Sooo if anyone still goes to this site, I think I am shifting over to a tumblr (gasp!) ... you can find me at http://recreationalanthropology.tumblr.com/

This is both in an effort to be hip and with it and also in an attempt to get blogging again without the pressure of 1000-word entries.  But.  Realistically.  I will probably be approximately as absent there as I have been here.

Still, worth a shot.

Also, I might be getting a secret Twitter.  Except someone stole my @name thing?  And I don't know how it works?

Okay.  CLOSING THIS CURTAIN but directing you to a new stage.

AAAAAAAAAAAAH

Jorinapeka

I am probably never going out again.

(Plus, it's the leekspin song!)

The Old Razzle Dazzle

Wooo I have really been enjoying this whole "no blogging" thing...although in my defense, February was pretty much a dead zone for me...

Anyway, speaking of defense, here's some dazzle camouflage.

And now I'm going back undercover.

Icicle Farm

 Kind of cool, kind of creepy...just don't walk beneath it.

...And I'm Back.

So! Hope everyone's new years have been progressing nicely...mine has been full of snow...but I've taken a good little January hiatus, and will be resuming here with the occasional post, starting with this quote:

“All truth is one. In this light may science and religion labor here together for the steady evolution of mankind from darkness to light; from prejudice to tolerance; from narrowness to broadmindedness.”
Cuthbert W. Pound

Fin.

Well...ta-da!

365 days (more or less) of blogging.  It was strange, it was scary, it was wonderful...hopefully you found something to interest you.

Anyway, I kind of lost track of what I was doing this whole blog thing for, and increasingly there have been times when it has been more of a chore than a pleasure, but when I told certain individuals over Christmas that I was shutting down RecAnth, those individuals got a little distraught, so I've agreed to post every so often, maybe once a week, or once a month, or whenever I come across an intriguing fact, or just when I'm feeling inspired.

And in the meantime I am going to come up with some arguably more worthwhile resolutions this time around, although I'm not going to say what they are (at the risk of my abandoning them next week).

So yes, feel free to check back whenever you like, or not, and have a very happy 2011!

Obscure 80s Weekly

It's only fitting...this should do to carry you over into the new year.

Thursday: Thompson Twins - Doctor Doctor

Friday: Kim Wilde - Kids in America

Saturday: Talking Heads - This Must Be the Place (Naive Melody)

Sunday: Violent Femmes - Blister in the Sun

Monday: Men at Work - It's a Mistake

Tuesday: Blue Oyster Cult - Don't Fear the Reaper

Wednesday: Midge Ure - If I Was

Girly Music Science

...Okay possibly not the best title, but check out this article published not too long ago; it's called, "'Posh music should equal posh dress': an investigation into the concert dress and physical appearance of female soloists" and it is about how a number of women put on different outfits and played music and what people thought about it.

And if you don't have access to the original, here's a short review.

Idiom Du Jour

Today we have, "to pull the wool over one's eyes" - what does it mean and where does it come from?

Well the meaning implies fooling, tricking, or hoodwinking...

The origin, as always, is rather more complex, as the assumption is that the wool being referred to is a woolen wig, fashionable for men and women in the 16th and 17th centuries, but less popular in 1839, the year the phrase is first found on paper.

Silks

Washed: aka watered silk or moire, fabric with a wavy appearance caused either by the warp and weft of the weave or by a treating process known as calendaring.

Chiffon: lightweight, sheer, somewhat puckered, stretchy and rough.

Taffeta: a smooth, stiff, crisp woven fabric known for its sheen and its drape.

Noil: aka raw silk, this is the leftover short fibers from after the spinning process.

Toile: painted or patterned cloth.

Crepe de chine: fabric with either an all-silk warp and weft or else with a silk warp and hard-spun worsted weft; yeah I don't know either.

Habutai: light and sheer with a plain weave, like taffeta but more Asian.

Twill: supple drape with a medium or heavy weight and a muted luster.

Organza: thin, sheer, plainly woven, with no sheen; very similar to taffeta.

Dupioni: shimmering, iridescent, woven from coarse silk fibers and often quite stiff, with a good drape and an ability to resist wrinkles but also hold a crease.

Charmeuse: lightweight and satiny, with a reflective front and a dull back due to the uneven weaving method.

Jacquard: intricately woven and variegated, usually quite geometric or with regular organic motifs.

Brocade: heavy, woven on a shuttle-loom, patterned and colored.

Boo.

[Insert Photo of Knitting Here.]

Christmas

Yesterday's midnight mass featured a stanza from a poem by John Donne...here's the thing in its entirety: 

Wilt thou love God, as he thee? Then digest,
My soul, this wholesome meditation, 
How God the Spirit, by angels waited on 
In heaven, doth make his Temple in thy breast. 
The Father having begot a Son most blest, 
And still begetting, (for he ne'er be gone) 
Hath deigned to choose thee by adoption, 
Co-heir t' his glory, and Sabbath' endless rest. 
And as a robbed man, which by search doth find 
His stol'n stuff sold, must lose or buy 't again:
The Son of glory came down, and was slain,
Us whom he'd made, and Satan stol'n, to unbind.
'Twas much that man was made like God before,
But, that God should be made like man, much more.

Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve Eve

The Goose is Getting Fat

Aaaah..!

For some reason, I thought that coming home for Christmas would mean lots of relaxing...but it turns out that, while I am certainly enjoying myself, I am not finding nearly the time to complete my ever-growing to-do list that I thought I would.

There are, for instance, movie nights and hockey games, baking sessions and ravioli-making extravaganzas, trips to the thrift store and to the eye doctor (okay, to Dad's office)...I wanted to go to an art museum, the flower show, and the theater, we have family coming into town and friends staying at the house, and a number of events to attend or to host...I've got a stack of novels to read and a Christmas gift or two yet to knit and I am simply running out of time!

Several Speaking Portraits

Portrait of an Old Man
Filippino Lippi

Portrait of Anne of Cleves
Hans Holbein the Younger

Buffoon with a Lute
Frans Hals

Portrait of a Man in a Turban (self-portrait?)
Jan Van Eyck

Portrait Of A Woman
Robert Campin

...

I watched Gentlemen Broncos at long last...

...

...wow.  Truly amazing.  Life-changing, even. 

I'm not sure what my favorite bit was.  I'm going to have to think about this one long and hard.

Shelley's Heart

After he drowned in July of 1822, Percy Bysshe Shelley was cremated on a beach near the city of Viraggio.  His heart was snatched from the pyre by his friend and fellow Romantic Edward John Trelawney, and was retained by his second wife, Mary Shelley, until her death in 1851.  The heart of Shelley is currently interred with the body of their only surviving child, Sir Percy Florence Shelley.

Another interesting disembodied heart is that of the French Dauphin, son of Marie-Antoinette and King Louis XVI...but that's another story altogether.

Anatomy

Now that I'm on my holiday, it seems to be getting more science-y than ever.  But I have always been interested in human anatomical studies, and so this latest offering by Google is worth a mention, I feel.

Boom.

Unfortunately you will need Google Chrome to play around with it.

Science!

"Conclusion: Our results suggest that feet are impenetrable to the alcohol component of vodka. We therefore conclude that the Danish urban myth of being able to get drunk by submerging feet in alcoholic beverages is just that; a myth. The implications of the study are many though."

...yep, THIS is what science should be like. 

(or this:
)