Mona Lisas

If you ever get to see the real Mona Lisa in the Louvre. You'll be shocked at just how small the thing really is. It's about the size of a standard piece of paper.

The one on top you probably have not seen. Left is the famous one hanging in the Louvre.

Leonardo's masterpiece still holds some strange allure after all these years. But, who was she? Mona Lisa del Giocondo, wife of a Florentine nobleman. At the time of the original painting, she was mourning the loss of her baby and was wearing a transparent veil during the sittings.

It took da Vinci four years to finish the painting, and when it was done, he gave it to the Giocondos as a gift. Now, ol' Leo had a habit of making more than one painting of the same subject. Because it might come in handy. In fact, there are some sixty known Mona Lisa's out there and all are cataloged. All of them just a bit different.

Apparently there was one done for Guiliano de Medici which is a portrait of his mistress at the time, Costanza d'Avalos. Now, this lady had an uncanny resemblance to Mona Lisa del Giocondo. Leonardo nicknamed the piece "La Gioconda"- which means, approximately, "smiler". Sadly, when it was finished, de Medici ran this woman off and married someone else. So, Leonardo took the painting with him to France where it eventually found it's way to London and ultimately became the property of Dr. Henry Pulitzer.

Then came this:



This is La Belle Gabrielle and at one time was in the collection of Lord Spencer of Northamptonshire, England and has been attributed to the school of Leonardo da Vinci. The topless Lisa, as she has come to be known was recently found after apparently being lost for some time. It was hidden behind a wall for nearly one hundred years. Now, obviously this broad looks NOTHING like the other two broads and had to have been a piece Leonardo did for some extra cash or for whatever reason.

So it seems, Leonardo would keep the same idea for these paintings and just swap out the face. Sort of the Photoshop of his day.

Not much is known about La Belle Gabrielle, but she has made a return to the public by hanging in a museum in Vinci, Italy, Leonardo's home.

I bet you never thought you would ever read a bit about art history here, did you?

You never know what is going to show up around here so,

Stay Tuned...

Facebook

I must admit, I dragged my knuckles into the 21st century in some respects and walked upright and faced this brave new world like a somewhat evolved ape-man in others. We made the plunge into HD TV as soon as it was practical. I "monkeyed" with Twitter long enough to realize it wasn't all that bad.

Then came Facebook.

All the questions, wherever I went... "Are you on Facebook? When are you going to get on Facebook?" Etc. Then I did it. Went and opened an account on Facebook. After earlier answers to the above questions had been tossed off with, "Not for me. It just seems rather pointless."

You know, those answers may very well be accurate, now that I am on Facebook. Nevertheless, I am on it a bunch. Although, not much of a contributor there (go figure), I do find it wildly entertaining to read what people say about their lives and the little comments that are posted in response. In a way, it surprises me the things some people will actually post on that thing, for all to read.

It brings to mind the old adage an old journalist once told me. Speech, by and large, disappears as it is spoken. But the written word can be and often is, eternal.

One must be careful as to what one posts on such a site. As is this blog, too. Lest someone takes what you say as an affront to their sensibilities and uses such words against you. For example, the internet is certainly not the place to go to openly bitch about your job or whatever it is life that has you peeved. Those words you wrote can, and will, bite you in the ass.

Plus, I am finding it interesting that some people will post some of the most private details of their lives to random strangers. As if those reading were to have some vague notion of the subject being posted. Yet, when it comes to privacy issues, these people tend to get worked up over private details that are found on the internet... posted by them.

It would seem to me, if you are the least bit concerned about what is and what is not private, why are you telling everyone about yourself that some would consider as private? Fascinating.

Could I live without it? Sure. Do I like it? Sure.

It's like being given the key to the door that everyone wants to know what its hiding.

Happy Facebooking and...

Stay Tuned...

Lost On The Air

Yeah, it's been awhile since the last update... yet again. Not there was never really any GOOD reason to neglect the ol' blog here. But let's be serious for a moment, I have been a bit busy. To the point of being somewhat lost.

I can hear it now, "Busy? You? Puh-leeze!"

Okay, maybe not in the traditional sense of being "busy". I haven't been out there re-tiling bathrooms (well, there was the one I did in my own home). I haven't been out there trying to save the world or running errands. I have just been busy, you know, preoccupied.

Maybe preoccupied to the point of neglecting some of the things I could be doing, like updating this little blog.

When i created it, like everything else, I had this somewhat lofty goal of contributing on a more consistent basis and have since fell into a more comfortable archiving mode with it. Whis is all well and good. Since there is no real obligation associated with it. All well and good. But the other reason to have this page was to spread a little point of interest here and there. Some of the things I don't do on the air. Hence the name of the blog.

Things were going along swimmingly until that day in October when my on air partner got sick. What a roller coaster that has been. Not just for me but for everyone around him and yours truly. Sometimes you have to let go of the world around you and sit back and watch and focus your energies on things that are truly more important.

I would say something poignant about "... trying to maintain sanity..." which those of you who know me know that is a lost cause. I embraced my insanity a long time ago. But the mere act of trying to stay mentally occupied with things to prevent other things from leering over you like some horrible specter is the way to go at times.

Things are returning to some sort of sense of normality. Bad Dog is doing better and things around the radio station, sometimes difficult as they can be at times are gaining more stability now that Dog is back on the air. We are all breathing a little easier now.

The ever present questions from people asking "So how is Bad Dog really doing?" have subsided, thankfully. Not to sound callous, but these were people asking who seemed heavily negative about his situation. It's one thing to inquire about his condition, it is quite another to insinuate there was some dark secret about his condition I was somehow withholding. As I have stated before on and off the air, Bad Dog and I have been nothing but honest about this entire chapter in our lives. So, thankfully, that has come to an end of sorts.

So, I am back, lurking around the web again, popping up in strangely odd places for me like Facebook. Which I'll devote more time to later.

Until then, thank you all for the thoughts and prayers for Bad Dog. And thanks for those who have been considerate to all of our needs around the station and the weird family that is radio. You people are wonderful.

So, shortly, I'll add something strange and amusing to the blog, in the meantime...

Stay Tuned...