Cats in Art: The Alchemist (Teniers)

From my continuing weekly Sunday series of cats in art. The bride and I visited the Philadelphia Museum of Art recently, so the next few Sunday Cats in Art posts will be from that museum. We thoroughly enjoyed looking around the galleries for cats.

Photo by Gary.  This is a detail of painting at Philadelphia Museum of Art The Alchemist, David Teniers the Younger, 1649, oil on panel, transferred to canvas, 23" x 33", held by Philadelphia Museum of Art.

 

See the whole image here.  I could not embed that image from the museum web site due to licensing restrictions. 

 

As I searched the web for an image of the whole painting that I could use, I encountered a phenomenon that I've now seen again and again: namely, multiple works by the same painter, often with the same title, held by different museums. 

 

In this case, Teniers seemed smitten with alchemy, making it the focus of at least 3 separate paintings.

 

Given the fact that alchemy is bogus, Teniers would have been better off sticking to something real as his subject: cats.  He did a great job with the kitty in the image above, capturing perfectly the obvious thought of the cat: "What are you staring at?"

 

 

Alcoholic Monkeys...and Ultrarunning

Not minimizing the effects of human alcohol abuse, etc., just think this clip and story from the BBC is pretty funny.




The inevitable result begins around the 1:45 mark. If YouTube video will not play, go here.

Explanation from the site:

In 2009, the BBC television show Weird Nature went to the West Indies island named St. Kitts to film vervet monkeys snatching cocktails from beach-goers and then proceeding to get drunk. According to the clip, the monkeys were brought from West Africa 300 years ago with the rum-making slaves and they acquired a taste for alcohol from eating the rum's leftover fermented sugar cane. The footage was produced and directed by award-winning media company, John Downer Productions.

The link to Ultrarunning is that some of us like to enjoy an adult beverage after a race.  Not a good idea, at least until your hydration comes back into equilibrium and you can process alcohol normally. 

The worst headache I ever got in my entire life came after a hot and steamy 5 mile road race sponsored by a beer distributor.  I had 2-3 beers immediately after the race instead of water or Gatorade.  Later in the day I worked outside, continued to sweat, and suddenly was down hard with blinding, migraine-like head pain that persisted overnight and well into the next day.

 
 

Weeping Redbud Night Shots

[Image credit Gary, click to enlarge]

I love my Eastern Redbuds, as I have posted frequently.  My front yard contains about 7 of these, either transplanted from the wild locally or descendants of such wild trees.  In our backyard, however, we planted a specimen plant from a nursery, a weeping redbud.

These are a couple shots of the weeping redbud with my pocket Nikon Coolpix using a tripod.  I had it on auto-exposure and the exposure time seemed like 3-4 seconds.

I like how the landscape lighting--the uplight--provides sufficient illumination for the shot.  Also how the other path lights show up as well.  In the far right of 2nd shot the waterfall of our water garden is visible (it has its own spot shining on it).

The bride and I handle most of our landscape design and labor, but for this lighting project we engaged a professional: Gardensmiths of Greencastle, PA.

 

Obama Care and Conservatives

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

Hydraulics

One final C+O Canal post (unless I look at my photos again and come up with another idea!).  Below is a view of Dam # 5, looking across to the WV side.  The water was high, but not nearly at flood stage (click photos to enlarge):

Next is a shot I was practically mesmerized by, a 30' tree trunk that was caught in the hydraulic immediately below the dam:

This tree trunk--15' of which was stood up vertically out of the water in this shot--was tumbled incessantly, both end for end and rolled.  It would disappear for 10-15 seconds, then pop back up, still caught in the hydraulic.  There was no escape.  Had this been a crazy kayaker, he/she undoubtedly would have also been trapped and drowned.

I love water, and although I am a decent swimmer, rushing water such as that above scares me.  The weight and the force are irresistible.

 

Will To Live...and Ultrarunning

Here's yet another post about running along the Potomac River--specifically the C&O Canal towpath--from a great run a few weeks back. This one concerns dying before one's time, and the will to live.

Click to enlarge, ESC to return. This is a large limb from a sycamore tree.  You will notice that it still has its leaves.  Since as of this photo (early March) the new 2012 leaves are not yet out, these obviously are 2011 leaves.

