HUGOnline

Happy Birthday Paolo!

2012-01-06T08:01:00.001-08:00

Photo

2011-12-07T04:29:00.001-08:00

(Via Sailor Junkers .)

Simple Pleasures

2011-12-04T06:05:00.001-08:00

Happy...

2011-12-02T02:22:00.001-08:00

Index by Karim Charlebois-Zariffa (via orientaltiger)

Thanks to Lover Of Beauty

Great photo

2011-11-30T03:07:00.001-08:00

Two of my beautiful neices: Kasza and Svante.

Flamboyant Natives

2011-11-16T08:00:00.001-08:00

Hans Silvester

2011-11-16T07:33:00.001-08:00

Les enfants de la vallée de l'Omo

It's official...

2011-10-30T08:05:00.001-07:00

"Everything's going to be OK"
or is it "It's all for the best?"
Thanks Christer

Parent/Child Dancing Shoes

2011-10-24T16:49:00.001-07:00

Made by Huopaliike Lahtinen in Jämsä, Finland.

Feeling a little nostalgic...

2011-10-19T17:17:00.001-07:00

Big Country

2011-10-08T00:58:00.001-07:00

Image from Popular Sizes

Marisa Paredes

2011-10-06T09:34:00.001-07:00

Now she's in Almodovar's The Skin I Live In, with Antonio Banderas!

I can hardly wait!

Epitaph

2011-10-06T01:30:00.001-07:00

Thanks to Mensroom

Max Raabe Rules!

2011-10-03T15:01:00.001-07:00

Thanks Thombeau

New collective identities...

2011-09-26T08:55:00.001-07:00

What Marx was about was trying to encourage people to overcome their social isolation, which is produced in this market, individualist, commodified society; to create new social identities, new collective identities, and organizations that express those; and undertake a massive social and political transformation.

The very lucid Leo Panitch on The Real News

a simple sonnet

2011-09-20T21:33:00.001-07:00

"Shakespeares Sonette" by Robert Wilson and Rufus Wainwright at the Berliner Ensemble, 2009

form is void

Folon

2011-09-19T15:20:00.001-07:00

Gotland!

2011-09-11T11:09:00.001-07:00

Thanks Randy.

For Randy

2011-09-07T03:12:00.001-07:00

Amish White Bread

I got this recipe from a friend. It is very easy, and doesn't take long to make.

Ingredients

473.2 ml warm water (110 degrees F/45 degrees C)
157.7 ml white sugar
22.2 ml active dry yeast
7.4 ml salt
59.1 ml vegetable oil
1419.5 ml bread flour

Directions

In a large bowl, dissolve the sugar in warm water, and then stir in yeast. Allow to proof until yeast resembles a creamy foam.
Mix salt and oil into the yeast. Mix in flour one cup at a time. Knead dough on a lightly floured surface until smooth. Place in a well oiled bowl, and turn dough to coat. Cover with a damp cloth. Allow to rise until doubled in bulk, about 1 hour.
Punch dough down. Knead for a few minutes, and divide in half. Shape into loaves, and place into two well oiled 9x5 inch loaf pans. Allow to rise for 30 minutes, or until dough has risen 1 inch above pans.
Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for 30 minutes.

Search, share, and cook your recipes on Mac OS X with SousChef!

Primrose?

2011-09-02T01:45:00.001-07:00

Nope. Anemone hupehensis, thanks Kerstin

Irene 2

2011-08-28T14:27:00.001-07:00

Photo By: Ray Calderon, thanks to Casey Mallinckrodt

Irene

2011-08-28T01:39:00.001-07:00

Reuters/Lucas Jackson

Eternal Return

2011-08-27T07:59:00.001-07:00

The Medievalists Have All Gone Home...

2011-08-16T02:38:00.001-07:00

Gay Pride, New York City, 1979

2011-08-12T03:55:00.001-07:00

Europa

2011-08-07T21:50:00.001-07:00

This is what I have on my desktop as I listen to a gloomy BBC and try to get my mind around a multi-lingual, ethnically diverse union reaching the kind of consensus that seems impossible for the largely white, largely male, largely rich, monolingual, two-party U.S. Congress.

A larger version can be found here.

The apartment seems so empty...

2011-08-07T08:10:00.001-07:00

Now that Asta’s gone home.

