Oct 16 2021 - Waxing and Waning

 

There was a news item and a video clip on a technology museum in China that has robots representing scientific and political celebrities.  This is the link HERE.  It is shocking to see their version of Trump.   Is this the official government view of the celebrities represented?  Steve Jobs has hands waving.  Einstein looks like a Jewish comedian in Halloween costume hair.  Trump has even stranger hair than"his normal", is shiny and extremely double-chinned.  Mocking trump seems to be the purpose of the robotics museum. Robot at the Chinese Museum: But then the Disney Museum's wax version is considered creepy too - and people thought it resembled Jon Voigt.  The Madame Tussauds Wax Museum ridiculed the Disney version by showing its wax model on the right in side by side pictures.  Their version is very real looking. Other "likenesses" of Trump seem to vary considerably.   It just seems strange that the people in the business of creating likenesses have created things that are "unlikenesses". There are some humorous stories - for example the London Wax Museum refitted Donald Trump into plaid pants golf attire after he lost the election.  There is a fine sense of satire. After the election, Trump was replaced with Biden.  Again things take a turn into more "unresemblances".  I wouldn't guess this is Biden - this one is at the Paris Wax Museum.  He seems to have lost decades of wrinkles and has added some hairline. After looking at these pictures, I don't think I'll visit the wax museum in Niagara Falls.  There are too many articles showing celebrities who have  "unlikenesses" in wax museums.  There's no need to scare oneself. I will be checking out this section of Moyer Road today - looking to take this year's pictures of this grey-blue thicket with the gold Maples behind.  This is last year's picture from the same timeframe.

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Oct 22 2020 - More Along Moyer Road

 

I went through the photo archives yesterday looking for more pictures of Moyer Road.  It is on the lower escarpment, and starts at Victoria Ave in Vineland, runs west and then ends at a bend that turns south and becomes Spence Road which itself ends at Fly Road in Camden.  I find this conclusion disappointing. Fly Road is a  rural highway - one of the regional roads where everyone is driving very fast to get somewhere.  Along Moyer Road is Vineland Estates Winery and restaurant, Mark Picone, notable chef's residence and culinary studio on the road.  Crossing over it is the Bruce Trail, which as you know goes on and on until it gets to Tobermory. It has beautiful views north to Toronto across the Lake, and then to the west to Megalomaniac Winery on the top of the escarpment edge. This is a good place for both the hawks flying overhead during migration and the Hamilton Lancaster bomber which flies quite low over the escarpment here during its tourist summertime flights.   I seem to pick Autumn for pictures on Moyer Road, perhaps its most colourful and scenic time of year. Here are two Autumn leaves jokes for us today: What do you call a large colorful pile of leaves? The Great Barrier Leaf. Did you hear about the tree that had to take time off of work in autumn? It was on paid leaf.

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Oct 21 2020 - The Butt Type Project

 

Ed Benguiat has led me to the Butt Type Typographical Project.  There's one of his fonts in the project.  It is something to see - so click on the link  HERE.   This is a project by Swedish graphic designer Viktor Hertz. Butt Types is a visual exploration of typographical butt art using 50 different fonts.  He has a larger collection of "Typornography" if you search on it. Here they are to demonstrate how amusing this is.       Today we take you down Moyer Road in Vineland, turn the corner towards the lake and then look down Cherry Ave to Highway 8. When the leaves are gone, you'll be able to see Lake Ontario.  Vineland Estates Winery and Megalomanic Winery are along this route.

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Russia - A Nation of Humour!

Did you know there is a very long tradition of Russian Political jokes?  I find this out from Wikipedia.  The jokes start with Imperial Russia and conclude with Post-soviet Russia.  They are HERE.  A Bloomberg article with the best jokes is HERE. Bloomberg's article, as with Wikipedia, demonstrates that Russian humour about the way the country is run is an unbroken tradition from the czarist era to the present day.  The article's author, like me, finds that many of them aren't funny.  But there are some great jokes in the article.  Here is Reagan's joke. "The CIA-Reagan Soviet joke pipeline was no secret at the time. One from a list declassified in 2013 was a particular favorite — Reagan told it repeatedly, once adding he’d shared it with Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev and gotten a laugh from him. The CIA version goes like this: An American tells a Russian that the United States is so free he can stand in front of the White House and yell, “To hell with Ronald Reagan.” The Russian replies: “That’s nothing. I can stand in front of the Kremlin and yell, ‘To hell with Ronald Reagan,” too. Two more from Wikipedia: A Gulag joke: Three men are sitting in a cell in the (KGB headquarters) Dzerzhinsky Square. The first asks the second why he has been imprisoned, who replies, "Because I criticized Karl Radek." The first man responds, "But I am here because I spoke out in favor of Radek!" They turn to the third man who has been sitting quietly in the back, and ask him why he is in jail. He answers, "I'm Karl Radek." A Stalin joke: Stalin reads his report to the Party Congress. Suddenly someone sneezes. "Who sneezed?" Silence. "First row! On your feet! Shoot them!" They are shot, and he asks again, "Who sneezed, Comrades?" No answer. "Second row! On your feet! Shoot them!" They are shot too. "Well, who sneezed?" At last a sobbing cry resounds in the Congress Hall, "It was me! Me!" Stalin says, "Bless you, Comrade!" and resumes his speech. Our pictures today come from Moyer Road - this is the road that Vineland Estates Winery is located on.  This silver barked bush along the side of the road is very photogenic as it is.  It becomes the texture for an abstract pattern created in photoshop.