More talk about death

I was looking at the front page of wikipedia today when I noticed that there is a link to "Recent Deaths."  I've never been one to peruse the Obituaries, but I thought the list of deaths on Wikipedia may be worth reading.

The people on the list were reduced to Name, Age, Nationality, Profession, small notable factoid and Method of death.  What an impersonal way to describe an event that has such impact on the people around them.  But logically, I know that you can't go into detail in a list like this.  Obviously, each name links back to the person's wiki page so that you can get more detail about who they were.

Then I was struck by the variety of countries and ages represented and how this is really only a tiny fraction of the people lost during the month of March.  Each name on this list represented a person, a family, a group of friends and colleagues who were feeling a deep sense of loss and pain.  How would you feel if you knew more than one person on the list?  Or the whole list?  Or the whole REAL list of everyone who died during the course of ... ever?  I imagined how Jehovah feels when he hears about the deaths that happen all over the world, each second.  He knew each of them, intimately.  I can't fathom it.

Anyway, I did learn a few things by reading the list of deaths in March:

It looks like someone is murdering Russian journalists - on the 21st someone shot a 58 year old TV journalist and someone (else?) strangled a 32 year old TV journalist.  Coincidence?  Maybe.  Maybe not.

Foodies:
The man who founded Popeye's Chicken died of salivary gland cancer a few days ago.  Doesn't that sound like the kind of thing you'd hear on SNL?  Also, the man who invented Spaghetti-Os died earlier in the month.

Wiki keeps a list of the oldest verified living people.  Third one on the list died this week.  She was 114.

People we won't miss:
Three American Mass Murderers / Serial Killers died this week...of natural causes.  I have pretty strong opinions on this one that I'll leave unsaid.

Royals / Nobility:
Prince Ferdinand, Duke of Castro (that's one man) and Al-Bandari bint Abdul Aziz Al Saud, sister of the King of Saudi Arabia.  Also, Luisa Isabel Alvarez de Toledo, listed as a Spanish "noblewoman" and author.

Entertainment:
If you listen to NPR, you already knew about the death of Arthur C. Clarke, author of "2001: A Space Odyssey" - the movie with the most unwatchable first 30 minutes of any movie ever made.
British actor, Paul Scofield, died of leukemia at 86.  I recently watched his Oscar winning performance as Sir Thomas More in "A Man for All Seasons."  Sorry, as much as I liked him, I didn't like the movie.  I am right in the midst of reading all those books about Henry VIII, so I was able to figure out what was going on.  If not for that, I would have been completely lost.  Maybe I've blogged about this already.  The only other thing I've seen him in was "The Crucible" - he played the last judge who came in to try Joan Allen and Daniel Day Lewis.  Even though he was an old man in that movie, he had a voice and presence that stole all the attention away from a very attractive (though dirty) Daniel Day Lewis. 

Business:
The owner of Ameriquest Mortgage died.  Though that is a sad event, I was more intrigued to find out that he'd been serving as an Ambassador to the Netherlands since 2006.  That's an odd mix.
Dick Durrell, the guy who founded People magazine, died at age 82.

Music:
Corinne Bailey Rae's husband died of a suspected drug overdose.  Sad.  I like her voice.
The woman who wrote "Rain Rain Go Away" died at age 84.

Finally, the one that made me gasp, Jeff Healey.  You remember him, the blind guy who played his guitar facing up on his lap, in his wheelchair...and sang with a gorgeous voice.  His song "Angel Eyes" is still one of my all time favorite slow songs.  That's still the only song I can name by him, but it was so good that I'm very sad to know that his music career is over.

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Another funeral

I found out this morning that the grandfather of Infectious Laughter's husband died yesterday.  Technically, I'd only met and spoken with him once.  But virtually everyone I know up here knew and loved him.  He was in his mid to late 80s and full of spunk.  I honestly haven't figured out who all the people in my cousin's husband's family are - like ours, it is a LARGE family. 

I do know that there was some kind of mutual respect between this man and my mother.  She thought he was a hoot and he thought she was ... as wonderful as she was.  In fact, the only time I sat down and spoke with him was in my mother's house when she was very ill.  After he found out that she was confined to the house, he came by to visit a few times.  My cousin tells me that the last time she saw him was at my mother's funeral.

I wish I had known him better.  All I can really tell you is that he was Italian.  He had a big family who loved him dearly.  And in the last couple of years of his life, he decided to learn to speak Spanish, though I'm not sure if he ever changed over to the Spanish congregation.  We were all blown away that he would even attempt to learn a new language so late in life.  But he loved it and recommended it to everyone.

His funeral is scheduled for this Saturday, 1:30, at our hall.  I'm not sure our hall is big enough, honestly.  My cousin and her husband are coming to stay with me.  The house is pretty clean, I just gotta organize the Barbie stuff a little better...and deal with the papers on the kitchen table.  The two biggest things I've got to do is get my car cleaned and get some food in the house.  I would like to at least have breakfast food for them.  With meeting tonight and photoshop class tomorrow night, that leaves me only Thursday to do most of this stuff.  I can make it work.  I can at least get my car done tomorrow night between work and class.

