Decided to record some of the lovely spring that is taking place in the northeastern US (mostly in Prospect Park and Park Slope).
Showing posts with label Whimsy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Whimsy. Show all posts
Sunday, March 29, 2020
Wednesday, December 26, 2012
Inspired by Beatrix Potter
The Morgan Library in New York is currently showing some fabulous letters and art by one of my greatest heros, Beatrix Potter. Potter was especially fond of rabbits, and two of her pets, Peter and Benjamin are the inspiration for her most famous story, "The Tale of Peter Rabbit".
As a testament to the power of artificial selection, rabbits like the Flemish giant can weigh up to 20kg (about 50 pounds).
Beach mice are subspecies of oldfield mouse (Peromyscus polionotus) that have evolved pale fur to match the pale sand they live on. Hopi Hoekstra and her lab have worked out exactly which mutations in which genes are responsible for this adaptive colouration.
As a Victorian, Potter wouldn't have seen these North American mice in the genus Peromyscus, but I think she would have liked them, with their enormous eyes and relatively infantile proportions.
As a testament to the power of artificial selection, rabbits like the Flemish giant can weigh up to 20kg (about 50 pounds).
 |
| Flemish Giant Rabbit |
Beach mice are subspecies of oldfield mouse (Peromyscus polionotus) that have evolved pale fur to match the pale sand they live on. Hopi Hoekstra and her lab have worked out exactly which mutations in which genes are responsible for this adaptive colouration.
 |
| Choctawhatchee beach mouse (Peromyscus polionotus allophrys) |
Monday, December 17, 2012
Animal Acknowledgements
To all who helped, directly and indirectly in producing Dr. Tong, THANK YOU!
A subset of people are depicted below, sans surnames:
A subset of people are depicted below, sans surnames:
Tuesday, July 24, 2012
A very clever namesake
Cauchy, below, has the same name as an eminent French mathematician, and several concepts and theorems, particularly in infinitesimal calculus and complex analysis.
This particular Cauchy is still learning some rather basic concepts, but he is adept at attacking his beloved bull, Bevo.
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| Cauchy and Bevo the bull |
Monday, February 27, 2012
Thursday, December 3, 2009
A reader's writer
The Thursday Next series by Jasper Fforde is not something I was expecting to like, seeing that it combines three genres I seldom have much interest in: detective mystery, science fiction and fantasy. However, Fforde writes with rare wit, and ingeniously uses some of the richest books and characters that fiction has to offer. If you are addicted to good literature, and like, or have strong opinions about some of the following books/people, you should try the Thursday Next series.
Jane Eyre
Wuthering Heights
Sense and Sensibility
Pride and Prejudice
Northanger Abbey
Watership Down
Miss Havisham (and Great Expectations in general)
Little Dorrit
The Red Queen (and both Alice Books)
Falstaff
Beatrice and Benedict from Much Ado
The Scottish play
Hamlet
To Kill a Mockingbird
Brideshead Revisited
The Just So Stories
The Wind in the Willows
The Minotaur
Winnie-The-Pooh
Mrs Tiggy-winkle
Out of Africa
Waiting for Godot
Gilbert and Sullivan
Sherlock Holmes
Vanity Fair
P.G Wodehouse (especially the Blandings series)
In addition to having an endearing command of the best books in English, Fforde has a very winning style of his own, with good, funny prose, ingenious plots and delightful characters. The series apparently began with a couple of naming ideas. "Thursday Next", the protagonist, is a resourceful female detective with the ability to jump into fiction and a pet dodo named Pickwick (who says "plock"). Other funny puns that litter the series include those of Thursday's husband, Landen Park-Laine, his mother (Houson) and father (Billden).
These stories are set in an alternative world just similar enough to ours for Fforde to satirise all sorts of unsavoury things from slimy politicians to reality TV. That is the world Thursday helps to police as a literary detective. At the same time, Thursday has a second policing job within fiction itself, as part of "Jurisfiction", established to keep books true to the spirit their authors intended, despite the best efforts of rouge characters and the declining attention spans of readers.
Just to give you an idea of some of the things Fforde makes fun of, the Goliath corporation, used to parody multinationals, is the main source of evil in these books. Unscrupulously evil in the first few books, Goliath turns into a "faith-based corporation", and Fforde's ridicule of organised religion beats his scorn for material monopolies. In its earlier and more evil days, Goliath was keen on engineering extinct organisms, resulting in Neanderthals that want equal rights and are still being relegated to reserves called "Nations". In book five, Goliath invents an Austen Rover, and and a misguided Jurisfiction attempts to increase falling readership rates by making a reality book out of Pride and Prejudice (much to the collective consternation of the Bennet family).