The Archer Prepares

2011-08-05T13:00:00.001-07:00

Computer art - HH

The Messenger

2011-07-29T01:08:00.000-07:00

Four hours later: sorry, I should have attributed this, but I was half asleep and had a thunder-frightened dog in my lap, It is, of course, by the great French illustrator Jean Giraud, aka Moebius and I found it at the website quenched consciousness.

Job Interview Tomorrow...

2011-07-18T11:28:00.000-07:00

with a very tough client.

I have a lot on my mind...

2011-07-16T23:19:00.001-07:00

The only thing more weird than reaching 67 years-old, is to suddenly be faced with the prospect that you might, very easily, become one of those homeless old men, wandering the streets, looking for dinner in dumpsters. If Social Security checks don’t go out on the first of next month, that’s where I’m apt to be. I was so proud of myself for maintaining a $1000 cushion in my account for fifteen years. Then, suddenly, it was gone, eaten up by the decline of the dollar, the increase in bank fees, and general slow attrition of a decade without salary. I know it’s impolite to write about money, especially in a world where so many are in so much more frightening circumstances than I. But I find myself waking up each morning with my mind trapped in an anxiety loop. It’s exhausting to spend the first three hours of every day climbing back to a level of objective nonchalance. I have to get it out of my system before I can write about anything else.

I'm Back!

2011-07-16T12:50:00.001-07:00

This young man’s name is “Clive Poster.” Isn’t that perfect!? It has been a long hard slog to get up and running again. I “upgraded” my operating system and, of course, nothing worked. This, the blog software is the last bit I’ve managed to figure out. My computer is much faster and noisier and, of course, I have a reliable broadband connection at last. But it all cost$ -- such a scam. I’m losing patience with Apple... Ubuntu here I come!

Cooking now...

2011-06-25T04:47:00.001-07:00

Amish White Bread

I got this recipe from a friend. It is very easy, and doesn't take long to make.

Ingredients

473.2 ml warm water (110 degrees F/45 degrees C)
157.7 ml white sugar
22.2 ml active dry yeast
7.4 ml salt
59.1 ml vegetable oil
1419.5 ml bread flour

Directions

In a large bowl, dissolve the sugar in warm water, and then stir in yeast. Allow to proof until yeast resembles a creamy foam.
Mix salt and oil into the yeast. Mix in flour one cup at a time. Knead dough on a lightly floured surface until smooth. Place in a well oiled bowl, and turn dough to coat. Cover with a damp cloth. Allow to rise until doubled in bulk, about 1 hour.
Punch dough down. Knead for a few minutes, and divide in half. Shape into loaves, and place into two well oiled 9x5 inch loaf pans. Allow to rise for 30 minutes, or until dough has risen 1 inch above pans.
Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for 30 minutes.

Search, share, and cook your recipes on Mac OS X with SousChef!

110531 Tue 10:30

2011-05-31T01:30:00.001-07:00

After a productive start, I seem to have hit a dry stretch, usually the indicator of a mild depression — the best way out: write more, even if you cannot think of a thing to write about. All indications are that summer has arrived in ernest, starting today. It’ 21°C at 10 o:clock and the computer weather prognosis is for it to stay sunny and get warmer over the next four days. Yesterday I did the first mowing of the lawns, until the battery expired and I plan to do more today. It’s a good way, too, out of the doldrums.

110528 Sat 22:58

2011-05-28T13:59:00.001-07:00

Today was the BRF (apartment co-op) Garden Clean-up. It is always more pleasant than I expect it to be. At the prescribed hour, everyone in the building just immediately sets to work: usually the “Three Ladies” and me, although sometimes kids come out to help. In Spring we clear the winter detritus and reinstall the garden furniture. Now we have a garden service, Lövstra Kooperativet, that comes earlier in the month and does the heavy underbrush clearing, tree pruning and trash hauling. But that is mostly because two of the members, my upstairs neighbor and I, are getting older and the fifth member rarely participates. Things were beginning to get a little out of control, with the two younger ladies doing the bulk of the work. It’s a relief to have paid assistance, but I think we all feel a little as if we’re cheating. I usually bustle around reassembling the large table, pumping up tires, and recharging the lawn-mower — manly things. Raking, weeding, edging and sweeping the walks is a communal effort and ongoing. Then we sit and have coffee and kardemumma bullar in the waning light and discuss future plans, present problems, and a bit of gossip. It is a very Swedish kind of group effort, and I love the way it re-establishes friendly civility on a regular basis. This is the kind of ritual that America seems to have lost in its rush to commercialize every human interaction, or make every minute pay. The benefits are barely quantifiable, difficult to describe, but unmistakable once you’ve experienced them.

