Kitty Superheroes

It is Spring. It is the change of seasons and a time of new growth. We often think of our gardens, seedlings and bulb blooms in April. But it is also notorious for litters of kittens, bunnies and the like. I can vouch that our Humane Society shelter kittens continue to be adopted out quickly, as it seems no one can pass up the face of a sweet feline with a pink tongue.

I am pairing these Cute Kitties up in a post that again begs the question of AI created artwork. The world of computer-generated photos is beyond me other than simple photo editing of images I have taken. And I do love the ReFace app for silly takes imposing my face onto vintage pictures or epic film clips. As is the case/ argument for this new realm of "creative arts," there is plenty of material floating out there in virtual space, but not a ton of license showing who created the content or even where it was generated from.

I have found a collection of photos rendering kittens as Marvel characters, Harry Potter characters, or other notable personalities. I am only sharing because they are CUTE. I cannot vouch for the authenticity of any of them nor give credit to the creative aspect of them. I am not even sharing a link for them as they are just out there in virtual space on Tik-Tok, Reddit or others. I just felt like sharing some sweet kittens for Spring!

Michael Urie; the Boy-Next-Door Crush

The concept of the Boy Next Door is an archaic notion that goes back to the days of Judy Garland, Mystery Date board game and Archie Andrews from the comics. It implies wholesomeness and charm without pushing the "sexy" quotient too far. He would be the vanilla date who doesn't over step. The one you could bring home to meet the parents. But then also, the one most likely to be your buddy and friend instead of the one to sneak off into the backseat with.

 

Michael Urie would be That Guy for me. Not oozing the sexuality of a Jake Gyllenhaal or the leading man image of a Chris Evans. But I defy anyone to deny that he is aging like a fine wine and comes up aces in everything he sets out to conquer.

I was first amused by him in Ugly Betty as the eccentric Marc St. James. He had incredible chemistry with Vanessa Williams and Becki Newton. He was witty, had an impeccable fashion sense and spitfire comic timing. I am 20 years older than him, but I assume he became somewhat of a role model for young teens that were itching to see where they registered in terms of their sexuality.

I became aware that he was next seen on Broadway in the revival of How To Succeed In Business in a supporting role. I thought maybe it was "star" turn until I realized the stage was where he had really planted his roots. Being a Julliard grad gives him strong pedigree. He succeeds in any genre he takes on. He was riveting in both the revival of Torch Song Trilogy as well as the title role in Hamlet with the Shakespeare Theater Co. I was gobsmacked watching his backstage antics where he recited Hamlet dressing room speeches in costume & character as Arnold from Torch Song. A maniacal mash-up. During the pandemic, I was also astounding when he recreated his role in Buyer and Cellar, a one man show about tending to Barbra Streisand's menagerie of collectables. He dazzled in a live stream filmed entirely in his own studio apartment. Filmed exclusively by his amazing partner Ryan, it was a highlight of that very dark time.

He continues to push boundaries on stage in new works and also demands change in our social norms of what is "normal" for an openly gay male. Single All the Way on Netflix may not have been groundbreaking material. But it was a sincere story that was authentically told. Watching it a second time this holiday season a year later, I was still as smitten with him.

 

These are all his accolades as a performer. But back to that Boy Next Door quality he possesses... Rather than vanilla, he comes full scale in all the colors of the rainbow. He is genuine, articulate, has great humor and boundless enthusiasm. I admire so much how he and his partner Ryan Spahn celebrate each other's work, collaborate together, and then at other times are just present for the other. Today Ryan had a post with pics of them "eventing." That is a true relationship. I am constantly amazed that the two of them almost always respond to a comment I have made on their social media. It shows that they both listen and are hardly swept up in the paparazzi of the great work they both continue to do. Michael speaks with wisdom and candor. And as for that "sexy"? This fabulous feature in this month's Photobook checks that box off the list as well. Still an impeccable fashion sense. Photos by Ben Cope.