In Thursday's world, lives are always in danger. Fictional characters can be reduced to text if they aren't careful, and real people (like Thursday's father) can be eradicated by the "Chronoguard" even before they were conceived, simply by fiddling about with time. There is a strong element of Wallace and Gromit ingenuity in this science fiction aspect of the series. Speaking of W & G, cheese smuggling is the substitute for drug smuggling, with some really ripe, volatile and deadly specimens involved.
Some of the main problems Thursday encounters involve difficult characters, like Heathcliff, a self-centred prima dona who invariably wins "The most Troubled Male Romantic Lead of the Year" in the fiction world's equivalent of the Oscars, and has to be protected from fanatical pro-Caths. Hamlet, who is upset by not wining the same prize, is allowed a rest outside the fiction world, and finds himself alpha Dodo material (although he can't even make up his mind enough to order a coffee at Goliath's equivalent of Starbucks). The fiction escapee from a privately published sappy romance, Yorrick Kaine is a classically slippery politician, who excels on the talk show "Evade the Question Time" for "an excellent non-specific condemnation, ...blaming the previous government and... successfully mutating the question to promote the party line."
Not all the fictional characters are bad though. Thursday's Jursfiction mentor, who teaches her how to police books, is a formidable Miss Havisham, who enjoys racing Toad of Toad Hall when she isn't protecting "Great Expectations" and fiction in general. Mrs John Dashwood from "Sense and Sensibility" is troubled by the thought that people in the "outerworld" don't think much of her, and allows all Jurisfiction meetings to take place at Norland. The Cheshire Cat is an impeccable and endearing librarian in charge of all the books and editions written and embryonic in English fiction.
The first book, "The Eyre Affair" takes a while to lay everything out, but once you become familiar with Thursday's world it is hard to put any of the books down. Bon appetite.
Jane Eyre
Wuthering Heights
Sense and Sensibility
Pride and Prejudice
Northanger Abbey
Watership Down
Miss Havisham (and Great Expectations in general)
Little Dorrit
The Red Queen (and both Alice Books)
Falstaff
Beatrice and Benedict from Much Ado
The Scottish play
Hamlet
To Kill a Mockingbird
Brideshead Revisited
The Just So Stories
The Wind in the Willows
The Minotaur
Winnie-The-Pooh
Mrs Tiggy-winkle
Out of Africa
Waiting for Godot
Gilbert and Sullivan
Sherlock Holmes
Vanity Fair
P.G Wodehouse (especially the Blandings series)
In addition to having an endearing command of the best books in English, Fforde has a very winning style of his own, with good, funny prose, ingenious plots and delightful characters. The series apparently began with a couple of naming ideas. "Thursday Next", the protagonist, is a resourceful female detective with the ability to jump into fiction and a pet dodo named Pickwick (who says "plock"). Other funny puns that litter the series include those of Thursday's husband, Landen Park-Laine, his mother (Houson) and father (Billden).
These stories are set in an alternative world just similar enough to ours for Fforde to satirise all sorts of unsavoury things from slimy politicians to reality TV. That is the world Thursday helps to police as a literary detective. At the same time, Thursday has a second policing job within fiction itself, as part of "Jurisfiction", established to keep books true to the spirit their authors intended, despite the best efforts of rouge characters and the declining attention spans of readers.
Just to give you an idea of some of the things Fforde makes fun of, the Goliath corporation, used to parody multinationals, is the main source of evil in these books. Unscrupulously evil in the first few books, Goliath turns into a "faith-based corporation", and Fforde's ridicule of organised religion beats his scorn for material monopolies. In its earlier and more evil days, Goliath was keen on engineering extinct organisms, resulting in Neanderthals that want equal rights and are still being relegated to reserves called "Nations". In book five, Goliath invents an Austen Rover, and and a misguided Jurisfiction attempts to increase falling readership rates by making a reality book out of Pride and Prejudice (much to the collective consternation of the Bennet family).
In Thursday's world, lives are always in danger. Fictional characters can be reduced to text if they aren't careful, and real people (like Thursday's father) can be eradicated by the "Chronoguard" even before they were conceived, simply by fiddling about with time. There is a strong element of Wallace and Gromit ingenuity in this science fiction aspect of the series. Speaking of W & G, cheese smuggling is the substitute for drug smuggling, with some really ripe, volatile and deadly specimens involved.
Some of the main problems Thursday encounters involve difficult characters, like Heathcliff, a self-centred prima dona who invariably wins "The most Troubled Male Romantic Lead of the Year" in the fiction world's equivalent of the Oscars, and has to be protected from fanatical pro-Caths. Hamlet, who is upset by not wining the same prize, is allowed a rest outside the fiction world, and finds himself alpha Dodo material (although he can't even make up his mind enough to order a coffee at Goliath's equivalent of Starbucks). The fiction escapee from a privately published sappy romance, Yorrick Kaine is a classically slippery politician, who excels on the talk show "Evade the Question Time" for "an excellent non-specific condemnation, ...blaming the previous government and... successfully mutating the question to promote the party line."