110528 Sat 10:09

2011-05-28T01:09:00.001-07:00

I’ve felt guilty about not writing when my mind is so full. But it tends to inhibit the flow when there’s too much to think about. I just posted three disparate, but somehow connected things at HUGObserver: Gil Scott Heron’s obit, a link to lots of Olle Eksell graphics, and a funny comment on religions from Didier Lestrade. All three are synonymous, in my mind at any rate, with the Fifties/Sixties, and each represents a new tendency then that has, still, not reached any kind of resolution. The promise of that era has, pretty much fizzled in every one of those aspects: social equality, neo-socialism, gay liberation, and religious skepticism. If anything, we seem to be moving backwards. Both Scott-Heron and Lestrade have become icons when, at the time, I was only faintly aware of them — funny how the awesomely notorious rebels of our youth begin to seem like friendly contemporaries as we both grow older. It’s different for the ones who die; they are encased in an amber bubble of fame, almost instantly, and stay as remote as they ever were, or more-so if they achieve cult status. Perhaps, though, things are not that much different now and it is I who have lost the optimism of Youth that made it all seem so much more potent.

110527 Fri 10:27

2011-05-27T01:27:00.001-07:00

Huge clap of thunder around five o:clock this morning, followed by fifteen minutes of real rain, which tapered off to the usual Gotland drizzle and then stopped after about an hour. But it was enough to put me into a sound and comfortable sleep until 9:00. Now it’s sunny with that clear light that comes after a storm; the sky is blue, the air is chilled, and the garden is sparkling (not to mention the new crop of dandelions in the lawn).

110526 Thu 15:11

2011-05-26T06:11:00.001-07:00

The first item on my list of "Places I Have Lived" is Riverview Court, outside Annapolis, MD. That, I think, is Kay sitting in front, reading the newspaper. It was a strange little old house, perfectly in keeping with the post-war ambiance of the times. We lived there until I was six, Lisa was five, and Gordon, I believe, was on the way. Don was assigned to the Chesapeake Bay Naval Chemical Station, from which I remember him coming home in the evening in the Studebaker we had then - I can remember standing in the upstairs veranda, watching him park in the turning circle off the left of the photograph. In later years, we rented a smaller house, just down the hill, which became Don's "Studio," more photographic than writing, in those days, but just as dark as his places always were and with that characteristic smell that was a combination of him and chemicals.

110526 Thu 10:36

2011-05-26T01:38:00.001-07:00

A restless night of anxiety dreams: being summoned into the office of the Apotek and told, in the most kindly polite way, that they could no longer fill my prescriptions without full payment. This is actually not far from likelihood, although it will probably be handled much more clumsily. Instead of arguing for my Residency, which all acknowledge I should have, they just retreat into the rule-book (and cover their own butts: human nature). But I told myself I would not write about money in my journal, and I won't, even when it haunts my dreams. Sleeping is such a mixed blessing anyway when you reach my age; every fourth or fifth night I sleep like an adolescent and wake refreshed. Otherwise it's like bobbing up and down on a sea that refuses to engulf me. That's when the dreams come, and the stomach-aches, and the leg cramps. But it's rarely bad enough to simply give up. I always still manage to extract some rejuvenation from the six hours; changing position and drifting off for another hour. It's probably just as well I don't have a bed-mate, although maybe such a one would provide the security I need to sleep soundly.

110525 Wed 19:13

2011-05-25T10:13:00.001-07:00

I've sent the first entry to HUGOnline, announcing my intention to make it my online journal. Despite the usual disclaimers, I'm still a little leery of being too completely myself in public, if for no other reason than it's apt to be deadly: self-involved, whiney, and all the other criticisms I generally heap on my journal-keeping. Now the "Sessions" tabs in this application make a lot more sense! Things which are just too ghastly or irrelevant or this kind of meta-commentary can be isolated from that which is published. Besides, I don't even know if it's possible to write completely publicly. While it is good discipline to always bear an audience in mind, it can also be so inhibiting as to deform one's written personality. As always, it's a balancing act. Now that I think about it, though, it is kind of liberating to not have to think in terms of graphics, just words.

