Recent Updates Page 20 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts

  • Oscar 00:58 on 21/02/2014 Permalink | Reply  

    NO! STOP! Donnie is innocent! 

    NO! NO! NO! STOP!!! This is really cruel and wrong! Donnie didn’t do it and, to be clear, I never said he did. He’s right. I fell. (What he’s wrong about is the “Palace of Justice” reference – it was a small claims court.) Media loves a frenzy. The juxtaposition of text and image led Meg to jump to an erroneous conclusion and, despite the fact that Donnie tried to nip the inaccuracy of her judgement in the bud, the damage had already been done. The first stones cast and the witch-hunt was on. Donnie was a dead man already at that stage.

    What can I say? To Donnie: I’m so immensely sorry. And to the others: Be careful. Words and images do not always add up to the total you believe, or want to believe.

    Can Donnie survive this character assassination, the firing from the job he hadn’t yet started?

    I’m scared that Donnie with his bluster, his grit, his illness (yes, I mean his alcoholism) he was already a marked man in a community of well, it would seem, otherwise flawless characters…

     

    • Meg O'Ryan 01:34 on 21/02/2014 Permalink | Reply

      You’re such a fucking worm Oscar. Crucify the man then say “no, I was only kidding.” Why don’t you stand behind something for once in your life Oscar? If I ever see either of you two liars again I swear to god I’ll turn you both into sawdust. I’ve got better things to do with my fake life than waste it on liars like you.

      Good riddance.

      • Yellow Fever 12:51 on 25/02/2014 Permalink | Reply

        FAKE, YOU’RE DEAD.

        FAKE YOU’RE DEAD.

        Fake your dead.

    • Patrick J. Sweetman 23:57 on 25/02/2014 Permalink | Reply

      Sorry Donnie, I shouldn’t read things chronologically. Well at least the cops aren’t coming for you but I still hear Betty Ford calling.

  • Meg O'Ryan 21:38 on 20/02/2014 Permalink | Reply
    Tags:   

    Warrant for Donnie’s Arrest 

    photo of Donnie Archer on a wanted poster

    Have you seen this man?

    This criminal is believed to be armed and dangerous. If you see him do not approach! Please contact local authorities immediately. This man is extremely dangerous! DO NOT attempt to arrest him yourself. Always call for backup first!

     

  • Oscar 00:38 on 20/02/2014 Permalink | Reply  

    Recriminations 

    So…Donnie threatened to sue me for…er…minor infractions of protocol during surgery. (Or, as he put it: “How the hell did you manage to get your goddamned sleeve stuck to my head???!!”).

    However, fortunately, we agreed to settle out of court:

    Out of court settlement

    Out of court settlement

    On a lighter note: Hello Patrick! Nice to see you here. Seems you’ve just met the ladies so far, so please, allow me to introduce myself: I’m Oscar and Donnie is my 19th Century blast from the past. And he sure is a blast…

    Looking forward to chatting over the week ahead.

     

    • Meg O'Ryan 08:40 on 20/02/2014 Permalink | Reply

      DONNIE!!! DONALD ARCHER!!! GET YOUR SCRAWNY ASS DOWN HERE THIS INSTANT! YOU’VE GOT A LOT OF EXPLAINING TO DO MISTER!

      WHAT DID YOU DO TO POOR OSCAR!?!?

      I THINK I HAVE BEEN VERY TOLERANT OF YOUR ALCOHOLIC EXCESSES DONNIE, BUT THIS IS UNACCEPTABLE!!! KEEP YOUR HANDS OFF OSCAR!!

      OH, POOR OSCAR, WHAT HAS HE DONE TO YOU? ARE YOU OK? IS IT VERY PAINFUL?

      DON’T MAKE ME COME DOWN THERE DONNIE. SAY YOU’RE SORRY AND MEAN IT. IF I HAVE TO COME DOWN THERE YOU WILL BE SORRY!

      • Donnie Archer 08:53 on 20/02/2014 Permalink | Reply

        Hey, Meggie, did the kid say I did that to him? I don’t think so. Naw, Meggie, it wasn’t me. Here’s what happened: Just as we reached an agreement not to go any further with the whole legal mallarky, the kid slipped and toppled down a flight of concrete steps outside the Palace of Justice. (Actually. I bandaged him up myself.)

        • Isabella Medici 19:34 on 20/02/2014 Permalink | Reply

          I really hate to say I told you so, and my sincere sympathies to poor Mr. Oscar, but, I told you this man was trouble from the start!

          I believe that Tree Surgeons Without Borders is one of the great humanitarian organizations of our time. I am always humbled when I see their ship enter the port at Livorno. The way they bring reanimation to dummies, marionettes and other creatures great and small is nothing short of sublime.

          And now the thanks Mr. Archer shows a great humanitarian is to beat him senseless and then BLAME THE VICTIM! There is nothing lower.

          This is so like my own death. When I was allegedly washing my hair and just suddenly died while bending over the sink!

