Hey, Elizabeth - glad to see you made it to Iceland! I wasn't sure if that trip was still happening, because you hadn't mentioned it in a while. I figured that it might have been postponed due to your move to Chicago and the time and expenses involved, so it was a nice surprise to see your fantastic photo this morning. The Red Dress is back, and is now going worldwide! I liked your Mom's hashtag on FB: reddresscampaign#. That is perfect and it's what I've been saying all along during this series of photos, that the Red Dress acts as an icon. Now, so does The Girl Who Wears The Red Dress, of course! But the very redness of the dress, it's crimson color and it's ball gown shape, always makes it stand out directly in contrast to whatever environment you set it in. In that way it is a form of iconography, and it also creates a mysterious or dreamlike quality, while remaining very realistic, very "there".
You have created your own thing with the Red Dress Series, and now this photo in the cave really takes it to another level. That is one Far Out Looking Cave! It's huge, for one thing. It's volcanic, I take it? I know that Iceland is a geologic wonderworld. Hilary Hahn (with whom you share a birthday) went there specifically for inspiration for an experimental album she recorded with Hauschka the pianist. The music is all based on features of the landscape, and in the case of one piece it is based on some kind of continental split or something major like that. Whatever it is, I am sure you will see it. I'll bet you are having an incredible time, so post more pics if you get a chance (if you are still reading this blog, lol).
Man, I have gotta see that cave someday myself. Imagine the people, the humans, who over time have been inside that cave. Now that is quite a thought. :)
Tonight's movie was "Montana" (1950), a Technicolor Western starring Errol Flynn and the fiery and statuesque Alexis Smith, who was paired with Flynn in several other Westerns. He has always been one of my favorites as a Pure Movie Star (and a decent actor as well), and it goes without saying that he was one of the handsomest men in the history of film. If you love movies, ya gotta love Errol, and I do, beginning with "The Adventures Of Robin Hood", which probably everyone in the world has seen by now. In "Montana", he plays a "sheep man". I suppose this was a contemporary term of the late 19th century, used instead of "shepherd" to describe a rancher or drover of sheep. A cow rancher was a Cattleman, ergo a sheep rancher was a Sheep Man.
Should I have lived in the Old West, or what? :)
Anyhow, apparently the Cattlemen did not like the upstart Sheepmen, who had begun trying to drive their herds on the same cross country trails the cows used. It was thought that sheep were unclean, and that cattle would die from eating the same fields.
So here comes Errol Flynn to change all of that, with historic Hollywood Charm & Looks. Unfortunately, he runs up against Cattle Baroness Alexis Smith, for whom Technicolor was made. She is partnered with a local Cattle Corporation and has Henchmen and a Macho Fiance at her beck and call. And - she just plain hates sheep, and Sheep Men.
But of course she cannot ultimately resist the charms of Flynn, whose ragtag band of drovers assist him in bringing his herd through to Montana.
There is a Stampede near the end, so you know it is a great Western on that point alone.
But the real selling point is the Star Charms of Flynn and Smith, and the romance that entails, and the Technicolor which is spectacular. The interior decorators in Western times could show the current crop a thing or two about style and pattern. And on top of that, you also get a Hollywood History Lesson, which was In Vogue in those days, about the Range Wars between Cattle Ranchers and Sheep Men in the state of Montana, which was at the time the repository, the final destination of the nation's cattle for processing. It's when beef really became a big commodity.
So you get a history lesson of the past with your Star Power.
I have always loved hamburgers and steaks myself, over lambchops, though I once had "sheepskin" seat covers for my BMW 320i. They were probably faux.
One day I will probably go vegan, or at least vegetarian, if I can figure out a way to get enough protein and also get full. I already eat a ton of vegetables and fruits, but I don't get full from them. I wanna stay healthy so I can live to be 100 and get A Ton Of Stuff Done.
People in The Old West just went with what they had at the time. They may not have always lived to be 100, but they probably didn't have the anxieties we live with today. ////
That's all for tonight. Tomorrow morn, an easy song to sing : "Go Down Moses", a call-and-response Gospel number that you can belt out and even improvise on, ala the black churches.
Watch out! :)
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