110525 Wed 18:53

2011-05-25T09:53:00.001-07:00

Things are changing and, without even thinking about it much, I've been changing with them. Tumblr has become the easiest way to capture images and quotes and, for months now, I've found myself using it in lieu of Blogger, my original web address, which has languished. Thus, adapting with the times, I've decided to make HUGOnline much more a written blog, a kind of online journal, while switching my short attention span to HUGObserver. Insofar as these entries will be generated directly from my computer journal ("viJournal," is the software, for those interested) it is apt to become much more personal; so much so that I'm breaking this automatic link with Facebook (but retaining the one with Tumblr). In a way, I guess, I'm giving fair warning: while I don't intend to indulge in excess profanity or anything overtly libelous, neither am I going to self-censor much beyond general editorial correctness. So, if you'd rather not know the personal details of my life (apt to be pretty boring, in any case) or share my angst, now is the time to trash this bookmark.

Lala lala lala

2011-05-02T00:13:00.000-07:00

mensroom:

Ensam

2011-05-01T00:59:00.000-07:00

These things just keep appearing... coincidence?

Kay Kyser & his Orchestra - Thinking of You (Theme Song)...

2011-05-01T00:54:00.000-07:00

Kay Kyser & his Orchestra - Thinking of You (Theme Song)...: "

Kay Kyser & his Orchestra - Thinking of You (Theme Song) Brunswick Records

Alone

2011-04-28T06:16:00.001-07:00

In hohen Norden Schweden

2011-03-19T04:17:00.000-07:00

In hohen Norden Schweden:
from this 1960s tourism poster by Olle Skrede.

2011-03-03T14:36:00.000-08:00

"Schuiten" is François Schuiten - he's quite extraordinary.

Schuiten

2011-03-03T12:24:00.000-08:00

via: The Other Mr. Knappy-Head

john coulthart.com:feuilleton

Schuiten

My Next Vacation...

2011-02-27T01:57:00.000-08:00

Photo: Moebius via "Quenched Consciousness"

Some days...

2011-02-23T13:55:00.000-08:00

Anxiety Man

Frozen!

2011-02-23T10:35:00.000-08:00

For the first time in 25 years, the sea around Gotland has nearly frozen solid. The ice sheet is predicted to reach as far south as Öland within the next few days. It's COLD!

Aha! Just as we suspected...

2011-02-22T11:41:00.000-08:00

Photo

I wish summer would get here!

2011-02-19T09:52:00.000-08:00

thomas eakins

How a sewing machine works

2011-02-14T17:42:00.000-08:00

nemoi

How a sewing machine works (gif source)

“People today have forgotten they’re...

2011-02-13T11:54:00.000-08:00

mudwerks:

quotevadis:

“People today have forgotten they’re really just a part of nature. Yet, they destroy the nature on which our lives depend. They always think they can make something better. Especially scientists. They may be smart, but most don’t understand the heart of nature. They only invent things that, in the end, make people unhappy. Yet they’re so proud of their inventions. What’s worse, most people are, too. They view them as if they were miracles. They worship them. They don’t know it, but they’re losing nature. They don’t see that they’re going to perish. The most important things for human beings are clean air and clean water.”

— Akira Kurosawa, a Japanese film director, producer, screenwriter and editor. Regarded as one of the most important and influential filmmakers in the history of cinema, Kurosawa directed 30 films in a career spanning 57 years. Some of his films include Rashomon (1950), Ikiru (1952), Seven Samurai (1954), Yojimbo (1961), Kagemusha (1980), Ran (1985), Madadayo (1993)

Street Art

2011-02-13T06:47:00.001-08:00

By Armo, found on La Cienega Blvd., LA

Four Pictures from Cairo

2011-02-07T05:46:00.001-08:00

Thanks to The Boulevardier

Gunilla Carlsson spoked at Humanitarian Funding Conference

2011-01-27T09:27:00.000-08:00

Minister for International Development Cooperation Gunilla Carlsson's speech at Humanitarian Funding Conference, Geneva, 25 January

Goodness! That sounds painful!

Just because...

