Disco Magic 💃⭐️🍸 A Playlist For A Funky Night Out (click Here To Listen)

Slides from an Alice in Wonderland Viewmaster series

Oscar Wilde photographed by Napoleon Sarony, 1882.

These photographs were taken in January of 1882, when Wilde had first arrived in America for his year long lecture tour. All were taken in the studio of the most famous portrait photographer of the time, Canadian born Napoleon Sarony. The various furs, capes, velvet jackets, and stockings Wilde wore for the photo shoot reflected the attire he would wear to his lectures.

It certainly surprised me when I found out that the majority of Wilde’s most iconic images came from the same session, and were taken in the U.S. when Wilde had only published a yet to be produced play, Vera; or, the Nihilists, and a single book of verse (which Wilde can be seen holding in the first and second photographs).

Rations for various RPG Races

[[ Source. Original creator: wats6831. Additional information and images linked under each one. ]]

Universal:

Homemade artisan herb bread, home grown and dried apples and prunes, uncured beef sausage, munster cheese. Made a small bag from cheesecloth and tied it closed.

Discussion thread here.

Dwarf:

Garlic chicken livers, smoked and peppered cheese, spiced pork sausages, hard tack, dried vegetables, dried wild mushrooms.

Discussion thread here.

Elf:

Top left to right: Evereskan Honey Comb, Elven Travel Bread (Amaretto Liquer Cake with custom swirls), Lurien Spring Cheese (goat cheese with garlic, salt, spices and shallots), Delimbyr Vale Smoked Silverfin (Salmon), Honey Spiced Lichen (Kale Chips), and Silverwood Pine Nuts.

Discussion thread here.

Halfling:

From upper left: “Honeytack” Hard tack honey cakes, beef sausage, pork sausage mini links, mini whole wheat toast, cranberry cheddar cheese mini wedge, mini pickles, pumpkin and sunflower seeds, lower right is my homemade “travel cake” muesli with raisins, golden prunes, honey, eggs and cream.

Discussion thread here.

Half-Orc:

Wrapped in cheesecloth and tied in burlap package. Forest strider drumsticks, molasses sweet wheat bread “black strap”, aged Munster, hard boiled eggs, mixed wild nuts.

Discussion thread here.

Orc:

Orcs aren’t known for their great cuisine. Orcs prefer foods that are readily available (whatever can be had by raiding), and portable with little preparation, though they have a few racial delicacies. Toughs strips of lean meat, bones scavenged from recent kills, and dark coarse bread make up the bulk of common orc rations.Fire roasted rothe femur (marrow is a rare treat) [beef femur], Strips of dried meat (of unknown origin) [homemade goose jerky], foraged nuts, only edible by orcs….nut cracker tusks [brazil nuts], coarse black bread, made with whatever grains can be pillaged [black sesame bread], Pungent peppers [Habanero peppers stuffed with smoked fish and olives].

More images here. Discussion thread here.

Gnome:

Pan fried Delimbyr smelt, spiced goat cheese (paprika crusted hand pressed Fontina), Gnome shortbread (savory pistachio), glass travel jar filled with Secomber Red (wine), hard boiled quail eggs packed in rolled oats (to keep safe), dried figs from Calimshan, and Southwood smoked goat sausage (blood sausage).

More images here. Discussion thread here.

Lizardfolk:

Lizardfolk are known to be omnivores, forage for a surprising variety of foods found within the confines of their marshy environs, in this case the Lizard Marsh near Daggerford. Fresh caught boiled Delimbyr Crayfish on wild chives, coastal carrageen moss entrapping estuary brine shrimp (irish moss, dried brine shrimp), Brackish-Berries (blackberries), Blackened Dart-Frog legs (frog legs) on spring sprouts (clover sprouts), roasted bog bugs on a stick!

More images here. Discussion thread here.

Drow:

From top left: Menzoberranzan black truffle rothe cheese (Black Knight Tilsit), Donigarten Moss Snails (Escargot in shallot butter sauce), Blind cave fish caviar in mushroom caps (Lumpfish caviar), faerzress infused duck egg imported from the surface Realms (Century egg), Black velvet ear fungus (Auricularia Black Fungus Mushroom).

More images here. Discussion thread here.

The signs as famous mistresses

Aries: Amalie Sophie Marianne von Wallmoden

Taurus: Hortense Catherine Schneider

Gemini: Hortense Mancini

Cancer: Liane de Pougy

Leo: Madame du Barry \ Louise de la Valliere

Virgo: Louise de Keroualle

Libra: Madame de Montespan

Scorpio: Barbara Villiers

Sagittarius: Émilie du Châtelet

Capricorn: Madame de Pompadour

Aquarius: Nell Gwyn

Pisces: Arabella Churchill

Gianlorenzo Bernini, 1619 Sleeping Hermaphroditos details

The River

Directed by Joelle Grace Taylor and Laura Estrada Jewelry, featured in French Fries Magazine.

