"It was the late 18th century when the painted eye alone first appeared. It is reported to have begun when the Prince of Wales and Mrs. Fitzherbert wanted to exchange portrait miniatures. However, their romance was a secret as Mrs. Fitzherbert was Catholic widow. One of the court miniaturists came up with the idea of painting just an eye. Only the wearer would know whose eye it really was. The Prince later married Maria Fitzherbert in 1785 but it was declared illegal. Had the marriage continued, the Prince could not have become George IV and taken the crown, with a Catholic wife."
Memento Mori ring, 17th century. Museum of London.
Mourning Brooch containing hair, circa 1830. Ebay.uk
What do you collect?
I don't really collect souls, but I do collect photographs....
Vintage smut (a tame one so I can leave this post public):
Illustrations from old La Vie Parisienne magazines:
I also collect shoes, images and information about silent and early films and their stars, earrings, perfumes, hats, vintage hair combs, 1920's dresses, peacock feathers, skeleton keys, books (have SO many), Bésame lipsticks, Little Apple Dolls....I really could go on with this. I should just stop, shouldn't I?
What do you collect?
I had an interview this evening at Flax Pen to Paper. I guess it's kind of an upscale stationery store. They have the most beautiful greeting cards and wrapping paper. The most beautiful wrapping paper you've ever seen...Erté, paper that looks like an illuminated manuscript, maps of Paris, anatomical charts (several of the people in my "neighborhood" here have probably received gifts wrapped in paper from there)... The proprietor and his wife were sooo nice, and I've chatted with him before (about illuminated manuscripts, ha ha!). But I just get so nervous during interviews; they must think something is wrong with me! I pretty much said the right sort of things, but it just took me longer than normal to get them out, in halting speech. I can give a great interview when I don't care; I just really want this job. I probably wasn't as bad as I'm imagining, though. I wasn't asked any of the standard stupid interview questions; instead the man told me about the curious subculture of pen collectors and things like that ;) It's very well-paying for retail and...I want it. Oh yes.
Interview at Urban Outfitters tomorrow, and at Mann Theaters (latter is incredibly low paying and lousy, but I'd take it anyway. I'll bet there's a lot of employee comraderie because they all are so pissed off). All of these places are like a 5 minute walk from me. Wish me luck, my darlings!
How many languages can you speak? Which languages can you read or understand?
Alas, I am only fluent in English. I've taught myself French from books and Gainsbourg songs (among others) to the extent that I can read in French pretty well, and can speak/write Pidgeon French well enough to be understood. Also, I practiced the French r sound for years while I was at work cleaning toilets or vacuuming, so I can do an excellent r. "Ouvrir la fenetre!" ("Open the window!") is an excellent phrase to practice the r with, I've found.
Other languages...I was taught some conversational Spanish in school that I've almost entirely forgotten, except for colors and animals. I've noticed that I can read Spanish a little bit anyway, probably mostly from the common words that I do understand, and then the similarity of a lot of words to French words that I know.
And I know a tiny bit of conversational Japanese. Whenever I go to the small Japanese area on Sawtelle, I'm surprised at how often the few words I know are uttered. "Wakarimasu ka?" ("do you understand?") and "sumimasen" ("excuse me" or "I'm sorry") are very commonly heard.
When my mind isn't otherwise occupied, sometimes it latches onto a word and attempts to guess at its origins. Today the word was "concurrent", and I was wondering why in this sense "con" seems to mean "with", as it does in modern Romance languages, even though in Latin, "con" means against.
That reminded me of having read that the original meaning of "with" was opposite of its current meaning. http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/with
I just think it's a curious thing that "con" and "with" would seem to have both shifted meaning in the same manner.
Share a photo of something written on the sidewalk or written in concrete.
Profound thought of an unknown UCLA student.
A Spanish art historian has uncovered what was alleged to be the first use of modern art as a deliberate form of torture, with the discovery that mind-bending prison cells were built by anarchist artists 65 years ago during the country's bloody civil war. Bauhaus artists such as Kandinsky, Klee and Itten, as well as the surrealist film-maker Luis Bunuel and his friend Salvador Dali, were said to be the inspiration behind a series of secret cells and torture centres built in Barcelona and elsewhere.
Most were the work of an enthusiastic French anarchist, Alphonse Laurencic, who invented a form of "psychotechnic" torture, according to the research of the historian Jose Milicua. The cells, built in 1938 and reportedly hidden from foreign journalists who visited the makeshift jails on Vallmajor and Saragossa streets, were as inspired by ideas of geometric abstraction and surrealism as they were by avant garde art theories on the psychological properties of colours.
Beds were placed at a 20 degree angle, making them near-impossible to sleep on, and the floors of the 6ft by 3ft cells was scattered with bricks and other geometric blocks to prevent prisoners from walking backwards and forwards, according to the account of Laurencic's trial. The only option left to prisoners was staring at the walls, which were curved and covered with mind-altering patterns of cubes, squares, straight lines and spirals which utilised tricks of colour, perspective and scale to cause mental confusion and distress.
Lighting effects gave the impression that the dizzying patterns on the wall were moving. A stone bench was similarly designed to send a prisoner sliding to the floor when he or she sat down, Mr Milicua said. Some cells were painted with tar so that they would warm up in the sun and produce asphyxiating heat. Mr Milicua has claimed that Laurencic preferred to use the colour green because, according to his theory of the psychological effects of various colours, it produced melancholy and sadness in prisoners.
Culled from: The Guardian
Recent Comments
-
Rachel said:
[c’est top]Your Vox is all full of cool things. I am jealous.xoxo read more
on Memento Mori -
-
Prof. Y said:
I confirm eugene's words ! (I just noticed before, I was about to answer the same) ;)Etymology is such a... read more
on When my mind isn't otherwise...
on lover's eye jewelry