My suspicion is that this limb broke off in the Halloween 2011 freak early snowstorm here in the northeast.  Many trees sustained serious damage as a heavy, wet snowfall clung to the leaves and branches, eventually snapping them off with the unaccustomed weight.  Normally, trees have shed their leaves naturally in the fall by the time any snow arrives, thus snow damage is usually avoided.  But not the fall of 2011.

What does this have to do with will to live?  Obviously I am anthropomorphizing here, but I like to think that this branch was not yet ready to die.  It still clings tenaciously to its leaves even though the rest of the leaves on the intact tree fell naturally months ago.

It's a vain hope, but I gotta admire the limb's pluck.

Of course there is a botanical explanation for this leaf-retention phenomenon, having to do with chemicals that normally act to sever leaves from their branches in the autumn, but I like my explanation better.

The link to Ultrarunning is that many of us--though reluctant to admit it--believe that the sport will improve our health and fitness, thereby extending our lives with additional years.

Maybe yes, maybe no.  The longevity issue is twofold: whether there are indeed additional years...but more importantly, whether those years are "quality" years inserted during our prime, or "junk" years just tacked on at the end when we're feeble and old anyway. 

But as above, the notion of additional quality years is a nice theory that I like to believe in. 

   

Runner's High

I forget how and where I got pointed to this article by Alasdair Wilkins, but it's the first time I've ever seen any discussion of exactly WHY the runner's high phenomenon came to exist, in an evolutionary sense.

The runners high is something most athletes experience at one point or another. It's a rush of pleasurable endorphins released by the reward center of the brain. This response is triggered by a part of the brain known as the endocannabinoid system. The runners high allows people to surpass their normal physical limits by suppressing feelings of pain and sometimes causing feelings of happiness and euphoria. This potentially can be dangerous - after all, it allows a person to overexert beyond their actual capabilities - but it's not hard to see the benefits of such short-term super-performance.

Exactly where the runners high comes from is uncertain - one less than charitable theory suggests it's actually the brain's information processing centers becoming overtaxed and going haywire - but the consensus is that it is linked to the survival of our ancient hominid ancestors. The runners high, with its ability to suppress the pain of overexertion, is one of a few key adaptations - that allowed early humans to run for tremendous distances without needing to stop.

The runner's high experience is one I have experienced ever since I began running ultra distances.  The best explanation or description I ever heard was something like "I felt like I could run forever."  For me it's a mild euphoria that comes and goes after an hour or so of running.  It's not something I seek out--like I run just to experience runner's high--rather, I run and I experience runner's high.

Exactly where the runners high comes from is uncertain - one less than charitable theory suggests it's actually the brain's information processing centers becoming overtaxed and going haywire - but the consensus is that it is linked to the survival of our ancient hominid ancestors. The runners high, with its ability to suppress the pain of overexertion, is one of a few key adaptations - that allowed early humans to run for tremendous distances without needing to stop.

This is known as the endurance running hypothesis, and the adaptations needed to make such strenuous activity possible can potentially explain such diverse human traits as large gluteal muscles, hairlessness, short toes, and even our bodies' inability to deal with obesity and sedentary lifestyles without health complications. Such running might well have been our first real evolutionary advantage that allowed us to hunt bigger, more powerful animals. Before the development of stone tools, hominids could have used persistence hunting, in which they would chase their prey for miles until the animal collapsed due to exhaustion.

The article resonated with because it combines two of my passions: Ultrarunning and evolution.  It's a great read!

 

Cats in Art: Cat Playing With Two Dogs (Potter)

From my continuing weekly Sunday series of cats in art. The bride and I visited the Philadelphia Museum of Art last weekend, so the next few Sunday Cats in Art posts will be from that museum. We thoroughly enjoyed looking around the galleries for cats.

Photo by Gary, of painting at Philadelphia Museum of Art (click to enlarge), Cat Playing With Two Dogs, Paulus Potter, 1652, oil on canvas.
This particular painting--some 360 years old--depicts a rather large feline "playing" with two dogs.  It looks to me as though this kitty could have the dogs for lunch.  They exist at the whim of the cat...which is as it should be.

Actually, the info at the painting suggests that the cat represents the surging Dutch nationalism, while the dogs represent the Spanish, whose power and influence were waning at that time.

I wonder who knocked over the chair?  Must have been the goofy dogs.