[400] In a State of Meh

Had an excellent Memorial Day weekend by visiting relatives on both sides of the family and taking a break from the usual turmoil of the past few months.  I keep ignoring how our leaders continue in denial and trying to do business as usual.  I keep getting sick of nobody seeing how this problems relate to them.  As long as I receive a check and they don't touch my interests there is no problem.
So I am in a state of meh.

A similar state that happened when I initially divorced Mildred.
I was so busy doing so many things that I never really had a chance to grieve the negative turn of events.  But I moved on.

Those interested on divorce related issues can check previous installments of the Alcantarilla:
http://alcantarillaalquimica.blogspot.com/2011/05/184-verbalizando.html
http://alcantarillaalquimica.blogspot.com/2011/06/187-intermezzo-verbalizando-2.html
http://alcantarillaalquimica.blogspot.com/2011/10/206-upcoming-class-reunion.html
http://alcantarillaalquimica.blogspot.com/2011/12/216-santini-and-my-antiversary.html
http://alcantarillaalquimica.blogspot.com/2012/03/251-illustrated-rant-with-primaries-as.html

Some photos explaining recent events:

[1] I always liked the background paintings on Parks and Recreation.  This mural depicts the first interracial marriage of Pawnee IN.  Followed by the bloody confontation of indians and settlers...Just a good correlation on all the flak I keep receiving on taking Mildred back home.  Of course, I am not to happy about it but it is the closest I could do to have my son near me.
http://www.details.com/culture-trends/movies-and-tv/201101/nbc-inappropriate-parks-and-recreation-murals
http://alcantarillaalquimica.blogspot.com/2014/01/344-good-idea-bad-idea.html

[2] The Jean and Scott strip by Max Wittert (excerpts here: http://www.buzzfeed.com/kevintang/the-best-comics-about-jean-grey-doing-whatever-the-hell-she#.fb8A03OyD) pretty much summarizes the chemistry between annoying me and codependent her.

 

[3] Polarizing Press

Primero la doctora Ortiz era una clasista que debia ser despedida.  Un demonio.

http://www.primerahora.com/noticias/puerto-rico/nota/conferenciadeprensasobreelcasodeladoctoraortiz-1030449/

Luego muere por un fallo renal y de repente quien es el culpable?

http://www.primerahora.com/noticias/policia-tribunales/nota/muereladoctoragloriaortizenhospitaldecaguas-1083852/

es mas...era un angel

http://www.noticel.com/noticia/social/175996/la-dra-ortiz-mas-alla-de-las-redes-sociales.html

prensa de mierda...

[4] Dorado WWTP... The Improvements...Well, they remain on the air...Now without AAA funding...

 

[5] recien ponderaba los sacrificios que tendre que hacer para mantener el carro ante la ola de gastos e incertidumbre que nos espera.  Aunque tengo fe en mi y en que lograremos prevalecer despues de esta etapa de negacion no puedo olvidar esta nota:

http://alcantarillaalquimica.blogspot.com/2014/05/366-del-archivo-un-relato-medieval.html

 

So in summary all this speculation keeps me in a state of meh.  Checking what to cut and to do to manage my cashless self.  Churn out

[255] Another Rant, But With Skylines

It has been more than a week already.  Decided to go diferently today.  This post is brought to you by the letter M.  Can you say MAP?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Wiltshire
Stephen Wiltshire, for instance, is an autistic artist with an extraordinary ability to create spectacular landscapes (at a monumental level) based on short time observation.  Quite an ability if you ask me.  Would he ever be an Al Qaeda target given his photographic memory?  who knows?

Anyway, here is a link to his webpage...
http://www.stephenwiltshire.co.uk/

And since the site seems to be protected by Copyright goons I won't present panoramas from his page.  What I'll do is embed by reference a job he did on Tokyo recently:


The early show also covered him, here is one matching up details on a mural he was making on the East Side of NYC.




Which brings me to the next subject in question.  At some point in history, it was mandatory to be able to reproduce quality maps based on handbooks.  This skill required drafting maps on sheets of paper based on maps.  Now we photocopy or print from the web.  When I was a kid we traced them using tracing paper, pencil and then inked from places like Enciclopedia Brittanica or World Book.

Well, here I was checking some 19th century student maps on Geography.
http://www.metafilter.com/114427/19th-Century-Maps-Drawn-By-Children

Wonder how many hours Al Franken spent practicing maps to do this during an interview on the Minnesota State Fair...

http://minnesota.publicradio.org/collections/special/columns/news_cut/archive/2009/09/usa_the_franken_way.shtml


Not quite the US Centric one here...
http://www.ritholtz.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/world-accordign-to-USA.jpg

Or game maps made from memory...
http://mapstalgia.tumblr.com/page/2

Ahh Those D and D Marathons with my cousins...

Also reminded me of the segments of Animaniacs.  Why they don't produce stuff like this anymore?



To close with skylines I could not leave out Beastie Boys landmark album To The Fivc Boroughs and the NY City Skyline drawn in it:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/To_the_5_Boroughs

Here is an alternate version of 3 MCs and 1 DJ...

The original version here:

The cover made by:
http://www.amazon.com/London-Unfurled-Matteo-Pericoli/dp/0330517821/matteperichom-20

New Year With Old Clips

Happy New Year to you all.  Here are some videos I didn't know where to post them.

Slim Pickings

Slim Pickings Fat Chances from Cartoon Brew TV on Vimeo.

Something else from the Cartoon Brew vault:


Then some vintage Queen:

Music has to Change to Remain Alive

This post was inspired by the following image I stumbled upon the other day

The image is from an old Merrie melody cartoon that they used to play all the time on TV. The song was I Like to Singa and it was a very catchy jazz song. The lesson to be learned was that you cannot choose the path for your kids. In their case if you are a singer, you don't have to follow the same path as your parents.

This principle applies to music. Music cannot remain static, there is always a different way to approach it. You may (or may not) like it but the evolution will happen anyway. Therefore I decided to link some jazzy videos that include tropical and old salsa videos from the master himself, Maelo.

Right now the fever is reggaeton (which I hate in its original form) but at least the latest singers are entering into a more mellow stage with more flow to the music. Who knows?, I am even beginning to like some of the new stuff.

Anyway enjoy the links below:

Lucas - Lucas with the Lid Off

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B5HOsnq_2j4

US3 - Cantaloop

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g9HnoRgRIwg

Herbie Hancock - Watermelon Man

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gZvKXpoFcJs

Ismael Rivera - Las Caras Lindas

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B_4djGjZZ1U

Ismael Rivera - El Nazareno

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eMZj4mfxqbg

and finally I just had to include the link to the cartoon...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yYnJno_IUhY