Desert Dust

My needle threader broke before I could add more flowers

There's more to the story of this embroidery project, but for now I will only confess to trying to replicate the 70 year old photograph by Verne Wood of a wild horse in Wyoming. For a model I actually used a oil painting someone did of the photograph so this embroidery project is even further removed from the original. I also moved the horse, a Palomino Stallion named Desert Dust, about 1200 miles south and made him a Mare. Desert Dust was indeed captured during the wild horse round up, a' la the 1961 Henry Miller/John Huston movie The Misfits which killed Clark Gable and also Marilyn Monroe. This photo was of the horse's last few moments of freedom. It became a rodeo horse and tried to stomp to death anyone who rode it. But it was never free again. Desert Dust was reportedly murdered in captivity in 1952 but reckless and unsustainable wild horse entrapment and slaughter came to be regulated. There's actually more to the story than that but to delve deeper would be like turning Desert Dust into dog food.

The horse came out a little fat and the color shades were beyond the limitation of a corner store selection of yarn. And those flowers aren't native to Wyoming. I was adding more flowers when the needle threader broke. Alas, it wasn't the only thing that broke.

Screenshot Trivia #7

Vintage 1986 cinematography; shoot everything at night so no one can tell it's a soundstage

This was a pivotal film in my cinematic development. The key to these lower budget flicks is to make an attempt to rise above the puerile material and get goofy when the timing requires it. It's a revolving door of sequences involving, goofy acting, sex, generic stunts, heroic character arcs. Simple, but don't forget to be unmistakably goofy.

Any Guesses?

Hint: This is one of the few movies to have a character named Oggie, pronounced exactly how my blog name is pronounced. Very portentous. Also, this movie was about as low class/budget ($2.7 million) as would be made in 1986 and it's simply far superior to a $200 million dollar Fast and Furious flick which is technically superior but lacks greatly in the mystique department.

I Don't Know Why

This song is actually a codependent's anthem, so it's perfect for me. "You treat me like dirt, but I love you anyway."

I Don't Know Why (I Just Do) is in the Nat King Cole songbook. The song is from 1931 so it's from Prohibition era. Fred Ahlert also collaborated on another broken hearted anthem:  I'm Gonna Sit Right Down and Write Myself a Letter. Lyrics were written by Roy Turk. Couple of real professionals from the Cole Porter/Hoagy Carmichael school of songwriting, be generous with the vowels and keep the melody as simple and stepwise right up until it has to jump or else you'll go crazy. That's probably the trademark of all these great songs: very simple stepwise melody, repetitive and basic that has a phrase that ends with a large intervallic leap to the perfectly chosen note and chord, melancholy, wistful, unmistakable, fundamental.
Ahlert and Turk wrote Mean to Me, which the Tenor Sax player Lester Young and my pianist Buddy Nat King Cole and drummer Buddy Rich all slayed. That's a dream trio...no bassist, but a ton of soul. I was reading some asshole saying Jazz makes no sense to him and is dead based on the fact late career Coltrane sounds like crap. Well, I don't really care what modern jazz players are composing when you have the Lester Young Trio to enjoy. Listen, no musicians ever will be as talented as Lester Young, Nat King Cole, and Buddy Rich. So you are insane to expect anything better. Do you look at every single new house and think, "Frank Lloyd Wright would've done a better job designing that house."? No, because that's crazy. But criticizing a genre that has definitely entered another era of creativity is numb. You might not love the Lester Young Trio like I do but you can't call it boring or overrated or washed up. There's a song in there and you have to recognize the melody and what the musician does with the melody. Your homework is to listen to a Sinatra version of Mean to Me, and then listen to the instrumental version. Nat King Cole could sing the shit out of this song but he'd be challenged to sing what he plays on the piano, so that's why he played it on the piano. Savvy?

I know I got a request to monkey around and give an actual performance, but you can't get blood from a stone.

Thunderbird

I now notice the upper right wing tip is not filled in.

 Again, this is all procrastination because I think a hand embroidered Thunderbird on a shirt will not withstand machine washing. I'll probably hand wash it for a while but eventually it will go in a machine and be destroyed. The only way to do this is to pay a computerized machine embroidery shop to do it as the stitches will be solid and washable. Speaking of washable, I recommend using some fabric glue on the back side to reinforce the stitch. Fabric glue is washable. Glue a patch on the back loop side and that's all one can do to protect it.

I should frame this shirt and not wear it. But I don't really care. It's practice for an epic punch pin project that will be framed.

As I applied the final stitch the whole building shook like a bomb had gone off. 5.1 isn't very damaging but I did have about 8 seconds of wondering if I should jump out the window.

News or Spies?

"Shia militias are assembling east of the Iraqi city of Ramadi to prepare for a counter-attack against Islamic State militants who captured it on Sunday."

I've already had my say about this city of Ramadi being the one that was attacked by U.S. forces including sniper Chris Kyle, who killed all the opposition that the city now needs to defend itself. It's likely I'm missing some details to simplify the narrative; maybe the forces were building roads...while evacuating hospitals...and they needed sniper coverage because the locals were shooting at them. I don't know the whole story because I wasn't there and I can't trust most of what I read, except for the material I conveniently choose to criticize. For all I know the snipers that Kyle killed were destined to become ISIS militants. This is the tradition of self-delusion. Still, the facts remain that the city that was cleansed of militants per order of Bush Jr. is now in desperate need of militants. Make your own conclusions about that.

This comment is more about how BBC's war coverage may be interesting to read and, exciting to imagine, but aren't they actually undermining security efforts by not only writing that Shia militias are assembling near Ramadi, but they are assembling east of the city? Why don't you give their exact coordinates so any IS fighters with machetes know where to find them on Google maps? Photos of key landmarks would be helpful too. I guess if BBC knows where the Shia militias are then IS will also know, but they published a front page story about it to make sure.

This must be covered in the journalistic ethics classes that are probably brief and sparsely attended. Journalists report the news. Pundits spin the news. When pundits are mistaken for journalists then all hope is lost. So, when two militant groups maneuver and BBC can learn the exact details of the maneuvers then they will report that so anyone in the opposing group will immediately know the maneuvers of the other.  And they wonder why there is some military secrecy and silencing of Press in war-time. It's baffling. Or maybe BBC doesn't care because they don't have a dog in the fight. That's possible. What other time in history had military intelligence relayed via BBC online news to anyone with a smartphone?

Would you ever read this headline: "Enola Gay en route to drop atomic bomb on Hiroshima. Due to arrive at 8am, is traveling from south-south-west with 4-5 support crafts at altitudes around 35,000ft. Will be first of several planned Allied aerial attacks dropping atomic payloads on populated areas of Japan. In other news, the Red Sox split a double-header vs Cleveland."

Something like that might get the attention of the air force. Heck, they might even take it seriously. More observations of an old man.