Goodbye 2009

Another year gone. Good year. I'll miss it.

There's an old (2006), but very entertaining speech of Stephen Colbert at the White House Correspondent's Dinner - Part 1, 2 and 3.

I made a quick painting inspired by a song from La Tarantella by Galeazzi, Beasley, Arpeggiata and Pluhar. It's a collection of (I think) mostly folk songs rendered in the style of Italian classical music. I don't like classical music, but I like this CD. The background of the collection is the old belief that those who are stung by the tarantula can only be cured by dancing - which was only possible if you could find the tune that "fit" the very tarantula. Could be slow and calm, could be fast and energetic. Lovely belief, ne?
(Just as cute as the belief about the Rauhnächte - twelve nights - which says if you have white linen hanging outside during the night, the death will come and take it down, only to return during the following year to wrap you in it.)

And a photo of the Christmas present I made for my brother and his girlfriend. It's a Baroque game:



I can paint, but I can't make cookies to save my life. Those two can. They made New Year's cookies. Best cookies I've tasted in my life so far. Plus, they look awesome:

Political Propaganda

Some interesting stuff I came across yesterday:

- Apparently Napoleons first words when meeting Goethe were "You're a man". This seems peculiarly surreal.
- Napoleon was not actually short, but rather of average height. His alleged shortness seems to have resulted from firstly political propaganda and secondly a mixing up of French and British inches.

And from my thesis:

- In former times, especially in Scandinavia, Elves and Dwarves were of the same origin (same race). Dwarves were a "tribe" of Elves that moved to the mountains and set up their habitations there (if I understood it correctly).
Elves, brownies, pixies, etc. are also often associated with the Lapps and some assume that the mythology of Elves and Fairies have their origin in reality, the Lapps. Asiatic people were also often called Dwarves.
Making me wonder how the contemporary distinction between Elves and Dwarves actually came into existence (my older sources describe Dwarves as beautiful, musical, etc. - so there is quite a conceptual jump in there). I'm guessing as globalisation took place in the last centuries, people became more nationalistic and ethnocentric, at the same time putting down other races, e.g. the Lapps and asiatic people (the Dwarves), resulting in an increasingly unattractive image of Dwarves.
I have, however, no confirmation whatsoever for that theory.

***

I'm deluding myself into thinking that I've actually improved a bit during the last three live-drawing sessions. My approach to drawing seems to have changed a bit (moving more towards volume rather than stick figures) and I seem more patient when rendering out sketches. Aaah, pretty delusions.
When I took classes five years ago this week's model was there, too. I think I even drew her in exactly the same pose in one case. Now I regret having thrown out all my sketches when I moved. Would have been nice to compare them.