June 14 2023 - That Old Television Set

 

Isn't that so nostalgic?  It looks like a colour image from the 1960s, doesn't it? Everything sort of pinky and blue. Switching to color wasn’t as easy as flipping a switch. Jack Chertok, producer of My Favorite Martian, told Broadcasting magazine in August of 1965 that there would be problems with some of the special effects used in the series: “Many of them depend on wires which we’ve kept hidden from viewers by using black wires against a black background. Now we’ll have to use colors matching the colored backgrounds."   I seem to remember Bonanza was a very colourful show.  And that they colourized the grass and other parts of the scenery to make it vibrant.  Certainly Bonanza was called the "Color television trailblazer".  Such a long-running show, there are lots of facts about it. Alas, I didn't find any colour-painting facts. Colour TV was a vast success.  In January of 1968, TVB found that households with color television sets were watching between 40 and 70 more minutes of television on a daily basis than households with black-and-white sets Here's some peeling paint on a transport truck - it seems surreal it is so colourful.  And isn't it so curious that one can find a landscape scene somewhere in the mess of peeling paint and plastic. Read more daily posts here: marilyncornwellblogspot.com Purchase works here: Fine Art America- marilyncornwell.com Redbubble - marilyncornwellart.ca

Dec 8 2021 - Who is that Mrs. Claus?

 

Yesterday I was worried that Santa is fat.  Should I worry that Mrs. Claus has no first name.  Sh's known as Mrs. Santa Claus. Her job is to make cookies with the elves. That seems a bit redundant given how many cookies Santa eats on Christmas Eve?  It has been calculated at 40 billion calories. Since 1889, Mrs. Claus has been traditionally depicted in media as a  heavy-set, (looks fat in some pictures to me), kindly-appearing, white-haired elderly woman.  Like a "granny doll". How is it that she's "heavy set" while Santa is fat?  She is usually depicted wearing a fur dress of red with white fur trim.  `````````````````` She's usually baking cookies somewhere in the background of the Santa Claus mythos. She sometimes seen in the factory and assists in toy production and oversees Santa's elves. If she is depicted in her youth, the surprise is that is on occasion shown to have had red hair.  The answer to how old is Mrs. Claus is: "There's a long story behind it, but the short answer is that Mrs. Claus is just 1,139 years old." That seems a strange answer, but then someone paid some money to have their email santa.com website at the top of the list.  Santa is slightly older on that website. Here's a hilarious question that pops up on Google:  Does Mrs. Claus have a life of her own?  What department of redundancy department question for someone without a first name.  On the other hand, she does have a birthday.  It is reported to be Christmas Day.  Santa's is reported to be March 15th.   Here they are at the 2019 Fantasy of Trees.   Our first picture today is my reflection in a metal wall piece by Floyd Elzinga, and the second is the abstract version created in Flaming Pear's Flexifly.  It looks like a Christmas image to me - swirly fun.

Purchase at: FAA - marilyncornwellart.com Redbubble - marilyncornwellart.ca

Mar 13 2021 - Olympic Betting

 

No one won the Lottery yesterday, and that got me thinking about the Olympics.  I wonder what the odds are that they can proceed.  I have all kinds of questions and thoughts. Maybe it will be Chile, Israel, and the U.S.  They are the top three on vaccinations.   Wait!  IOC has revealed that China has offered vaccines Tokyo and Beijing Olympic athletes.  There we have it.  The Vaccination lottery.  Bach added: "For each of these doses, the IOC will pay for two doses more which can be made available to the population in the respective countries." Is that a variety of bribe? Maybe it is hush money.  Meanwhile, Sarah Hirshland, United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee chief executive, said Team USA athletes could be vaccinated before their respective trials because of the pace of the rollout in the country. "The broad base of athletes may have access to the vaccine sooner than we thought initially possible," she said. "This is great news and we're feeling really positive about the progress we're seeing here in the United States, both in its advantage to US athletes as well as international athletes living and training in our country right now." What about the headline that COVID vaccines won't be compulsory for the Tokyo Olympics.   And then who will be able to watch the games? The decision on whether to let foreign fans to travel will be made before the start of the Olympic torch relay on March 25th.   So back to the odds:  This year bookies are rather offering wagering options on yes/no – whether the 2021 Tokyo Olympics will take place with spectators. At the moment, the odds heavily favor spectators being allowed to attend. What’s interesting is that there’s no option to bet on Tokyo Olympics getting postponed once again, suggesting that sportsbooks believe the Games will happen this summer. Last year, at the time when the pandemic was spreading around the world at a super-fast pace, the oddsmakers guessed correctly that the Games were going to get postponed. This is the Royal Horticultural Society symbol, with a colourful montage background. Purchase at: FAA - marilyncornwellart.com Redbubble - marilyncornwellart.ca