2011-01-18T18:26:00.001-08:00

Jacques Tati and Alain Bécourt ride a bike.
from Rides a Bike, via coisas do arco da velha

Hmm... Seem familiar?

2011-01-16T16:58:00.001-08:00

Norse

2011-01-09T09:56:00.001-08:00

No comment.
Thanks, Nat.

Julek

2011-01-02T16:50:00.000-08:00

My three-year old nephew, once removed (sounds so surgical!) Or is he my "grand nephew". Oh, who cares? Isn't he great!

Who'dve thunk!?

2010-12-31T17:04:00.001-08:00

See: it's all so simple...

2010-12-30T03:10:00.001-08:00

Thanks to sissydudeomen2

Watch out!

2010-12-29T14:56:00.001-08:00

Translation: When sailors get ashore"
Original title: "Dames Ahoy"
Thanks to SailorJunkers

More French Artists

2010-12-21T19:46:00.001-08:00

Bibliothèque gay is an absolute treasure trove.
The Illustration (used as a logo) is from
"Tirésias", by Marcel Jouhandeau, 1954
Click image to visit

The Airtight Garage

2010-12-11T11:30:00.000-08:00

Quenched Consciousness (aka ‘The Airtight Garage’) is a blog exploring the work of Jean Giraud, aka Gir, aka Moebius. Basically, there doesn't seem to be many places online that give a comprehensive collection of his work. So here is one. Recommended!

No Comment

2010-12-04T18:31:00.001-08:00

...‘vagrant’ geometries of autonomous Living Technologies

2010-12-03T06:24:00.001-08:00

Dan Slavinsky “The Architectural Possibilities of a Stairway”

2010-12-02T15:36:00.001-08:00

And this...

2010-12-01T10:40:00.001-08:00

THE MADNESS OF A LOST SOCIETY

2010-12-01T10:26:00.000-08:00

Remembering Friends...

2010-12-01T09:45:00.001-08:00

More mutt...

2010-11-12T14:39:00.001-08:00

“ A boy can learn a lot from a dog: obedience, loyalty, and the importance of turning around three times before lying down. — Robert Benchley

Via LibraryLand

For Harvey...

2010-11-10T03:04:00.001-08:00

‘Us two in the room; my dog and me….
Outside a fearful storm is howling.
The dog sits in front of me, and looks me straight in the face. 
And I, too, look into his face. 
He wants, it seems, to tell me something.
He is dumb, he is without words,
he does not understand himself
—but I understand him.
 I understand that at this instant there is living in him and in me
the same feeling, that there is no difference between us.
We are the same; in each of us there burns and shines the same trembling spark. Death sweeps down, with a wave of its chill broad wing…. And the end! 
Who then can discern what was the spark that glowed in each of us? 
No! We are not beast and man that glance at one another…. They are the eyes of equals, those eyes riveted on one another. 
And in each of these, in the beast and in the man,
the same life huddles up in fear close to the other.’
—February 1878

Ivan Turgenev (born 9 November, 1818; died 3 September, 1883),
translated from the Russian by Constance Garnett
je vivrai l'amour des autres

People keep asking where I am...

2010-11-09T13:01:00.001-08:00

Weird

2010-08-18T02:30:00.001-07:00

Steve Reeves with clothes on!
via: Beer, Cigarettes and Cheap Aftershave

Untitled

2010-07-19T02:43:00.001-07:00

Sunlight and Shadow
Winslow Homer

I knew there was a picture I associated with the Win Scott poem I read at my mother's funeral:

I want to show you a young girl in an orchard
Face down to a book, hair fallen forward,
The May apples' shift of white and green
Lifted around her, sun let out and in,
Such a day as you remember for unnameable
Fragrance and the long slow sound of it all,
As though it were the unopened heart of summer
Somehow known. The girl is at its center.
She is out of herself into the book,
And she and the book and the day together make
A page that holds the sun, and may be so
Forever but that of course I cannot show you
Or know myself. But I can look as long
As I grow older, and none of this will move or change.

Winfield Townley Scott
Go My Little Tragedy, XVIII

Ah...

2010-07-18T14:00:00.000-07:00

Do not despair, gentle reader. I have not abandoned you. I'm merely temporarily incapacitated by one of the most intractably god-awful internet providers on the planet. But I will return!

Now Here's a Good Question...