          My husband’s handprints all over my neck? Oh, no, that’s not proof that he strangled me at all, they only look like handprints but are actually the marks from me hitting the sink after suddenly dying.

          And Carl Andre didn’t murder Ana Mendieta, she simply fell out of the window!

          Gran’ disgraziato Mr. Archer.

          My husband’s handprints were on my neck because he strangled me, just as sure as yours was on Mr. Oscar’s back because you pushed him down those stairs. Admit it Mr. Archer, you’re a drunk who nearly murdered the man who saved your life.

          As for your faculty position at Medici University…
          YOU’RE FIRED!

    • Patrick J. Sweetman 23:55 on 25/02/2014 Permalink | Reply

      Wow Donnie, man what happened. I go off grid for a couple of days and all hell breaks loose. We could use your fighting spirit over here at the moment. But I’ll need to keep you away from the Brewery. Hey is that Betty Ford I hear calling you. I’ll come and visit PJ

  • Donnie Archer 22:58 on 19/02/2014 Permalink | Reply  

    On the subject of gifts… 

    Well, whatdya know? Look what the cat dragged in! A drinking buddy for Donnie! Oi, Paddy, I’ll shout ya a beer, kid.

    But hands off the women, sweet talkin’ Sweetman, they’re with me!!

    Cut'nPaste Donnie (Chequered)

     

    • Patrick J. Sweetman 00:51 on 20/02/2014 Permalink | Reply

      Hey Donnie, you’re looking dapper. Not as dapper as me though. I’ll post my new profile pic shortly. The sideburns look much better on me in the 19C than my gggs. At least I’m of my time. He looks like a B movie 1970s throwback (he disqualifies for the 1850s as he doesn’t have enough bowties). But as I told him if he keeps them for long enough they’ll be back in fashion. Hopefully he’ll still be alive when they do. I’d offer you a pint but according to the clairvoyant I went to we lost the Brewery in the 1890s and were bought out by an upstart stout makers called Guinness. Anyway lets go for a beer. Any good virtual bars around here? PJ

      • Donnie Archer 03:59 on 20/02/2014 Permalink | Reply

        Geez, PJ, thanks for complimentin’ my clobber. To tell ya the truth, I’m not entirely sure where today’s togs came from. I’ve been through a few “wardrobe rotations” over the past coupla weeks. (I’m guessin’ You Know Who has plenty to do with this).
        Sorry to hear about the demise of your family’s business. That’s low, kid.
        I dunno about “good virtual bars” but I’ll imbibe at any ole waterin’ hole with you. Would be a pleasure to have your company!

  • Patrick J. Sweetman 21:47 on 19/02/2014 Permalink | Reply  

    Now that I’ve got my act together 

    Hi Ysidora and Izzie, Yesterday in my excitement to be involved I forgot my manners and should have brought you a little something. So here is a bunch of flowers all the way from c1850. Chat soon, Patrickflowers

     

  • Izzy 06:24 on 19/02/2014 Permalink | Reply  

    The Florentine (another era) 

    screencap of twitter conversation between Isabella Medici and The Florentine

    Another Era.

    Oh my!

     

  • Izzy 04:26 on 19/02/2014 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: ,   

    It’s so wonderful to have Patrick J Sweetman… 

    It’s so wonderful to have Patrick J. Sweetman joining us. His friends and countrymen have suffered and lost so much under these horrible famines. In reading his “rant” I’m reminded of my own bitterness over things past.

    I know Ysidora initially invited us here to think about the past and share moments of our lives and worlds. Perhaps I’ve cheated that. Yet somehow my journey here in 2014 seems to have been to let go of the past. I never dreamt that I would return and then so quickly open a Gym and then a University. It’s all so unanticipable how the river chooses to make its way across the land. In recognition of all that, today I’ve decided to change my bio blurb on most of the websites where one posts such things.

    Old Isabella Blurb

    Look pretty. Die young. It’s a shitty deal.

    Loveless marriage to a psychopath. So I had a 10 year affair with his cousin. That doesn’t make me a “whore,” it makes me a human being. And it certainly doesn’t give Mr. Psychopath the right to murder me. What was babbo thinking? Bethroved to that jerk at 10? Please! It’s the 16th century! Can we stop living like we’re still in the 13th!?

    New Izzy Blurb

    I’m passionate about healthy, cruelty free, sustainable living. I don’t support patriarchal culture, the military industrial complex, or the slaughtering of animals. I do support educational experiences and careers that don’t involve hours, requirements, or offices, but that instead are based on achievements.

     

    • ysidorapico 19:24 on 19/02/2014 Permalink | Reply

      Oh, Querida! this is such a wonderful development. I await achievements; I ache for achievement.

      Perhaps your efforts in this life can be an example to some of the more errant knaves. I have known many errant knaves in my life. But what I am now knowing is that they may be errant because they are not granted opportunity to achieve in ways that match their abilities, especially when these knaves are unmotivated by hours, requirements (patriarchal!), offices. As we both know, attaining an office is in and of itself an achievement of dubious merit.

