Sep 5 2022 - Remote roads vs steep roads

 

Today's Bing image shows an aerial view of the Trans-Taiga Road.  It is considered remote.  Located almost at the 55th parallel north, it is the northernmost continuous road in Easter North America and is 666 km long.  It turns up in the lists of the top 10 most remote roads in the world.  What would be the rationale for "daring drivers" to take these remote roads?  Remote means far away, distant, far off, lonely, nothing around. That includes gasoline and repairs.   Lonely looks good in comparison to the scariest roads in the world, where the roads have names like "The Road of Death".  That one's in Bolivia.  The article covers the location, length, maximum elevation and dangers.  Usually the dangers include wildlife, but this one has landslides, rockfalls, fog, cliffs, narrow and no guardrails.  And the steepest roads? There are a lot of arguments over this.  These are not remote places and are usually found in cities.  It seems contradictory that cities would create such dangerous streets.   It is Baldwin Street that captures our attention.  The pictures are particularly entertaining.  It has the most interesting competitions each year. These are publicity fundraising events like the 2,000 tennis balls released to roll down the hill and the Cadbury Jaffas race where 75,000 red ball-shaped candies roll down the hill at speeds up to 100 kph.  We are creative!   Road Location Gradient Canton Avenue Pittsburgh, USA 37% Waipio Road Honokaa, Hawaii 37% Baldwin Street Dunedin, New Zealand 35% Eldred Street Los Angeles, USA 33% Hard Knott Pass Cumbria, UK 33% Filbert Street San Francisco, USA 31.5%

Here's Baldwin Street showing off its optical illusion .  This Forest Hill garden ornament looks at home on Baldwin Street. Read more daily posts here: marilyncornwellblog.com Purchase works here: Fine Art America- marilyncornwellart.com Redbubble - marilyncornwellart.ca

June 29 2022 - Most Famous? It's Dwayne

 

How is it that Dwayne Johnson is the most famous person in the world "as of 2022"?  Where was I? Likely looking at news stories rather than entertainment stories.  He shows up in the top 10 in numerous lists.  My cynicism comes into play as these lists are typically the same source that is reproduced over and over. "Dwayne, nicknamed "The Rock" was a WWE champion wrestler earlier and is now an actor and producer. He is one of the greatest professional wrestlers the game has ever witnessed."  (Note the quality of English, grammar, and style of the sentence above). On to  Forbes where he is listed as #4 of highest-paid entertainers and #10 celebrity - the 2022 films are Black Adam and Red Notice.  "One of his popular mannerisms as the character The Rock was to raise one eyebrow up with one down as a taunt to mock his opponents during interviews (this is called The People's Eyebrow)." And how is it that Joe Biden is #2 or Elon Musk #3?  Then comes Jeff Bezos at #4. Down the list at #10 is Justin Bieber who has recently been diagnosed with Ramsay Hunt syndrome, a neurological disorder characterized by facial nerve paralysis.  That is very significant when you compare Johnson's description as  "The Rock" to Bieber's as "Yummy".   It turns out that Justin Bieber is googled more than Jesus.  We know that Jesus is, in fact,  the most famous and known person in the world.  Every religion references him - either for or against.  It is considered that only people in remote places of the planet do not know of him.  But then what is "famous"today?  It shows up for celebrities - entertainers and sports figures.  Not for heads of state, royalty, scientists, writers, and those who made history.  That is famous in the past tense.  So we can wonder where will Dwayne Johnson be in 10 years or 100 years?  What will be famous from 2022? Here's one of our Niagara roads that the Porsche Club travelled on a few years ago.  This seems like a little bit of heaven - a narrow, winding country road lined with trees and fences.  All that summer green.

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Jan 5 2022 - The Best Corners on Earth

 

Where are the best corners of the Earth?  Fogo Island Inn lays claim to being one of them.  There turn out to be quite a few if you have a driver's point of view.  “Porsche Curves on Circuit De La Sarthe because it’s very hard to master and in an endurance race, racers tend to make mistakes and run off. But these corners are so rewarding once you get them correct!” As suggested by our very own Neil Winn: “Ballagarey at the Isle of Man TT. Incredibly fast, blind and off camber on the exit.” “Fairmont Hairpin in Monaco. The slowest corner in the world (I think).” These are examples from the greatest race track corners at the Carthrottle website HERE.   I hadn't thought about what best might be. It could be fastest, sharpest, most challenging, most number of corners, most dangerous and so on.   There are lots of choices, like a buffet. Everyone agreed on the slowest: the Fairmont Hairpin - Monaco It contains both the slowest corner in Formula One (the Fairmont Hairpin, taken at just 48 km/h or 30 mph). We continue on the manipulated image theme.  I downloaded Studio 5.5 a painting program.  This was one of its manipulations.  Overall, it seems too complicated for me as it requires a foundation of painting techniques and skills.

