We are the World Blogfest # 54 - Power for the Neighbours ... and where are we going in 2022 …

It's amazing in this day and age – how people go out of their way to help their communities …

Here in Murang'a County, south central Kenya – one man got VERY TIRED OF WAITING – so took 'things into his own hands' …

… he found some bicycle parts, scrap metal, built a home made generator – subsequently bringing electricity to his neighbourhood …

Murang'a County

John Magiro expanded his electric operation – thus bringing affordable electricity to 750 local people ...

John Magiro outside his office

… he transformed so many lives – now they don't have to use hand-held kerosene lamps … the kids can study, people can safely move around … and all those benefits those of us have in our day to day lives, they now have ... 

Here's to more John Magiro's – People Fixing the World … giving Power to the People …

BBC How to make electricity for your Neighbours (video 2.43)

Magiro Mini Hydro Power - their website ... 

At the end of 2021 – what will 2022 hold? …

more peace,

more understanding,

more compassion,

more thought for others, before one's self …

George Cruikshank - see my
previous post ... His view
to the opera - taken by me
as 'our view' to 2022 ...

So with this last post of 2021 – I wish you an easier New Year – here's to 2022 …

We are the World Blogfest

In Darkness, Be Light

Hilary Melton-Butcher

Positive Letters Inspirational Stories

Guzzle, Gulp, Swallow – a rare bird …

 I just wish everyone a very merry Christmas, and then during the festive season: a peaceful and blessed time.

A self-portrait (1858)

So many need our help at this time … this seems 'revolting' – yet displays excess, as seen 170 years ago … when trade routes were bringing in 'more and more' goodies for the western world to learn about …

Seen here on ships sailing in: 

Spices / Sugar / Coffee / Tea

George Cruikshank's 'A Swallow
at Christmas'

Waiting to be poured: Champagne / Hock / Port / Gin / Rum / Whiskey … to be drunk by the tankard: Frothy Beer …

Then happily standing in line waiting to be guzzled, gulped, swallowed: 

Fishes (mock turtle soup available too); 

birds various; pies; breads; cheese …

and numerous 'I don't knows' – notations too small or indistinct for me to work out …

Portmeirion tea-cup ... for that 
Christmas relaxing cuppa

The Spitalfield's Life blog brought this to my attention – and as I love the caricatures as illustrated by George Cruikshank (1792 – 1878) … they can be seen on the link … and more can be found in Wiki …

A coloured print can be seen here in AntiquePrintMapRoom - December a Swallow at Christmas - Rara Avis in Terra

With a lot of hopeful thoughts to those in the world who need care, love and compassion ... 

Glad tidings to you all – be safe and see you the 31^st – cheers!

PS Once again - no drink (yet!) ... but those wretched fonts have done their thing and faffed around with size etc ... 

Hilary Melton-Butcher

Positive Letters Inspirational Stories

Whoops, Legs and Boompsy Daisy …

 

I couldn't think up a different title … but this .. or should it be whoopsy daisy?

Human and Gorilla
(stretched out) to
compare

These snippets bemused me – so here they are! Or impressed me for an #WATWB post … but appears here …

King Arthur - our greatest King has ladies legs … who would have guessed – after conservation – it was found that the top of half had been sculpted from Coade stone (invented late 1700s/1800s); while the lower half, including his right leg were crafted from Bath stone in the Roman period (AD 43 – AD 410) - c/o Ian Visits the statue ...

Extraordinary juxtaposition I'd say … especially as the Roman element came from a female statue … possibly even a sculpted goddess?!

Now we move to South America … to find an Inca pottery muscular leg wearing a sandal – on show at the British Museum: “Peru – A Journey in Time” ... 

The leg celebrates the running skills of the Chasquis, messengers in the Inca empire, who took advantage of the vast Inca system of purpose-built roads and rope bridges in the Andes of Peru and Ecuador.