 

Trans History Repeating Itself

Every once in a while I use this blog to dig into deeper issues than gardening, the arts or simple opinion pieces. Right now there is so much currency in cancel culture. The divides are getting vast, to the point that they are now impacting lives that had at one point been safe. The push and pull in our cultures seems to be ebbing much more into the past. This particular article really struck me in that we are not going back years or decades. Instead, this is exactly where we were as a civilization a century ago. These same stories were wiped away and erased. This makes us not only ignorant, but an absolutely cruel species.

 Magnus Hirschfeld was a doctor in Germany at the turn of last century. He was at an age watching the onset of Facism and the Holocaust in his country. He was also gay. He was pioneering the field of sexual identity before the 1920s and was documenting the concept of gender fluidity and noted that some people found themselves somewhere in the middle. He was aware of bisexuality, transgender and non binary as being "in accordance with their nature" for these patients. It was not sick or abnormal to him. These terms we are now struggling with, were the same terms he dignified back then.

 In 1919 he purchased a villa in Berlin and opened his Institute for Sexual Research. Its stated purpose was to be a place of "research, teaching, healing and refuge" that could "free the individual from physical ailments, psychological afflictions and social deprivation." It provided sex education and clinics on contraception. This is decades before our Planned Parenthood clinics. It became a safe haven for transvestites and female activists. By 1930 he was performing the world's first gender -affirmation surgeries. While groundbreaking in the medical sense, it still faced persecution from any sort of legal rights. This should sound very familiar to us 100 years later.

With the rise of the Nazi party by 1932, by 1933 Hitler was in power. Thus began the extermination of anything deemed unworthy of living or assimilation. Sadly, Hirschfeld's Institute was destroyed on May 6, 1933. He was out of the country by then. But sadly, his bust and a library of 20,000 books and journals were torched in the street in a huge bonfire. The loss was catastrophic.

But what makes it even more painful, Erwin Gohrbandt, who was Hirschfeld's colleague and premiere surgeon chose to stay with the Reich and later utilized those same skills on prison camp patients with operations of mutilation. Despite surviving, Hirschfeld and his partner Giese both soon died in Paris. Magnus of a stroke in 1935 and Giese by suicide soon after. His work has been given some nods in pop culture on the show Transparent and the film The Danish Girl who was an actual patient of his - but he is never credited for his work in the novel or the film. His legacy has effectively been erased.

So here we stand 100 years later. The same ugly fears and arguments rear their heads again. This should be science supported by history and data. And yet we fling proverbs and moral judgements of righteousness to bar progress from being made. Both in our families and in our medical communities. This is a human travesty and this history needs to be not only revisited, but broadcast. Please read this entire article which is amazingly documented from what ashes remain.

The Forgotten History of the World's 1st Trans Clinic

Polar Bear Playdate

Polar Bears are those magnificent giant creatures that represent winter in its full glory. Like so many other wild animals - cheetahs, zebras and even monkeys, they appear regal and jolly as if they pose no threat to humans at all. Even as that is not the case. I remember seeing them at zoos growing up or here in Minnesota where they splash around in a cold pool or slide on a bed of ice. Very amiable fellows. Possibly even with a sense of humor.

This is a photo essay by Dmitry Kokh published recently in the Guardian. He is a wildlife photographer who was en route to a session on Russia's Wrangel Island which is a UNESCO nature preserve. He describes it as the motherlode of all places to observe Polar Bears and notes it as a maternity ward for them. One day, due to bad weather and floating ice chunks, they took shore leave at a deserted weather station on Kolyuchin Island. Among the rocky shores and abandoned buildings, they noted a "sleuth" of bears had taken over the empty dwellings.

His pictures capture a very unusual atmosphere of content and curiosity with these bears taking full ownership of the village. Again, we have to be mindful they are a dangerous and giant animal. So, with the assistance of good drone photography, Dmitry was able to get some epic images of them without disrupting them. He notes that they were curious about the buzzing of the craft, but generally uninterested. 

