Festivals & Culture: More
Ann Telnaes
Pulitzer prize-winning cartoonist Ann Telnaes is the subject of a 2004 Library of Congress exhibit consisting of "eighty-one original drawings that represent the range of themes that engage this gifted artist who has recently emerged as a leader in American editorial cartooning. An artist who bravely criticizes the actions and words of powerful public figures, Telnaes takes stands on complex, divisive issues and affirms the editorial cartoon as a potent means of expressing opinions and illuminating issues of the day."
There are four sections to the exhibit: Put It On Your Tab | Pulitzer-prize Winning Cartoons | The World According to W | Happily Ever After
NPR has done two interviews with the cartoonist; her animated work can be found at the Washingtonpost.com. In addition, she contributes to The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, USA Today, Women'sENews and others through the Tribune Media Services. She has published a book about Dick Cheney and there is a gallery of her cartoons at the Newseum.
Television
C-Span held a seven-night event, White House Week. It consisted of:
The White House: Inside America’s Most Famous Home
Kicking off the week on December 14 will be a new 90-minute feature documentary: The White House: Inside America’s Most Famous Home. Go beyond the velvet ropes to the private residence with an exclusive tour led by First Lady Laura Bush and see exclusive interviews with the First Family, White House staff, and renowned presidential historians.
Take an exclusive look at the White House private residence in this new tour with First Lady Laura Bush. Also see “The President’s House,” a tour filmed in 1968 with Lady Bird Johnson never before aired on television. Also featured is the first ever televised tour of the White House with Harry Truman in 1952 and Jackie Kennedy’s 1962 White House tour.
Behind the Scenes: The Working White House
Take a tour of the Oval Office with White House Curator Bill Allman. See other areas of the White House at work including the chocolate shop, the White House kitchens, the calligrapher’s office, the flower shop, and the White House theater. See interviews with current and former White House staff, including longtime White House chief usher Gary Walters and former White House military social aide Alan Merten.
The White House Gardens and Grounds
A look at the beauty and history of the 18 acres inside the President’s Park, featuring White House grounds superintendent Dale Haney.
The Lincoln White House; Thursday
An evening at Lincoln’s White House – featuring an interview from the Lincoln Bedroom with Lincoln historian Harold Holzer and a look at Lincoln’s summer White House at the Soldier’s Home.
The Making of the Documentary
Encore presentation of The White House: Inside America’s Most Famous Home about the unprecedented access to the White House that led to this feature documentary. Follow the C-SPAN crew as they film throughout America’s most famous home.
Interviews with President and Mrs. Bush
The evening begins with interviews with presidential historians Lonnie Bunch, Doris Kearns Goodwin, Harold Holzer, Anthony Pitch, William Seale, and Richard Norton Smith. Then see encores of our interviews with President and Mrs. Bush.
White House Fact Sheet from White House Historical Association
With a floor area (total of 6 floors) of approximately 55,000 sq ft, The White House has 132
rooms, including 16 family-guest rooms, 1 main kitchen, 1 diet kitchen, 1 family kitchen, and 35
bathrooms.
It takes 300 gallons of white paint to cover the exterior of just the residence portion of the White House (center), excluding the West and East Wings.
The construction of the White House started in 1792 and was first occupied by President John Adams in 1800. The total cost was $232,372.
John Adams was the first president to occupy the White House in 1800; one of his first additions was a vegetable garden.
On August 24, 1814, during the War of 1812, British troops burned the White House in retaliation for an earlier burning of Canadian government buildings in York, Ontario, by the United States.
Read the rest of the fact sheet (in pdf form) at the White House Historical Association
StoryCorps: Doro Bush Koch interviews her brother, President George W. Bush, and his wife, First Lady Laura Bush, at the White House
Each week NPR broadcasts one of the StoryCorps recordings. This recording is done between the questioner, Doro Bush Koch, sister of the President, with her brother and his wife, Laura:
DK: How do you see life shaping up for both of you after the White House?
GB: I'm sure I'm going to lose a lot of weight because Laura is going to be the cook. [Laughter]
LB: You're going to be the person grilling though, I think.