An Inca Quipu

No wonder their legs are muscular – they could run up to 150 miles (240 km) per day – recording administrative details on a Quipu: a fascinating device  ...

Next we come back to London … where a man has been trapped inside a clock – oh yes … more legs to walk forever more; chasing … what? Oh yes – the time …

Maarten Baas, who has been described as an “author designer” … see his bio. The Paddington clock found in Eastbourne Terrace is one of his Real Time Series 12-hour films of performances indicating the time that intends to combine theatre, art and film production in a series of new clock designs ... c/o Ian Visits blog: Paddington has trapped a man inside a clock ... 

I need to see this …Maarten Baas – Real Time Clock outside Paddington station … to quite comprehend it ... 

Last but not least to note a Bristol charity saving prosthetic legs from landfill – here recycling its 10,000^th leg – brilliant inspiring charity.

As we're at the end of this post – just watch those legs especially in the northern hemisphere – where ice and snow may well descend.

Well we were at the end til I remembered the dead parrot - actually a sulfur crested cockatoo - residing on a plinth in South London ... and of course the Monty Python Dead Parrot sketch ... 

One more post to come … stay safe and well during this continuing difficult time …

Hilary Melton-Butcher

Positive Letters Inspirational Stories

Narcissus - the Wear and Tear of Ageing ...

 

Ow! ow! … ooohagh … don't they realise all that chafing hurts – much more than a cut-throat scrape …

What are they doing … restoring me, repairing, re-painting me, cleaning me …? I know I'm 500 years old but … it is 1997 after all.

They've been nibbling pieces of my paint, crushing the rough pieces of oils in their fingers to dust – for some reason they put this stuff into little vials – now I could gaze at those pieces of me …

Cut-throat razor

... they take me off into their ether … there I'm scrutinised from all angles, put into metal boxes which flash lights at me, other containers brightly shine at me … some close-up, sometimes from afar …

… those people stand and stare, gossip until I'm subjected to some infraction … they seem to think it improves me – how could it? I am me – me - Narcissus – I, I cannot be perfected …

Syrian Vial from the 4th C -
today they are made from glass

Caravaggio created me using chiaroscuro … now he was allowed to pore over me, observe my very movements … so that I, in all my perfetto youth, would be captured tenebroso...

I believe they call it research … to see how dark and grubby this masterpiece of me has become – but look ... I shine so brightly out of the shadowy canvas … you can still see my reflection clearly in the pool – but they keep working, thinking they can buff me up …

St John the Baptist by Caravaggio
(1604) highlighting Tenebrism

Over the centuries they've dusted me off – then they attack me – it's nearly the 21^st century – what do they expect … I am valuable as a masterpiece (that has not been so closely examined).

Yet if only I had known what was to come in the next 24 years … they've lost their creativity … it seems they punch things like keyboards (similar to clavichords) and out appears from the constantly changing mirror in front of them many images of me …

1977 unfretted Clavichord

I am me – me - the way Caravaggio painted me so empathetic to my youthful appearance – these 'reproductions' as they are called – do not credit me with Caravaggio's sympatico art-style.

Really they should leave me alone – I enjoy my place on the wall of the National Gallery of Ancient Art, Rome – where everyone can and does so admire me … completely fawning over Caravaggio's creation.

National Gallery of
Ancient Art, Rome

Wear and Tear – they need to look at their own lives … I've lasted more than 500 years, expect they only live about one fifth of my life.

Oh I'm so sensuously beautiful – and will be forever more … no wear and tear for me … more importantly no ageing.

Smartphone screen 21st C

The art work may age – and they can do their damnedest to restore, repair, or conserve – definitively in the era they live in … the technology seems to find things that would not have been found in earlier centuries, but I remain me – "Narcissus".

Wear and Tear begone!

Fine Art Conservation YouTube video by 

Julian Baumgartner of Chicago - for anyone interested

Hilary Melton-Butcher

Positive Letters Inspirational Stories