...and I need to call DrummerChick.  We've texted a few messages back and forth, but nothing meaningful.  This weekend is obviously out, but maybe I'll try to get with her the following weekend.

CRAP!  I just remembered that I have tickets to see Paula Poundstone on Friday night.  I don't know what I'm gonna do.

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Its snowing. No wonder i an freezing!

Playing Wii

Playing Wii
Originally uploaded by horsenbuggy

So, I thought I had finally decided on a name for Barbie's man. I really like the name Ian. But someone on Flickr said he had been thinking of my character as more of a "tough guy" than Ian indicates.

So should I drop his name and let each person imagine what they want? I imagine a non-tough guy name because, well, I think this guy's gonna end up "whipped" in most of my shots. But maybe that would be funnier if he had a tough-guy name. I gotta select a name that is not associated with anyone I know IRL. And I probably shouldn't use a name that I would like if I ever had a son...so Ian is off the table.

So, like all good pop culture of our day, I'll put this up to the VOTE:

Ace
Hawk
Buck
Fitz
Ferris (since he is supposed to be Matthew Broderick's face)

You can suggest a name, but no guarantee that I'll select it.

Do these make my butt look big?

Do these make my butt look big?
Originally uploaded by horsenbuggy

Barbie went shopping today. Now that her man is no longer in the military, he needed some civilian clothes. She picked up two outfits. Oops, men don't wear "outfits." She bought some shirts, jeans and shorts for her man to wear. In this photo, he's showing off his new duds. She's checking out how well they fit.

So, I was trying something new with the lighting. I am not impressed with the results. I went back to my old way of lighting in the third and it is better, if a little cold.

365 - Day 29

Game Night - drama

Game Night - drama
Originally uploaded by horsenbuggy

I posted several shots of this set up. I'm calling it Game Night. It's just a photo of the two dolls playing Monopoly. I've got three new items in this scene. The most obvious is the Monopoly board. It's a magnet from the Dollar Tree. I wish I had cards or money to go on the board. But it's so detailed, that I don't think you really notice those things are missing. The pieces the dolls are playing with are earring backs.

The other new item is the thing providing the dramatic lighting in this shot. I bought a clip on book light at the Dollar Tree today. The light is very bendy so I can point it where I want. However, it's a pretty small spot light. I should have bought a few.

The final not really new item is the chair the guy is sitting in. It's a metal chair I got at a thrift store for maybe 2 bucks. It doesn't really fit Barbie too well, but he does pretty well with it. It's a fairly cool industrial metal looking chair.

Love Bears All Things

Love Bears All Things
Originally uploaded by horsenbuggy

The symbols are castinets that were given to me by P June. I ran across them this weekend and knew immediately that I had to use them as symbols in one of my Barbie shots. I wanted to wait to put them in a shot with other musical instruments, but I don't have any yet. This image came to mind because I wanted to shoot something with Barbie and her new man toy.

Speaking of boy toys, this is a "fully articulated" male action figure (that means he can put his hands up to his ears but Barbie can't). The body is all ripped and muscle-y. The head that came with the body has a really mean face - he's a soldier determined to get the job done. As much as I hate Barbie's permanent toothy grin, a permanent scowl is even worse. However, while rummaging through my nephew's toys, I found a neglected body from the Inspector Gadget movie. My sister, nephew and I performed a head transplant and ... VOILA! I have a pleasant face on my male body.

There's another funny thing about this male figure. I've been looking at some heads on ebay that are molded and painted to look exactly like famous Hollywood actors. I've been tempted to buy Paul Newman, Robert Redford or Christian Bale. I mean, how cool would it be for my Barbie to pose in shots with Paul Newman - two icons of pop culture? But I'm cheap and I couldn't pass up this free head that works just as well as those others would have. So instead of posing with Paul Newman, Barbie is stuck with Matthew Broderick...sorta. I don't think this head actually looks like the Inspector Gadget character. It would have been cool to think of Barbie posing with Ferris Bueller, though.

365 - Day 21

365 - Day 21
Originally uploaded by horsenbuggy

Archaeologist Barbie contemplates an ancient culture. I think I like Archaeologist Barbie. Methinks she will go on many an adventure...if I can get her pants to stay up.

She's wearing a military outfit that came with a male action figure. The waist of the pants is way too large. I have to keep checking her pants in between shots to make sure her butt's not showing. And even though I adore the color and texture of those boots, they fall off every time I pick her up. I wanted a hat, but it is really hard to get a hat to stay on with all that hair. The best I could do was pull it back - to put her in serious, work mode. That's also why her sleeves are rolled up.

The lighting is too harsh. My copy of Photoshop should be coming in soon, I could fix that. This would probably look better if the artifact (Kleenex holder) were half buried. But that would mean me going outside. Eww.