Not all the fictional characters are bad though. Thursday's Jursfiction mentor, who teaches her how to police books, is a formidable Miss Havisham, who enjoys racing Toad of Toad Hall when she isn't protecting "Great Expectations" and fiction in general. Mrs John Dashwood from "Sense and Sensibility" is troubled by the thought that people in the "outerworld" don't think much of her, and allows all Jurisfiction meetings to take place at Norland. The Cheshire Cat is an impeccable and endearing librarian in charge of all the books and editions written and embryonic in English fiction.
The first book, "The Eyre Affair" takes a while to lay everything out, but once you become familiar with Thursday's world it is hard to put any of the books down. Bon appetite.
Sunday, October 18, 2009
Where ARE the Wild Things?
Where the Wild Things Are, the classic picture book by Maurice Sendak is now a full-length film, complete with a Max (Records) playing the rambunctious little boy Max, and glorious, enormous, costumed wild things.
If you haven't read this book, please do. It is a masterful example of how profound themes and strong emotions can be conveyed in a few pages of enthralling art and a very few poetic phrases. Seldom has so little conveyed so much, so beautifully.
As Sendak is one of the producers of this film, and the New York Times gave it a glowing review, we went to watch it with keen anticipation.
http://wherethewildthingsare.warnerbros.com/
The costumes are indeed impressive. They are furry, massive, 3D reproductions of Sendak's wild things, complete with claws, toes or horns in all the right places. They waddle endearingly, and withstand being bounced down sand dunes or whacked with massive dirt clods. Each wild thing has a distinct personality, and an evocative voice from actors like Forest Whitaker.
Some of the cinematography is beautiful, and the trailer will lead you to think that the entire film is filled with similarly stunning shots of mildly melancholy scenery. Although mildly overdone, the soundtrack is quite pretty and haunting.
To our dismay, however, the film takes a long time to get to the wild things. It opens with promising scenes of Max, dressed in his wolf costume, creating a ruckus at home by chasing the family dog. But that was followed by a bewildering and unnecessarily long series of scenes depicting Max's plight in suburban America-- presumably in a misguided attempt to make the story more accessible to American audiences? We were forced to share his dislike of his pill of an adolescent sister, a struggling single mother, and, to add insult upon injury, his mother's attempt to have a peaceful family dinner with one of her suitors. A simple book scene in which Max is called a "wild thing" by his mother and sent upstairs sans supper, is transformed into a shouting match in which poor Mum tells Max he is "out of control", followed by a frantic chase through suburbia before Max finally sets sail for the wild things. Unlike the book, a forest doesn't grow magically in Max's room, instead, it materialises in the middle of his suburban neighbourhood. This struck us as an unnecessary and unfortunate departure from a magical scene brimming with movie promise.
When the movie Max eventually reaches the wild things, and becomes their king, the film improves, but is too full of complicated interpersonal relationships to evoke the gay abandon of letting the "wild rumpus start". Max is very melancholy, and so are most of the wild things. This isn't a film for young children.
The film left us both feeling as though we'd eaten something deeply unpleasant, so we had to repair to the bookshop for a good dose of children's books (starting with
Where the Wild Things Are) to remove the ghastly taste of a disappointing evening at the cinema. There's nothing returning to where the wild things really are.
Saturday, October 17, 2009
In which we discover different Pooh audiobooks
To my delight and surprise, an awful lot of talent has decided to render the classic tales of Winnie-the-Pooh by A.A. Milne (NOT Disney!) audible. I couldn't quite find all the audiobooks, but here is a list, in rough order of preference, with brief comments on those I managed to listen to. There are links to the ones with audio samples online.
The best:
Jim Broadbent, produced by HarperChildrensAudio, 2003
Broadbent has an especially lovely, plumy Pooh voice, and his narrator's voice is just what one would expect for bedtime stories. All the other animals have enjoyably suitable voices without being distractingly different. That said, owl is perfectly pompous, rabbit always sounds bossy, and piglet's voice has just the right combination of insecurity and high-pitched eagerness. This is also the only audiobook that doesn't attempt a silly soundtrack, and where Poohs hums aren't drowned in music.
Bernard Cribbins, Published by the BBC, Cover to Cover Cassettes Ltd
Cribbins is almost as good as Broadbent, but his voice a little too high to sound as cosy. Excellent
character voices.