GB: Then we're going to lose a lot of weight. [Laughter] Frankly, I'm not going to miss the limelight all that much. It's been a fabulous experience to be the president but...
DK: Right.
GB: ...it'll be nice to see the klieg lights shift somewhere else.
DK: What, Laura, will you miss most about the White House?
LB: Well, I'll miss all the people here a lot. All the people that work here in the White House, that work here from administration to administration, many of whom we knew from before when we would visit your parents. And then, I'll be frank, I'll miss the chef. [Laughter]
GB: So will I. [Laughter]
DK: What about you, Mr. President, what will you miss most?
GB: You know, I have really enjoyed the people with whom I work. And I, of course, will miss no traffic jams.
LB: Air Force One, everyone misses that.
GB: Yeah, Air Force One, Camp David has been such a fantastic... there's a lot.
DK: As President, one of the benefits for us has been that you all lived here in Washington DC near us and that you included us in so many wonderful, historical events. Um, I'm wondering if you'll miss us as much as we'll miss you. [Crying]
GB: Well thank you. I'll make you feel better: No, we're not going to miss you at all. [Laughter]. Yes, we're going to miss you. Listen, the reason we had you around a lot was for selfish reasons. This is a job in which, you know, obviously it had a lot of stress to it, it has a lot of pressure, there's a lot of nice things said, there's a lot bad things said, but when you're around your family, all that pales. And so you didn't realize it, but you were therapeutic to your brother. And yeah we loved having you
Listen to stories or record your own story.
Article
Rose Mula, But Wait! There's More!! Another beautiful spokeswoman grabs my attention. She says she’s seventy years old. My hearing must really be going. She looks seventeen. “You heard me! And I owe it all to this amazing, priceless beauty cream"
Word Fugitives
The Atlantic, the first magazine I subscribed to during college, has come up with the perfect vehicle for those who are having difficulty with lost words or expressions: Word Fugitives.
How aptly named for those of us over a certain age:
A word fugitive is a wanted word or expression that someone has been unable to call to mind. Quite probably no exactly apt term exists — but maybe one should. Those familiar with The Meaning of Liff (1983), by Douglas Adams and John Lloyd, or Sniglets (1984), by Rich Hall and Friends, may find it helpful to think of word fugitives as empty mental spaces waiting to be filled by neologisms like the ones that appeared in those books. Readers familiar with Atlantic Unbound may already be acquainted with the word-fugitives idea, which made its debut online. Now readers are invited to submit for this page both word fugitives they seek and neologisms they coin to meet the needs of their word-wanting fellows.
Submit your own fugitives at: http://www.theatlantic.com/unbound/fugitives/fugitives.htm
The Photo Booth
Smithsonian Magazine presents both text and video of a feature that celebrates the photobooth: Four for a Quarter — Photographer Nakki Goranin shows how the once ubiquitous photobooth captured the many faces of 20th-century America:
"As Goranin, a photographer and self-described romantic, sees it, photo strips tell the story of 20th-century American history from the ground up. The images in her new book, culled from thousands she has collected at auctions, flea markets and antiques stores, show down-at-the-heels farmers in overalls, wartime sweethearts and 1950s boys with greased hair and duck tails. She points out a photo of a World War II-era couple kissing passionately. "Day before he left," the notation reads.
Before the photo booth first appeared, in the 1920s, most portraits were made in studios. The new, inexpensive process made photography accessible to everyone. "For 25 cents people could go and get some memory of who they were, of a special occasion, of a first date, an anniversary, a graduation," Groaning says. "For many people, those were the only photos of themselves that they had."
Because there is no photographer to intimidate, photo booth subjects tend to be much less self-conscious. The result — a young boy embracing his mother or teenagers sneaking a first kiss — is often exceptionally intimate. 'It's like a theater that's just you and the lens,' Groaning says. 'And you can be anyone you want to be.' "
Consider contributing images of your own from a photo booth experience.