                                   Atelier de Lesfressange (Series XIII)

1. Francisco Goya “Maria Luisa, Queen of Spain, On Horseback”, 1799 

2. Charles Edouard Boutibonne - Empress Eugénie (1857)

3. Portrait of HM Queen Victoria dated1845–1846, by Sir Francis Grant 

4. Portrait of Empress Elisabeth of Austria by by Carl Piloty and Franz Adam 

5. Madame de Pompadour (“Portrait of a young Amazon” by Giacomo Ceruti)

6. Algérie - Peintre Français  Émile-Jean-Horace Vernet  (1789 - 1863) 

7. Marie Antoinette on a Prancing Horse by Alfred de Dreux

8. In Dublin Bay by Heywood Hardy

9. Idonia in Morocco - The Equestrian Lady by John Lavery

10. Elizabeth Cahrlotte d'Orleans,Duchesse de Lorraine by Jean-Baptiste Martin,c.1710-15

Art history books

As requested, here’s a short list of art history books that I found extremely helpful during my undergraduate degree. Most of them are just introductory but good reads nonetheless. If you need book recommendations on specific artists, art movements or genres, don’t hesitate to send me a message. 

Here we go!

1. A World History of Art by Hugh Honour & John Fleming. This book is HUGE and it’s available to purchase online in various editions - any of them is okay for an introductory reading. 

2. The Story of Art by E.H. Gombrich. Although this book contains next to none female artists, it’s still a good introduction to the art world. 

3. Concepts of Modern Art edited by Nikos Stangos. Good read, covers a lot of areas. Also, I found it for £0.01 on Amazon, so not that bad. 

4. Learning to Look at Paintings by Mary Acton. Self-explanatory really. 

5. The Lives of the Artists by Giorgio Vasari. Vasari is perhaps the first to have carried out some sort of primordial art historical research. Although he includes lots of anecdotal stories about artists, these should be read lightly and not be taken all that seriously. However, he does provide us with some invaluable information! 

6. Looking at the Overlooked (Four Essays on Still Life Painting) by Norman Bryson. Nothing is what it looks like. Basically. 

7. Art Since 1900 - Modernism, Antimodernism, Postmodernism by Hal Foster and Rosalind Krauss. Another huge book. It’s also very heavy. Don’t say I didn’t warn you. 

8. Classical Art: From Greece to Rome by Mary Beard and John Henderson. For statues and things like that. 

9. Ways of Seeing by John Berger. This book you guys, if you intent to buy a book, get this one. 

10. The Social History of Art, Volumes 1, 2, 3 and 4 by Arnold Hauser. An overview of art history by perhaps the most well-know Marxist art historian.

I am sure more will come to mind as time passes so I will make sure to update this brief list accordingly. Feel free to also add more suggestions if you have any good art history books in mind. Remember that the above are more or less introductory readings than anything else. I hope these recommendations are somewhat helpful to you!

Blue and Red Symbolism in “The Prince of Egypt”

One of the cool overarching artistic themes in “The Prince of Egypt” is blue versus red. It doesn’t work 100% of the time - for instance, Zipporah’s clothing is blue, but she’s not associated with the Egyptians - but overall, blue and red have their own distinct, separate symbolism. Blue represents Egypt, while red is the color of Moses’ family, the Hebrews, and their God Elohim. 

Now I’m going to quickly rush from start to end of the film and point out the major blue and red moments I’ve noticed.

The opening shot is red, while the musical theme for God is playing in the background.

The Hebrew infants are being slaughtered, and the color of the streets is amazingly red. The Egyptian guards themselves, however, are carrying blue shields - the only blue in these frames.

Jochebed, Aaron, and Miriam are all wearing red. Even the baby Moses is wrapped in a red blanket. Jochebed is also wearing blue; she’s making a choice based upon the dangers of Egyptian society.

All the Egyptians are wearing blue. Rameses II even has a blue tie around his ponytail and a blue necklace. The entire tint of this moment is basically blue… blues and purples. It’s a huge visual contrast from the baked, bloody red from which baby Moses has escaped.

Blues, blues, blues everywhere. The headdress of the Pharaoh on the statue is blue. Later, painted murals of the Pharaoh will show the same blue.