365 - Day 20

365 - Day 20
Originally uploaded by horsenbuggy

Back to shots of toys. I picked these up at IKEA. The wire inside them is really tight. Sometimes it is difficult to get them to stay in a certain position because the tension of the wire draws them together. I tried to position each as their respective humans would be after one just slapped the other so hard to knock him off his feet.

365 - Day 19

365 - Day 19
Originally uploaded by horsenbuggy

We progressed from rain to snow flurries as the Canadian air invaded us. Again, I"m not too thrilled with this image. However, I do like that the snowflake in the middle seems to have retained its shape while the others have melted.

365 - Day 18

365 - Day 18
Originally uploaded by horsenbuggy

Poly likes this shot. I don't. But it was the best of all I shot that day. It, uh, rained on Day 18. This is on the inside of my car door.

365 - Day 17

365 - Day 17
Originally uploaded by horsenbuggy

Poly and I went over to Frau Adorable's to watch a movie the other night. I shot this photo of her looking at the cookies she was about to offer us.

Seriously?

This is what playing Barbie has come to?

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365 - Day 15

365 - Day 15
Originally uploaded by horsenbuggy

A player on my nephew's fuse ball table. I gotta shoot more often in my nephew's room. It's jam packed with exciting little stuff.

365 - Day 14

365 - Day 14
Originally uploaded by horsenbuggy

The Perils of Motherhood. The Execution.

I shot two images of this. The first shows the mother standing over the baby with its diaper open - kinda ominous - shot low, looking up at the mother. This is the pay off. I had to tape the diaper to the doll's hand since she can't actually hold anything. I would love to have been able to turn her arm over so that it looked like she was barely holding the used diaper by two fingers. But her arms don't twist, they only open out to form a T.

I tell ya, it is really amazing how un-flexible these dolls are. I thought they were bendable and all posable. But they're not. I've got one Barbie whose legs don't even bend. She's supposed to be a ballerina. What kind of ballerina doesn't bend her knees?!?!

There are dolls out there who are very posable, the term is "articulated." But the joints are very ugly. Photos I see of these dolls pull me out of the concept because the weird joints remind me that these are dolls, not people. Does that make sense? If I get any of these dolls, I will have to shoot them in long sleeves and pants to try to minimize that. In a strange way, it makes me appreciate how wonderfully made we are. We are "articulated" with lovely, seamless joints.

365 - Day 13

365 - Day 13
Originally uploaded by horsenbuggy

The cop in the left of the shot is about to give me a police escort to my home...which is about 300 yards away. We had a footrace routed along my street yesterday. In order to get back to my house, I had to drive on the opposite side of the street. I guess the police thought we were too stupid to accomplish that task on our own. So I had to "follow" the cop on the motorcycle back to the entrance of my neighborhood. Whew! I'm so glad he was there to save the day.

So annoying. This happens about 4 times a year for various race events. Although, a couple of years ago, I could have gotten a photo of Lance Armstrong as he cycled past my house...if I'd cared to.

365 - Day 12

365 - Day 12
Originally uploaded by horsenbuggy

"How much watch?" That's an old Russian joke that is only funny to Russians who speak English and went to university. As a native English speaker who spoke Russian and went to university in Moscow, I never understood why the joke was funny. But the girl who told me the joke, the same one who I've recently located on the web, tried so hard to explain it to me, that it became an inside joke to us. She would laugh at the joke and I would laugh because her laugh was so infectious (and it seemed like the polite thing to do). I don't know if any of that has anything to do with why I buy a new cheap watch when my battery on the old one dies. None of these watches cost me more than $20, some were even given to me. See notes for comments on individual watches.

Correction, the black watch all the way to the left, with the stem on the right, cost me much more than $20. It is specifically made for left-handed people to wear on their right wrist (as I do) and be able to set without removing it. I scoured the 'net looking for a left-handed watch and had to have it shipped from England. With today's exchange rate, I think it would cost over $120. It's not that attractive, but it really ticks me off that virtually no one makes watches like this. Most of the watches you find in "left handed" stores run counter-clockwise, as if left-handed people are "backwards." Not cool. Nor funny.

365 - Day 11

365 - Day 11
Originally uploaded by horsenbuggy

Not much to say about this image. Sunrise on the way to work.

and thus death spread to all men...

My friend DrummerChick called me a couple of times this weekend.  I was in a funk all weekend and didn't answer the phone.  I thought it was a little odd that she tried to get me a couple of times, but figured that she was just checking up on me since we hadn't talked in a while.

I am such a loser, bad friend.  I was too wrapped up in my own bad mood to answer the phone when one of my dearest friends was calling to tell me that her mother had died of a sudden heart attack.

It was important for her to talk to me because, of all her friends, I am the only one who knows exactly what she is going through.  I spoke with her this morning.  She sounded fine.  But I know that sound.  She's keeping it together because she's got so much to do.  She's focused on planning the events that will honor her mother's life.  She's writing out the obituary and the program for the memorial service.  She's taking care of things at her father's house.  She's busy.  But I know what's coming after all that work is finished.  I know how the bottom drops out from under you.  I know how waking up each morning is a chore, but going to sleep each night is even more difficult.

I know.

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