dew still wet one perfect rose. I knew the language of the flower "my fragile leaves ,it said his heart enclose" love long has taken for his locket one perfect rose. Why is it no one ever sent me yet one perfect limousine, do you suppose? Ah, no it’s always just my luck to get one perfect rose
monia jackson
baby brow eyes
Baby brown eyes your eyes so brown, hair so light, you make the sun shine bright, your eyes bring many warm things. I love you baby girl for always when you were born and came in our lives, you are the baby brown eyes that we love day or night, we love you always.
judy shaw
One good try
For so long, I’ve had my eye on this girl She's the most beautiful woman in the world
If that’s what you’re thinking, give it an attempt Don’t be so scared that she would resent
why not give it one good try? just to let her know you’re alive
Schick
sea
If all the women lived over sea what good swimmers, you Emen, would be if all the women lived over sea that would leave you for me
Theres been a plane flying over port coquitlam and coquitlam area for several months now. When it gets dark out the plane does not turn on its navagation red and green lights or its strobe light. Its pitch black out and its 12: 17 am now and its still going in circles.It usually flys in circles for six or seven hours every day or second day. The people at the airports say its government surveilance and they cant talk about it.I phoned two different airports.I think it might be time to move out of populated areas if this is going on in so many cities.It cant be just for grow ops.The plane is a cessna 182 turbo prop.You would think its kind of unsafe flying with no warning lights on. Its an accident waiting to happen.
I hear things.
I hear hums. I hear buzzes. I hear pulsating things.
Whatever they are.
I can almost block it out. If I'm concentrating on something else, it almost goes away. But not quite.
Right now, this minute, at 2:58 p.m. on February 13, 2017, I hear something.
It's a low, monotone, hummy, buzzy - but no, not hummy OR buzzy, though it is on one note all the time, like the tone that would not stop resounding in Robert Schumann's head and eventually drove him insane.
I hear this same monotone very late at night, only louder. And it has a different variation. It's definitely the grindy low noise of an aircraft, which at first I assumed was a helicopter because it got louder and softer, and, just when you thought it was gone, louder again. I honestly did not think a plane could do that. They fly over, don't they? So it must be something else.
But it doesn't have the budda-budda-budda sound of a helicopter. It's a low, grinding engine-buzz. Really, it's like a plane out of the 1940s, or something from the TV series Sky King.Earrrrrrooooooo! But that doesn't describe it either.
When I finally dared to poke around the internet about this subject, I mainly got those end-of-the-world trumpet-blast videos. This isn't that. At all. This has a low, grindy, even doom-y mechanized sound.
My cat hates this. The other night, when he was all moon-eyed and lit up with cat-somnia, he jumped up on the windowsill and looked at me. There was panic in his eyes. "Do something," he seemed to be saying.
Oops, right now, this minute, I hear a plane, and I tell you it is NOTHING LIKE what I hear at night. This plane swoops in tone - in music, it would be a glissando - from high to low. What I hear is always monotone.
It sounds like hell.
It sounds like death.
"It's probably the police looking for drug dealers," my husband said. "Or criminals in general."
"But how would you SEE a drug dealer or a criminal from the air, and in the middle of the night? Why do they circle around and around for seemingly hours?"
"I don't know, but they do." He is a scientist and has an answer for everything, usually the opposite of my terrified, panic-stricken, paranoia-drenched explanation.
Someone. Is. Flying. Over. My. House. Late at night, like 12:30 a.m. And it goes on and on and makes the house vibrate. Ummmmmm. Eeeeeeeeeeemmm. Buzzzzzz. But none of these come close to describing the actual sound.
It sounds like death. It sounds like doom, it really does. It's a much louder version of the CONSTANT noise I hear during the day. The endless, almost fuzzy-edged, monotone boomy thrum in the background.
Woaaahhhhwwww. Woaaahhhwwww. Woaaahhhhwwww.
I can hear it right now, but I cannot begin to describe it. It's sort of a soft-edged, solid sound. It has a shape. It throbs, but only slightly. If I go outside, it's harder to hear because of all the ambient noise.
At night in our neighborhood, noise comes alive. We hear coyotes out there trilling and barking, and barred owls who scream so loud they sound like apes. Raccoons crash around, tipping things over to rummage for goodies. But these are the wild sounds.
This other. These are human sounds, or rather man-made, machine sounds. Someone is IN that plane, UP there, FLYING it! I keep seeing some Russian spy or someone like that.
I can't think of it as being anything friendly. I just can't.
I have lived with this for, - how long? I tune it out. I really try to.
Someone is watching, and it is not comfortable. And it makes a hellish noise.
OK. Now I've got it! It's like THIS sound!:
It seems to go on most of the night. I might even be hearing it now.
This is one of those why-didn't-I-think-of-that-anyway (cuz-I-don't-have-the-innovative-skills-in-the-kitchen-and-moreover-I-don't-know-who-comes-up-with-these-way-cool-videos-anyway-but-there-must-be-teams-of-workers-slaving-in-kitchens-all-over-the-world-to-supply-such-crazy-cool-ideas-for-making-heart-shaped-food) videos. I may even try one of them to spring on my man. I'm giving you one day's notice.