The expedition noted they probably landed here because of the floating ice bergs and simply swam ashore as they neared. Polars apparently have an instinct to explore and play with doors, windows and latches. So, it is not uncommon for them to venture into these empty spaces. They are also now smart enough to realize they can be prey from hunters and take refuge in a safe shelters.

Enjoy the images and read the travelogue. This is exactly what a Polar Bear life should look like.

Polar Bears in Arctic weather Station: Guardian

Turquoise Ice

Today was another winter walk in the tundra that is Minnesota in January. It happened to be the frozen falls at Minnehaha today. There is still a single stream coming over the top that trickles down the slope of what becomes a mammoth cauliflower iceberg over the course of our fierce winters. I have seen it year after year.

However this year I am taking notice of the particular shade of the ice mounds. I have seen an earlier article about the incredible Turquoise Ice Shards at Lake Baikal in the Siberian glacial area of Russia. There, because of the pureness of the water, the depth of the lake and the wild winds that whip into their season - it creates dams of literal turquoise blocks that are more gemlike than liquid. It was formed as a rift valley where the underlying plates of the Amurian and North China faults shifted and pulled away from each other leaving a huge chasm. It continues to shift to the point of adding a 1/2 inch to the Lake each year. It is also home to huge biodiversity because of hydrothermal vents at its bottom which release heat from the earth's core and high levels of oxygen. Because of this purity, the water freezes into a unique blue shade. These shards of ice are called "hummocks."

 

So I know our Minnesota rivers are not nearly as pure and perfect. But I was asking the question of how we are also able to see those beautiful shades of lavender, seafoam and aquamarine? The answer was easy to a scientist, but somewhat lost on me and my understanding of light rays and the spectrum of color absorption! In simple terms; Water, like other matter absorbs light and the color reflected back is perceived by our eyes to be a shade of blue. Somehow in the process of freezing into both snow and ice, the water becomes fragmented (as in a snowflake) and scatters back light to us which then appears in shades of white rather than the absorbed blue. Even in smooth ice cube trays, there are enough bubbles that it no longer reads to us as blue anymore. BUT, as ice becomes thicker and more dense, it obviously becomes heavy as well. As the pressure squeezes out those imperfections, it allows the light transmissions to begin again, and thus starts to show those magical shades of blue.

This is what are noticed on Lake Baikal and any large glaciers that you see in the polar caps. We are just given a very rare glimpse of these tones in the gift of a frozen waterfall here in Minnesota. And now you know more.

 

Sargent - the Master

It was just pointed out to me that today is the birth date of John Singer Sargent, infamous American Impressionist painter. Anyone with an interest in curated art will know his works, but even those without an inkling of art history can appreciate the incredible depth of his work. Over a century before our current AI generated portraits, he was shaking up society with his individual take of what a "classic" capture of a face looked like.

I first stumbled onto him in a framing store on Hennepin Ave that no longer exists. It was his controversial portrait of Madame X that remains the focal point of our foyer in a spotlight on a bright melon wall. It is stunning. The subject was French socialite Virginie Amélie Avegno Gautreau and was exhibited at the Paris Salon of 1884. What made it so provocative at the time were her very pale white shoulders on a bare torso. But amplifying it even more, was that he had painted her right shoulder strap slipping down her arm. People lauded the work, but he was chastised for the indiscretion on a society woman, so the portrait has very obvious markings where the shoulder strap was repainted - aligned on her collarbone to right the wrong. 

One of my many favorite traits of his works is the unmistakable lighting in a Sargent work. They seem to glow. It is both the way he captures sunlight and also the highlights & colors that he uses. The second works that drew me to him were seen at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts. There was one called the Birthday Party with a very young child blowing out the candles on a cake. And also in Repose, a lovely female figure sprawled on a big sofa in what appeared layers of taffeta. 

Another unique detail is the attention to texture on background patterns. Fabrics, foliage, wallpaper. He starts with tiny strokes of color and detail - then as the portrait frames out, they become broad splashes of those same shades that then blur. Almost like a filter on an Instagram post.

