Waiting for a timeless celebration, some New Year's pictures with all the charm of the past.

(Source:  http://www.giornalettismo.com/archives/683327/lo-spirito-dei-capodanni-passati-2/)

I am in Aalborg (DK) at the moment, for my MA studies. It's snowing, beautifully and slowly. On the fb page of Aalborg Kommune, I found these wonderful picture of an winter in Aalborg, dated 1940/1950!

(Vesterbro, 1942, photographer: H. Dalby)

(Budolfi Cathedral, 1950, photographer: unknown)

(Strandvejen, 1945, photographer: H. A. Kirkegaard)

("Snerydning i Vadum", 1940, photographer: unknown)

The poet Ezra Pound was born in 1885 and died in 1972. The promoter of modernist aesthetism, after contributing, in his early works, to Imagism. Strongly influenced by classic Japanese poetry, his peotry was short, fast, coincise, a glimpse of what's going on in the poet's mind. 

"The apparition of these faces in the crowd;

Petals on a wet black bough."

"I desired my dust to be mingled with yours

Forever and forever and forever."

"The eyes of this lady speak to me

Fore here was love, was not to be drowned out.

And here desire, not to be kissed away.

The eyes of this lady speak to me."

(Ezra Pound)

 

Surprisingly enough, a man of such vision, such wisdom, so romantic at times, was a declared fascist, spent a period of time in jail and was eventually declared mentally ill.

He said: "Adolf Hitler was a Jeanne D'Arc, a saint. He was a martyr. Like many martyrs, he held extreme views".

I would have declared him mentally ill as well.

Still, magnificent poetry.

Grant DeVolson Wood. An American painter. Born in 1891, died in 1942.

This man has produced a series of extremely different, in my opinion, paintings. His way of painting is very particular, and even more peculiar is the different feelings I personally feel when watching those paintings of his portraing people, or landscapes. 

His landscapes are absolutely marvelous, it's like is actually possible to feel the heat radiating from the sunset's rays, or the chill of the night. 

("Near sundown")

("City Iowa")

("Hoover Wood")

("The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere")

But when it comes to portraits, that's a different story. Perfect, silky, but still, there is something extremely annoying, extremely wrong, in those faces, in their clothes, in their posture. I can't define it, but it's there. And I would never want one of those faces staring at me from a wall. 

("American Gothic")

("Arnold Comes of Age")

After WWII, the world saw the first artistic movement born in the U.S.A., named Abstract Expressionism.

 (Jackson Pollock)

(Jane Frank)

The movement was welcomed as the first real American avant-garde, matured during the Thirties, all artists influenced by the Great Depression, social realism and the Regionalist movement. 

 (Aaron Siskind, photograph)

 

 (F. Depero)

There was a brave lady, 57 years ago, who had the courage to dare doing something unthinkable at the time: refuse to leave her sit on a bus to a white person. Her name was Rosa Louise Parks.

That year, 1955, she was 42 years old and worked as a seamstress. That day, December the 1st, she was on the bus, going back home from work. She was seating on the first sit behind the 10 ones reserved to white people. 

A white man got in, all the sits were occupied, and the bus drive asked Rosa and the other 3 persons, sitting on the sits for black people, to stand up, and let the man sit. Rosa refused. 

She was arrested and accused to have violated the laws of segretation. 

That day, that refusal, initiated a revolution. And on that bus, history reached a turning point. Lady Parks appealed her conviction, openly breaking the laws that made segregation perfectly legal. The bus system, Montgomery, was boycotted. That was the beginning of a non-violent protest supporting civil rights.

"I'd see the bus pass every day. But to me, that was a way of life. We had no choice but to accept what was the custom. 

The bus was among the first ways I realized there was a black world, and a white world."

(Rosa. L. Parks)

 A quick journey in the Fashion of the first half of the XX century....

(1900/1910)

(The Roaring Twenties. War's over, flappers shake the room)

(The Thirties. Classy is back in town)

(The 1940's. Hard times, war striking...) 

(The 1950's. War's behind us, time to Twist)

"The mind loves the unknown. It loves images whose meaning is unknown, since the meaning of the minf itself is unknown."

(René Magritte)

René Magritte (Lessines, 1898 – Brussels, 1967), was one of the most original surrealist painters in Europe. He was called le saboteur tranquille because of the capacity of his images to insinuate doubt on reality, through the portrait of reality itself in his works. Its aim was to approach the mistery behind what we see, without trying to define it. 

 

My goal is never to copy.
Create a new style, clear luminous colors and feel the elegance of the models.

(Tamara de Lempicka)

The one and only Ms. Tamara de Lempicka (Warsaw, 16/05/1898 - Cuernavaca, 18/03/1980) was an ecclectic and original painter who managed to bacome a millionaire thanks to her visionary spirit and uniquely sophisticated way of portraying. A declared bisexual, multilingual speaker, became the most famous interpreter of the 20's and 30's "craziness".

If we ever had the chance (the luck!) to travel back in time and go to one of the fabolous parties of the 20's, which cocktails would we see flowin'?

BEES KNEES

6 parts Gin

1 part honey

1 part Lemon juice

Shake everything with ice and strain.

BLACKBERRY BRAMBLE

Club soda

1 part Blackberry liqueur

1/2 Simple syrup

1 part Lemon juice

1 part Gin

Shake Gin, Lemon juice and Simple syrup. Then top with soda and float the Blackberry liqueur.

GIN FIZZ

3 parts Gin

1 half lemon, juiced

1 part Superfine sugar

Seltzer water

Shake Gin, sugar, lemon juice and ice, until sugar is dissolved. Top with Seltzer water.

I have been taking stock of my 50 years since I left Wichita. How I have existed fills me with horror for I failed in everything.Spelling, arithmetic, writing, swimming, tennis, golf, dancing, singing, acting, wife, mistress, whore, friend, even cooking. And I do not excuse myself with the usual escape of not trying. I tried with all my heart. 

("Looking for Lulu")

Mary Louise Brooks (1906 - 1985) American silent film actress, dancer and model. Plus, she popularized the bobbed haircut.