The next shot, we see Moses and Rameses as young adults. Moses is still sticking with the red theme, which cues viewers subtly that he’s out of place in Egyptian society. Moses’ horses are decorated in red, so is his chariot, and so are accents of his clothing. Rameses, meanwhile, perfect little Egyptian boy that he is, has all that in blue and aqua.

Tuya wears blue around the collars, the Pharaoh Seti’s cane is aqua blue, and the priests are wearing the same bluish accents. Rameses II is, as I mentioned before, wearing the same color. In fact, everyone in this room has the same shade of blue on except for Moses.

If we really want to go crazy overanalyzing, even the punch bowl that Moses dumps on Hotep and Huy is red.

Egyptian magic is blue.

So is the ring that Rameses gives Moses. Now this ring is symbolic. While Moses wears it, he has a connection to his Egyptian family, his Egyptian brother. When he returns to Egypt to ask the Pharaoh to let the Hebrew slaves go, he returns the ring. He is revoking his kinship and connections with the Egyptians at this moment. He’s revoking the blue.

There is a deep blue tint during the night scene Moses meets Miriam and Aaron and first learns he’s actually Hebrew by birth. Moses’ mind is concerned with the fact he’s blue - an Egyptian - even though that’s not the truth. Oh, right, and all three siblings - Moses, Miriam, and Aaron - are wearing red.

While Moses struggles with the shocking news he’s actually a Hebrew, he runs into his Egyptian home. The places where he stands to comfort himself are blue, blue, blue everywhere. He wants to think that this is where he belongs - in this comforting Egyptian blue.

But then you get to Moses’ bedroom, and you realize it’s red. He’s a Hebrew at heart, deep beneath it all. He just doesn’t realize it yet.

After Moses enters Midian, Jethro gives him a red cloak. 

And it is to note that Jethro, while a Midianite rather than a Hebrew, is the one who speaks to Moses about looking at life through Heaven’s eyes. This helps pave the way for Moses to become acquainted and receptive to the Hebrew God Elohim. Jethro wears red. Even the tent he lives in is red. It’s all red.

When Moses sees the burning bush, at first the atmosphere is blue. His cloak and the bush are the only things with reddish tinges on them.

The colors which wrap around him, though, are a bit more red than blue.

Excited Moses tells the news he’s going to deliver the Hebrews in a red tent.

Rameses’ royal chambers in Egypt are very blue. Moses, wearing red, sticks out from the rest of the people and things in the room.

Hey, look, more blue Egyptian magic. There is some stark red in this scene, too. Blue generally predominates, and all the time conjurations happen, it’s with blue (or greens, at least) as the main color.

The biggest exception is the fact that the Egyptians pull out red snakes. It’s almost as though to hint those snakes are going to be eaten by Moses’.

I want to point out that, of the three siblings, only Miriam wears complete red. Moses also is wearing a greenish, tealish undershirt, while Aaron’s shorts are blue-green. It’s as if to point out that Moses has to struggle through both sides, while Aaron is someone whose mind isn’t deep on faith, and gets too caught up in the worries of current Egyptian society. Miriam, the great woman of endless faith, is the one who wears the complete red associated with God.

The ideal place to relax for the Pharaoh and his son is in a rather blue boat.

Moses drowns out that blue and replaces it with the red of blood, directly with God’s power.

However, the Pharaoh has not relented. He won’t let the Hebrews go. And before the plagues begin, the Egyptian world is still overall blue in tint.

Not so much once the plagues hit and turn the whole world red.

And if you still don’t believe in the red versus blue symbolism, check out this screenshot below. Moses and Rameses II are shown facing one another in opposition. Rameses, blue. Moses, red. The two figureheads for Egypt and Israel, coming in conflict, depicting these two thematic, symbolic colors. 

The doors are painted with the blood of lambs to protect Hebrews from the angel of death.

But there is death amongst the Egyptians, and a foreboding - depressing - blue ambience within that dark. Moses leaves Rameses II enshrouded in blue. It’s so blue you can’t even see the red on Moses’ cloak.

Rameses returns to attack the Hebrews in blue. It’s the most blue he’s ever worn, in fact.

But God returns. He comes as a pillar of flame - a bright, red, magnificent red pillar of flame. And when the Hebrews travel through the Red Sea, they light flames themselves, bringing some sparks of red into the blue passageway.

As I said before, the blue versus red symbolism isn’t perfect. There are times that it diverges, or that blue is simply blue and red is simply red. However, I think there is still a strong correlation between red associating with the Hebrews and blue with the Egyptians. The artwork is beautiful in and of itself, but the fact that the color pallet seems to be so symbolically intentional gives me a whole other level of respect for the creators of this movie.

Four sides of witchcraft. Countdown to Halloween.