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May 9 2021 - Mother's Day Flowers

 

It is Mother's Day and  a traditional day to give flowers. The New York Times Style Magazine has a guide to what they consider the most exciting florists working today - they had an article on this in November with six different cities compared.  The cities in today's article are  Chicago, Miami, Mexico City, Berlin, Seoul and Sydney.   The articles are HERE and HERE. The photography of most flower arrangements make them all look wonderful to me, so I wouldn't be the person to judge who is the best.  They organize them by styles such as unusual, earthy, classic, and so on.  Here's their overview chart, which is itself very artistic.  they categorize bouquet prices - starting at $75, $75 - $150 and starting at $150.  Seems like the price of a restaurant meal.  Some of the arrangements sound like food - Slipper orchid and pomegranate, Anthurium  and lotus pods, wild grape and delphinium.  All lots of fun for a Monday's Day. Is there a top floral designer in the world?  One list has it to be  Leopoldo Gomez is a renowned international floristry teacher, based in Mexico City. He focuses on the use of color and emotions in his work. In 2019, he won a gold medal in the floral competition in Huis Ten Bosch (Japan).  Any of the articles on this topic have extraordinary floral displays.  Here's an example.   All so much fun.  Here's the pretty guide to today's NY Times florists. Isn't that a nice sighting on John Street?  A touring car checking out the orchards earlier in the week. Purchase at: FAA - marilyncornwellart.com Redbubble - marilyncornwellart.ca

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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Pothole Season So Soon!

Potholes are emerging.  Traditionally potholes develop in later winter / early spring when nighttime temperatures are below freezing and daytime temperatures are above freezing.  The temperature cycle results in several freezing-thawing that causes potholes.   So our mild winter is like spring, and we can look forward to an extended pothole presence.  In 2019, the City of Toronto fixed a record 110,595 potholes in time for spring.  The "Pothole Promise" is that the City will repair potholes in four days from the date they are reported  on the busiest roads.   There are large potholes in the landscape.  I found a picture of a large pothole at Foster's Flats in the Niagara Glen. "This Pothole was formed in the ancient Niagara River Bed, now Wintergreen Flats. Later the rock layers around it were undercut causing it to fall to the terrace below." The most famous is the Devils arch. Claims of the largest glacial Pothole comes from Eynon, PA - found by miners in 1884. It is located in the Archbald Pothole State Park. It is 38 feet 11.6 m) and 42 feet (12.8m) wide.  Right near WilkesBarre are the Seven Tubs - a series of potholes.   Back to roads, I went looking for the largest potholes ever. Britain' Guardian led the headlines with a pothole so large that the council road repair van became stuck in it. It was 10 feet long.   Then there's Detroit's claim of Pothole patrol:  We find the biggest and deepest.  They sent junior journalists out to find and measure the biggest. A novel approach to potholes comes from Russia a few years ago with Russian activists painting mocking caricatures of local officials over gaping potholes.  Here's the link HERE.  They call it "road shaming". Our pretty picture comes from my workshop a few years ago, learning to do macros of water drops.

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Buffalo Plaid

I saw a person with a plaid shirt and the thought popped into my head:  that is so old-fashioned and out of date.  Probably from the back of the closet looking for a cold sort of day. I find out that the etymology of the word is unclear - Scottish - perhaps from the past participle form of ply. Scottish gaelic plaide meant blanket.  I hadn't realized that 'full plaid' is actually a tartan. The British made it important in the 1500's where it was considered a fabric of high esteem amongst royalty.  Then it became associated with the Scottish Rebellion of 1745 so was banned in Britain. The North American usage is around plaid shirts, typically flannel.  What we know of as the lumberjack shirt - the red and black checkered pattern - was the well-known pattern of the U.S. during the late 1800s. Named the Buffalo plaid, it supposedly got its name after the herd of buffalo owned by Woolwich Woolen Mills' designer.  It became popular with outdoor workers - hence the lumberjack association. Not until the 1920's did it move into casual men's wear.  The little town of Cedar Springs began its own plaid, today celebrated in the Red Flannel Festival. Plaid was very popular in the 1970s, and became appropriated by the punk movement with ripped layers and shredded shirts.  Vivienne Westwood popularized her punk-inspired plaid, and it became a symbol of rebellion - this time cultural. Into the 1980s and then the 1990s the plaid flannel shirt became the unofficial symbol of the grunge movement.  Nirvana, The Breeders, Pearl Jam all wore plaids.  So back to my reaction to a fellow in a plaid shirt yesterday.  I  can now say it was the lumberjack association that came to my mind and not Pearl Jam.  Here is that buffalo plaid that is so familiar to us all. So where is plaid most popular today?  Look at the Christmas decorations below.  Looks like buffalo plaid is here to stay. Our pictures show the Michigan sky and the scenic tree-lined road along the Lake.

Dreaming of a Burlington Skyway View

I took this picture of the Stelco view from the Burlington Skyway from the bus while commuting a few winters ago. It is a different story this weekend.  A dump truck with its truck bed raised hit the bridge last week on the Toronto-bound side.  There were workers on the scaffolding so it could have been a tragic event.  The truck was massive and the impact significant so the bridge will be closed all weekend.  It is currently being assessed for structural damage.  

This is pretty big news for us here in the Niagara region.  It is a holiday weekend here in Ontario.  There aren't that many easy alternatives to getting around that corner of Lake Ontario.  It is one of the major routes to the US border crossings at Queenston, Niagara Falls and Buffalo.  Here's the CBC coverage of the traffic routes around the Lake for those of you in distant places.  Grimsby is the next stop after Stoney Creek.