Here’s one more Brit (in California, as it happens) wishing our Americans friends all the best this Fourth of July — and a picture of the statue of Ronald Reagan that was unveiled in London today:
Charles Cameron
Going out of fashion, fast…
[ cross-posted from Zenpundit — humor, analytic indicators, fashion, dictators ]
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It seems likely from the first of these two images [Ben Ali, Saleh, Qaddafi, Mubarak, April] that manner of dress may be a valuable early indicator of how long a given dictator can hold onto power in the Middle East —
— but where does that leave the lovely Asma al-Assad [in Vogue this February] today?
Answer:
Old Mastery
Wise words from two old masters…
With Greco: two views of Toledo
[ cross-posted from Zenpundit — perception, painting, pre-modern, modern, post-modern, heaven, sky, simulation, John Donne, El Greco ]
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It is Sunday.
I find it powerfully interesting that the sky as perceived by painters (our “seers” par excellence) used to be filled with supernatural beings and is currently filled with natural ones — a clear sign that our culture has effectively moved from what one might call a theological vision of the world to a meteorological one (with astronomical trimmings under a clear sky)…
And I see that transition captured very precisely in four words, when John Donne writes:
At the round earths imagin’d corners, blow
Your trumpets, Angells, and arise, arise
From death, you numberlesse infinities
Of soules, and to your scattred bodies goe…
The “round earth” is that of modern science, the “imagin’d corners” those of pre-modern maps and angelology.
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I have to admit, therefore, that I was surprised yesterday evening to come across an El Greco painting of Toledo that featured the blessed Virgin Mary over the city.
I have long been familiar with his better known View of Toledo, which is entirely naturalistic unless you want to consider storm-clouds as portents of a divine presence —
but the second of these images, from the View and Plan of Toledo, came as quite a surprise…
Trucking: AQAP and the Zetas
[ corss-posted from Zenpundit — the talk & the walk, vehicles as weapons, Islamist and “narco” terror ]
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Compare and contrast:
Hell, a Colombian cartel was fielding narco-subs a while back, as I recall..