Facebook Twitter Website Email Share Tweet Forward

The Big Green Egg

This is our Thanksgiving Weekend and the turkey is waiting in the fridge downstairs.  Maybe that's what made me notice the Lakeshore Living ad in my emails.  This store is a luxury patio furniture store nearby with a special sale this weekend on The Big Green Egg. Do you have a Big Green Egg?  Aren't they somehow  magic with the pictures of that huge green egg shape sitting on the patio next to the traditional BBQ?  That seems to be what they think. The website page says: Welcome You've landed where The Big Green Egg is hatched. What is the special moment about The Big Green Egg? It originates 3,000 years ago from a long tradition of wood-fired clay ovens in East Asia.  The round clay ovens are called 'kamado' - meaning oven or hearth.  American soldiers serving in Japan took home their flip flops and their kamado ovens as souvenirs. In 1974, Ed Fisher started Big Green Egg - importing kamado ovens.  But then he went on to develop them further with contemporary knowledge and techniques, such as ceramics specially developed by NASA. The Big Green Egg (BGE) today is a charcoal barbecue specially shaped with doors that contain the heat and control the air flow and updraft.  This means temperatures can be up to 650 degrees celsius. It is green, of course. Everything cooked in a big green egg is extra juicy and and delicious.  So there are articles on chefs who love The Big Green Egg.  There is a culinary partner program that highlights restaurants who feature 'a wide range of EGG menu items'.  It is HERE.  Near us is Mildren's Temple Kitchen in Toronto.  I think their Roast Chicken Biryani picture shows us a big green egg cooked chicken.  I don't find any negative reviews at all:  Here's the typical quote: "I think a more fitting name would be ‘the big golden egg’.  There are dedicated users who support each other with BGE information like: "Tighten the bolts on the stands after the Egg has been used five times" and "If you have a problem with grease sticking the felt shut when it's cold, slip a Weber paraffin charcoal lighter cube in the bottom and wait for the warmth to release the opening. Then change the gaskets." Today's image is one of my digital designs titled The Shape of Colours, and the products one can purchase with the design - Redbubble has added bath mats, shower curtains and coasters. The print is also on Spoonflower, a fabric, wallpaper and house accessories site, so we can have table cloths, placemats and napkins.

Read past POTD's at my Blog: http://blog.marilyncornwell.com

Lord Stanley and his Cup

The Stanley Cup and Canada are celebrating milestones this year.  It is the 125th anniversary of the Stanley Cup and the 150th birthday of Canada. This trophy is a national treasure in Canada and if we get over to Rideau Hall, the residence of the Governor General of Canada on March 16th, we can see it up close and have our photos taken with the Cup. Some of you may know that there are actually three Stanley Cups: the original bowl of the "Dominion Hockey Challenge Cup", the authenticated "Presentation Cup", and the "Replica Cup" on display at the Hockey Hall of Fame. So which cup do you think we'll see on March 16th? And will it look like the current Stanley Cup? Its shape is very distinctive - it has the nickname the 'Stovepipe Cup' as new bands were added to accommodate the latest team and winners starting in 1924.  In 1958 the modern one-piece Cup was designed with a five-band barrel which could contain 13 winning teams per band. To prevent the Stanley Cup from growing, when the bottom band is full, the oldest band is removed and preserved in the Hockey Hall of Fame, and a new blank band added to the bottom. It has been referred to as The Cup, Lord Stanley's Cup, The Holy Grail, or facetiously (chiefly by sportswriters) as Lord Stanley's Mug. The Stanley Cup is surrounded by numerous legends and traditions, the oldest of which is the celebratory drinking of champagne out of the cup by the winning team. Today's abstract might be reminiscent of the Stanley Cup, or perhaps more like the CN Tower.

Surfacing Attention

It is an abstract picture day, with bright colours to counteract the weather.  We have another snow warning for this week, let us hope for the conclusion of winter weather. On the topic of temperature scales, our fact for the day is about the Celsius scale - it comes from one of those funny and weird fact sites and is confirmed in the wikipedia entry.   - At a glance, the Celsius scale makes more sense than the Fahrenheit scale for temperature measuring. But its creator, Anders Celsius, was an oddball scientist. When he first developed his scale, he made freezing 100 degrees and boiling 0 degrees, or upside down. No one dared point this out to him, so fellow scientists waited until Celsius died to change the scale.

More Painting - Pick Up Sticks

Hi everyone,
Yesterday was my second day of using the Filter Forge software and it proved to be a long, long process.  What a beautiful result, but it took 8 hours to 'render' this image.  I looked up the forums to speed up the processing and made all the setting adjustments.  I did a lot of clean up on the hard drive to free up processing space.  I didn't get any substantial improvements.  So I guess it's on to the support desk next.  

I have to say the results are so wonderful, that it will be worth solving the processing issues.

Autumn Colour Gardens

Fall is the time when a garden's colours are the biggest and the brightest - it's all in the trees. Japanese Maples, Flowering Dogwoods, Gingkos...these are a few of the small garden trees with spectacular colour. I went to Shari Ezyk's garden last week and caught sight of what's possible with artful planting.