2010-07-09T13:24:00.000-07:00

Was the Social Security Money “Borrowed” or “Stolen”?

Little dreams...

2010-06-10T14:48:00.001-07:00

“Our entire language is made up of short little dreams; and the delightful thing about it is that we sometimes fashion from them thoughts that are strangely exact and wonderfully reasonable.”

Paul Valéry, “On Myths and Mythology”
Thanks to coisas do arco da velha & invisible stories

Vespa mythos...

2010-06-04T00:12:00.001-07:00

I Remember this...

2010-05-26T02:25:00.000-07:00

This is how my mother thought "proper little boys" should dress. She had this very pattern, and I was duly sent to Green Street Elementary School in Annapolis, kitted like the lad on the right. Yikes! No wonder I'm confused!

Lots of Pictures!

2010-05-17T13:37:00.001-07:00

Freshly uploaded, recent scans of Donald's innumerable pocket-sized prints of the family stay in Sweden, 1957-58. Cute kids, vintage Stockholm, Vespas, odd cars, trolleys, and a rare selection of Hugo's first photos, mostly of Scout Camp and adventures with Lisa & friend, exploring an almost car-free Stockholm, during the Suez Crisis. Click the Lucia Trio above, or here.

(In case you didn't get it - that's me in the charming pajamas, Lisa on the brink of immolation, and Gordon with his thumb in his mouth)

Reminder to self...

2010-05-16T15:11:00.001-07:00

I prefer drawing to talking.
Drawing is faster, and leaves less room for lies

~Le Courbusier
via: venus as a boy

Now THIS is Scary!

2010-05-03T02:59:00.001-07:00

Bee Catastrophe: 1/3 of Colonies Died This Winter,
Threatening Massive Ecological Catastrophe

Solidarity

2010-05-01T12:52:00.001-07:00

United, Workers are bigger than any Bank. We are Too Big to Fail!

Fire and Champagne

2010-04-30T03:41:00.001-07:00

Historically Valborgmässa (Walpurgisnacht) is derived from various pagan spring customs. Bonfires were built to keep away the dead and chaotic spirits that were then widely believed to walk among the living.¹ This is followed by the return of light and the sun as celebrated during May Day. The strongest and most traditional Spring festivities are also found in the old university cities, like Uppsala and Lund where both undergraduates, graduates and alumni gather at events that last most of the day from early morning to late night on April 30, or "sista april" ("The last day of April") as it is called in Uppsala. Modern Valborg celebrations, particularly in Uppsala, consist of having a light breakfast including champagne and strawberries. During the day people gather in parks, drink alcoholic beverages, barbeque and generally enjoy the weather, if it happens to be favourable.

A Little Sanity...Please!

2010-04-30T02:11:00.001-07:00

So this thing has spread, is what has happened, this thing of making pariahs of smokers, punishing them with ostracism. Smoking Kills!—as if it just kills generically, kills everyone, and not just the addicts who are torching three packs a day. (Which, yes, it may!) There’s a weird, angry vengefulness against smokers, who are now treated like “outsiders” in more than just the literal sense of having to cluster round the ashcan at some specified distance from an office building.

In Praise of Five Cigarettes a Day - The Awl

Universal Declaration of the Rights of Mother Earth

2010-04-28T03:55:00.001-07:00

This document was adopted by the World People's Conference on Climate and the Rights of Mother Earth on April 22, 2010. The conference was held in Cochabamba, Bolivia, April 19-22. Text from PWCCC. For more coverage of the World People's Conference on Climate Change and the Rights of Mother Earth, click HERE.

* * *

"Today, our Mother Earth is wounded and the future of humanity is in danger...." Click image for full text.

I've been busy...

2010-04-19T07:02:00.001-07:00

Sorry for the scarcity of posts recently. I've been working of a sequence of digital collages I've named the "Vim Series," after a small magazine of the same name which had a rather profound effect on me as a thirteen year-old. I'll post others in due course.

Follow-up.