Chinese Paper Gods
On the occasion of the Chinese New Year, we found this trove of Paper Gods available to view online at the C. V. Starr East Asian Library at Colombia University. Here is the introduction to the collection of prints from the library pages themselves online:
"The images in this collection were assembled by Anne S. Goodrich (1895–2005) in 1931, when as a Christian missionary in Peking she became interested in local folk religious practices. She studied the paper gods in this collection for much of her life. After publishing her research conclusions in 1991, she donated these prints to the C.V. Starr East Asian Library, Columbia University."
"The images are divided initially by usage: Those which were purchased to be burned immediately and serve as emissaries to heaven; and those which were purchased to be displayed for a year while offering protection to the family in a variety of ways, before being burned. The images are further divided by display locations and by the deities they represent."
Here's how the prints are described:
"The prints included in this category would be pasted conspicuously throughout the home during the New Year's celebration and displayed throughout the year. At the end of the year, they were burned and replaced with a fresh print. These prints are generally more colorful and exquisitely designed than those intended for ceremonial use."
"These colorful prints, usually produced in pairs, were pasted on adjacent double doors, side-by-side on a single door, or on the walls around the front door. Although they originally depicted fearsome gods who would chase away demons, they later came to include gentler images that promised prosperity and good tidings for the household.'
"These prints, often depicting Zhong Kui, were placed near the back door to ensure that no demons would sneak in unnoticed by the guards of the front door."
"The Stove God, often depicted with his wife, was on duty in the kitchen throughout the year, keeping watch over the family. At the end of the year, he received ample offerings, and after his immolation he would return to heaven to report on the family. A yearly calendar was often included on prints of the Stove God."
"These prints, which usually portray double happiness or happy children, were pasted on or near the bedroom door. They would assist the happy couple in their pursuit of progeny, encouraging especially the birth of sons [our ital] ."
"These colorful and elaborate depictions of the God of Wealth were likely displayed throughout the year to ensure prosperity, or at least financial stability. Some of these were produced in pairs like the door prints, and may have been displayed on or around a doorway rather than in a shrine."
Library Exhibits: Amusing America & The Léda Hincks Plauché and Bror Anders Wikstrom Carnival Designs
Amusing America is the story of participatory commercial amusements in American cities, San Francisco in particular. It was the premiere exhibition of the San Francisco Museum and Historical Society, co-sponsored by the San Francisco Public Library with support from the California State Library.
It's possible to take a virtual tour of the Panama-Pacific International Exposition and view a photograph of the "San Francisco Art Association on Pine Street, the site of the first commercial exhibition of moving pictures in America in 1880. Destroyed by fire November 4, 1894 — the year the movie business really got started in America."
"Adolph Sutro opens his Baths in 1896 with one fresh-water and six salt-water pools, 30 swimming rings, 9 spring boards, 7 slides, 3 trapezes, 2 diving platforms, 500 dressing rooms, hundreds of showers, thousands of bathing suits, a gym, a shoot-the-chutes, bucking broncos, and a museum filled with what Sutro calls 'bric-a-brac' to 'amuse and instruct'."
"I must have it large, pretentious, in keeping with the environment, with the Heights, with the great ocean itself..." — Adolph Sutro, Engineer, Philanthropist, Mayor of San Francisco
At the site is a poster of Sophie Tucker in 1910, quoting lyrics from a song:
They have a dance out there, they call the Grizzly Bear."
The Louisiana Division of the New Orleans Public Library has in its possession 391 costume designs, 110 float designs and 11 albums of 3 ¼ x 5 ½" black & white photographs of Mardi Gras float designs. The collection is a gift of Léda Plauché in 1958. 285 of the designs were executed by Léda Plauché; 106 of the designs were by Bror Anders Wikstrom.
Date range is from ca. 1906-1953 and the costumes can be viewed online:
Designs by Léda Plauché:
Page One || Page Two || Page Three || Page Four || Page Five || Page Six || Page Seven || Page Eight || Page Nine || Page Ten || Page Eleven
Designs by Bror Anders Wikstrom:
Page Twelve || Page Thirteen || Page Fourteen || Page Fifteen