His claim to fame are his portraits, both in Europe as well as the US, particularly Boston. But he also conquered lovely works in his Venetian and Spanish watercolors. His imprint on the city of Boston are huge murals all over the Public Library as well as other landmarks. Many aren't aware that he also dabbled in sculpture and even some architecture. There are catalogues of his drawings of many of his gay male models, one inspiration being handsome Black model Thomas Eugene McKeller whose figure is manifested in many of his mural works.

This year I was so very fortunate to see huge amounts of his work. A trip to Boston was so rewarding with his massive galleries there at the Isabella Gardener Museum. HIs El Jaleo is a masterpiece in motion and takes up an entire wall in its own room. Then we luckily timed our visit in Washington DC to an extensive showing of his Spanish works. As beautiful as his paintings are in tabletop books (of which I have many), there is nothing like seeing them spring to life in person. The colors, the strokes, the angle of the light and glow of twilight in his garden works, and the expression he captures in every face. He is indeed a Master. If you don't know his incredible legacy, find one of his works in a museum and it will be evident.

In Awe of Man in the High Castle

Since we are starting into the "Awards" season, there are many limited series that have completely taken me in over many years. Six Feet Under and Pushing Daisies are two that continue to percolate in my mind long after I have finished them. But Man in the High Castle certainly sits there among the best of them. I am NOT a binge watcher and like to take time to revisit them and let them expose themselves to me over time. With this one, I was late to the game to start with. And it has taken me a good 18 months to invest in 4 epic Seasons of the show. I am still a few episodes away from the ultimate reveal. But damn, if I don't have to take a breather and just talk about each show after I am finished with it.

The premise for the show examines what our country could/ would have become if WW II had ended much differently. It takes our American landscape with the West Coast occupied by the Japanese with their headquarters in San Francisco & the East Coast controlled by the German Reich based in New York City which has been rechristened New Berlin. In between, the Rocky Mountains operate as a Neutral Zone where renegades from the old states operate in clandestine sects. Throughout the course of the show, there are these mysterious films that emerge to show other possible outcomes where neither side actually wins. Over the course of its arc, it becomes clearer how the movies foreshadow. Japan remains staunch in their culture and traditions. Germany is resolute to be the pioneer in all technological and artistic advances. Even at the inhumane cost of purging all other races.

Let me state that so often media does not translate the written word well. In this case, the novel on which this is based is so far surpassed by this crew of screenwriters. The book featured the mainstay of the characters but was based more on the assimilation of US citizens into their cultures and the blackmail market of Americana artifacts. The political aspect was there, but not to the extent the series provokes it. Talk about a culture clash! It explores not only Japanese and Nazi cultures, but also American idealism where all three are willing to succeed at all costs. The entire scope of the show is political and spirals around courage, sacrifice and a hunger for power. 

I love literature that takes history and then commingles it with fiction. I have admired the work of Michener, Leon Uris and Doctorow for those reasons. I am currently reading All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr which also takes place during the struggle of WW II. High Castle takes the macro of a global setting and plays it out in the heavy reality of small but important lives.

For starters, they pack so much content into an hour, it takes time to process each chapter when I am done with it. It is not that they move too quickly; it is just that the density of the time period and the material is sprawling. It is written with purpose and there are no supporting characters here. Every role introduced has a major stake revealed over time. And each one is not 2 dimensional - but a deep character that is somehow ensnared with inner and outward struggles based on the world in which they live. Even more so - each one is not guaranteed a reward. Spoiler alert - the writers have no qualms about eliminating a major actor regardless of the size of the role. Those are the harsh consequences of the world they are all living in. As it spirals out of control in Season 4, it gets more convoluted but also richer. We see it play out in the next generations based on the faults of their parents and the racial outrage ignites to impact even more cultures. This list of both writers and episode directors is massive which speaks to the depth of the storyboards. It could have been a calamity with no consistency, but instead is a wealth of detail.

Too much to digest. Why yes! It is a slow burn that haunts. Tell me if you do not agree. Skip the current list of "must watches" and pull this one up for a chilling winter binge.