2010-04-12T05:02:00.001-07:00

LUCILLE WEBB, THE WIDOW OF PHOTOGRAPHER TODD WEBB,
DIED PEACEFULLY ON JAN. 12, 2008, AT HER HOME IN AUBURN.
SHE WAS 101 YEARS OLD.
AUBURN -- Lucille Webb, the widow of photographer Todd Webb, died peacefully on Jan. 12, 2008, at her home in Auburn. She was 101 years old.
      Born Sept. 16, 1906, she led an extraordinary life. Nee Lucille Minqueau, she grew up in New York City where she attended classes at NYU and Barnard College, and studied for a year at the Sorbonne in 1924. Her career was fascinating and wide-ranging. Her first job was as personal secretary to the then famous opera star Lucretia Bori, learning and managing the many intrigues of Ms. Bori's life. Lucille went on to work at an advertising firm, Peddler and Ryan. All the while she was taking classes in modern dance with Jose Limon and Catherine Dunham, dancing briefly in both companies.
      She was extremely independent. After World War II, unmarried and in her early 40s, she ventured on a trip to Paris. There, by complete happenstance, she met Todd Webb, an American photographer living in Paris at the time. After 24 hours of knowing Lucille he asked her to marry him! His journal entry reflects that knowledge... Things are happening to me, things I hadn't planned or dreamed of. There is even the possibility I may not be a bachelor forever. Their partnership and love for one another was truly inspirational. They married in Paris, Sept. 10, 1949, and realized they were born a year and a day apart- Sept. 15, 1905 and Sept. 16, 1906. They lived in Paris for a few more years and moved back to New York in 1953.

     Todd was working as a commercial photographer and with Roy Stryker who was heading up the WPA. Todd received two Guggenheim fellowships in 1954 and '55, walking across America with his camera. Lucille held down the fort with a job in New York at one of the first firms to do market research and polling. In 1960 they were lured to Santa Fe by their old friend, Georgia O'Keeffe, settling there for 10 years.
      Lucille opened a paperback bookshop and gallery on Canyon Road and Todd taught photography. They had many adventures, traveling to Mexico often and spending time with O'Keeffe and her circle of friends. In 1971 they ventured back to France settling in the Provencal village of St. Restitut, and thence to Bath, England for a few years. They returned to the states in 1976, settling in Portland and Bath. They moved to Schooner Estates in Auburn in 1999. Todd died in 2000. Todd Webb is best known for his large format photos of New York in the 1940s, Paris in the 50s and intimate portraits of Georgia O'Keeffe.
      Lucille is survived by a sister, Lenore, 103, of New York City. She also is survived by many devoted friends. She was truly a marvel and will be sorely missed. A memorial service will be held on Jan. 25, at 10 a.m. at Schooner Estates in Auburn, in the Tenant's Harbor room. In lieu of flowers, contributions in Lucille's name may be sent to the Guggenheim Foundation, New York or the Maine College of Art, Portland.
Via:Todd Webb Photographs

Like a phantom...

2010-04-12T03:38:00.001-07:00

Todd Webb, photographer, was a friend of my parents in Santa Fe in the 50's-60's. His wife, Lucille, ran the Paperbook Gallery on Canyon Road, and was my first book-selling employer, while I was at St. John's College. The shop, although limited in inventory, displayed a large number of Todd's photographs, and I grew to love them.

The Webbs lived on Houghton St., just up the hill from Harrington Junior High, not too far from Free Fraser's and Kaune's, (that corner of, then, College & Manhattan streets, that was to become dominated by the "Round House" and the Paseo de Peralta Loop (both ugly) but then was mostly St. Mike's, The Pink Adobe, and the Bull Ring) and seemed a part of the permanent constellation of Santa Fe life. How naif we are at that age! How quickly it becomes The Past.

Photo from loverofbeauty, click to enlarge.

At last!

2010-04-04T01:55:00.001-07:00

Can I go back to high school and try again?
From ZenFancy

And then...

2010-04-02T12:18:00.000-07:00

Daniel Mendoza's photostream, Extra Foliage.

A post-modern truth...

2010-04-01T05:30:00.001-07:00

From nie nie nie

Hmm...

2010-03-30T11:55:00.001-07:00

I've heard every single one of these
(but I've only used two myself...)

Thought for the day...

2010-03-29T13:42:00.001-07:00

Cathedral

2010-03-26T10:59:00.001-07:00

One of my first photographs of Visby, kaleidoscopically digitalized.

Au revoir

2010-03-26T10:18:00.001-07:00

Into the glamorous past...
Anita Ekberg & Marcello Mastroianni
Photo from loverofbeauty