Random House
Read by Stephen Fry, Judi Dench, Michael Williams and Various
http://www.randomhouse.com/audio/catalog/display.pperl?isbn=9780307706126
http://www.randomhouse.com/audio/catalog/display.pperl?isbn=9780307706140
The best thing in this version is Geoffrey Palmer, who is perfectly, gloomily Eeyorish, dripping with sarcasm and self-pity. Judi Dench's cosy voice enunciating "stoutness exercises" is charming, but as all the readers take turns narrating every few sentences, in addition to each having their own characters, this audiobook can get quite distracting. Stephen Fry has a very enjoyable reading-aloud voice, but he sounds more like Fry than Pooh. Tigger, Piglet and Roo have ghastly voices. Bad enough to make one avoid all the stories they appear in. This audiobook is also riddled with silly, tinkly music, sound effects and full-blown musical accompaniments and introductions to everything Pooh composes.
Peter Dennis, Pooh Audio Books & Radio Production
http://www.poohcorner.com/Recordings/vmchk.html
This is apparently the version that the Pooh Properties Trustees approved, which worries me, as they also approved a sequel to the two A.A. Milne books. Dennis has a good, ringing narrator's voice, but his Eeyore is irritatingly feeble and querulous, Rabbit far too grating, and piglet punctuates every sentence with distracting grunts.
This isn't the worst, I just wish I could get my hands on it:
Alan Bennett, BBC Radio Collection 1998
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Winnie-Pooh-BBC-Radio-Collection/dp/0563536772
The best:
Jim Broadbent, produced by HarperChildrensAudio, 2003
Broadbent has an especially lovely, plumy Pooh voice, and his narrator's voice is just what one would expect for bedtime stories. All the other animals have enjoyably suitable voices without being distractingly different. That said, owl is perfectly pompous, rabbit always sounds bossy, and piglet's voice has just the right combination of insecurity and high-pitched eagerness. This is also the only audiobook that doesn't attempt a silly soundtrack, and where Poohs hums aren't drowned in music.
Bernard Cribbins, Published by the BBC, Cover to Cover Cassettes Ltd
Cribbins is almost as good as Broadbent, but his voice a little too high to sound as cosy. Excellent
character voices.
Random House
Read by Stephen Fry, Judi Dench, Michael Williams and Various
http://www.randomhouse.com/audio/catalog/display.pperl?isbn=9780307706126
http://www.randomhouse.com/audio/catalog/display.pperl?isbn=9780307706140
The best thing in this version is Geoffrey Palmer, who is perfectly, gloomily Eeyorish, dripping with sarcasm and self-pity. Judi Dench's cosy voice enunciating "stoutness exercises" is charming, but as all the readers take turns narrating every few sentences, in addition to each having their own characters, this audiobook can get quite distracting. Stephen Fry has a very enjoyable reading-aloud voice, but he sounds more like Fry than Pooh. Tigger, Piglet and Roo have ghastly voices. Bad enough to make one avoid all the stories they appear in. This audiobook is also riddled with silly, tinkly music, sound effects and full-blown musical accompaniments and introductions to everything Pooh composes.
Peter Dennis, Pooh Audio Books & Radio Production
http://www.poohcorner.com/Recordings/vmchk.html
This is apparently the version that the Pooh Properties Trustees approved, which worries me, as they also approved a sequel to the two A.A. Milne books. Dennis has a good, ringing narrator's voice, but his Eeyore is irritatingly feeble and querulous, Rabbit far too grating, and piglet punctuates every sentence with distracting grunts.
This isn't the worst, I just wish I could get my hands on it:
Alan Bennett, BBC Radio Collection 1998
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Winnie-Pooh-BBC-Radio-Collection/dp/0563536772
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
Imelda
Imelda is a poodle. Here she is, admiring her beautiful long legs.
Imelda gets rather self-conscious sometimes. Here she is feeling contrite, because she is so vain.
But in spite of herself, Imelda is terribly glad when she has a chance to pose for portraits. That's why she's licking my fingers in gratitude.
Imelda gets rather self-conscious sometimes. Here she is feeling contrite, because she is so vain.
But in spite of herself, Imelda is terribly glad when she has a chance to pose for portraits. That's why she's licking my fingers in gratitude.
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
How Droofus the Dragon Lost His Head
Wish I'd thought up a title as whimsical as this one, but it's actually a lovely children's book that my friend and I discovered in one of our favourite neighbourhood restaurants. Who wouldn't be charmed by the notion of a vegetarian dragon?
Bill Peet's animals are endearingly expressive, and judging from Droofus, his stories are charming. I was surprised to discover that Peet also illustrated many Disney films, such as 101 Dalmatians, because his books are miles better, and not in the least twee.
I can't wait to read about "Chester the Worldly Pig",
or the whimsical Whingdingdilly,
and Scamp, a dog inspired by Peet's own dog.
Here are sketches for a story about an abandoned ostrich chick.
Every chick radiates personality.
http://www.billpeet.net/PAGES/billpeet%27sbooks.htm | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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