      • Isabella Medici 20:29 on 19/02/2014 Permalink | Reply

        Thank you Ysidora! I’ve been studying entropy (haha, yes entropy! Even if I’m not from the 1850’s, Entropy is!)

        Entropy seems to say that no matter how much food you produce, that still, someone will always starve. And probably there will always be misanthropes.

        HOWEVER, I do think you’re right. How many knaves just got stuck with the wrong “job description”? If we did a lot more career planning, might we better match the tendencies of the individual with the greater good of the culture? How many evil traits might be turned to benefit in the proper context?

        • Patrick J. Sweetman 21:24 on 19/02/2014 Permalink | Reply

          Sadly that reminds me of the Crimean War and the 1854 Charge of the LIght Brigade. Career profiling for the right ‘job description’, we could have certainly done with that in the 1850s. The lack of it is what caused so many unqualified aristocrats to be placed in positions of military command sending working-class, men serving god and country, to an early death. I note one of your cultural commentators Michael Franti when speaking about the liberation/invasion (depending what side of Jerusalem you are standing on) of Iraq said ‘Those who start wars never fight them’ So once again the world stands still. Seems I won’t find it too hard to catch up on the last 130 years.

  • Patrick J. Sweetman 00:29 on 19/02/2014 Permalink | Reply  

    Hi Ysidora and Isabella Thanks for the invite… 

    Hi Ysidora and Isabella, Thanks for the invite. Well now I’m here obviously protype steam trains aren’t as fast as the web. Looking forward to getting stuck in for the last 10 days or so. See ya around, Patrick

     

    • Isabella Medici 04:05 on 19/02/2014 Permalink | Reply

      Hello Patrick! DId you just wake up? I found on my “return” that I immediately started screaming about my scumbag husband and brother. I guess sometimes “time heals” and sometimes it just builds up resentment.

      I’m sorry to hear about the famines. What enormous human tragedy.

      Sweetman’s Superior Leinster Ale is made by your family then? Brewers? How interesting!

      • Patrick J. Sweetman 08:17 on 19/02/2014 Permalink | Reply

        Yeah. I’ve got the scream out of my system. It had to be done. When you’re sleeping in the ground for ~130 years a lot of steam is going to build. It’s gone now. But it pales to what your dodgy relatives did. Hopefully they met Dante’s (Disco) Inferno Burn baby Burn. Still you’re here. They’re not Izzie 1, Dodgy Gits 0

        • Isabella Medici 08:48 on 19/02/2014 Permalink | Reply

          Thank you Patrick. Well, I suppose the entire Medici family is cast in the shadow of usury. So perhaps we’ll all end up in Dante’s 7th ring. Then again, seeing 2014, I’m convinced that MasterCard is far more guilty of usury than any Medici who ever lived.

    • ysidorapico 18:57 on 19/02/2014 Permalink | Reply

      Welcome, Mr. Sweetman. Thank you so much for joining us here. As you may have already guessed, Izzy Medici is the gregarious one, and I truly thank god for her! She is a consummate hostess, a goddess of digital grace.

      I’ve been busy helping my great great great grand-daughter prepare for another installation of this #1850charla — a fandango which will take place on March 12. I don’t know how that woman manages to get things done without losing her mind, except that she seems to be able to be in more than one place at one time. If anyone I knew back in Alta California had been able to illustrate this present to me, I would not even have known how to conceive it. In the past, we were so stuck in one place.

      Currently, there are some in-laws whom my great-great-great granddaughter has alienated, in part because they think that she is neglecting her children while she works on her creative projects. I have assured her that by not working on her creative projects not only would she be neglecting her children (because not creating = not living for her, and if that’s the case then she’s liable to do something drastic, which would probably result in a episode of tragic ur-neglect), but also she would be neglecting me. After being neglected for 200 years, I’m not about to let that happen soon.

      Just a note, then, to say if you don’t see me around these parts as regularly as you might hope, please forgive me while I provide my gggdaughter with the matronly support, support which I never had the chance to provide a daughter of my own while I was alive.

      Su comadre,
      Ysidora

      • Vanessa Blaylock 20:19 on 19/02/2014 Permalink | Reply

        Vanessa taps on the microphone…

        Tap… tap… is this thing on?

        Hey Ysidora! That’s so great about you and the GGGD, but I’m sure you already know my question… can you post any WORDS or PIX or LIGHT PLOTS or whatever your (pre) production involves? We like to SEE! And we know y’all are the worlds greatest sharers!

        Not to mention that 28 Feb is only 8 days away!
        Oh yeah… btw… WHAT happens on 28 Feb??? 😀

      • Patrick J. Sweetman 21:35 on 19/02/2014 Permalink | Reply

        Thankyou so much for your warmth and welcome. It must be something to do with the sun in south California. You have had a hard life. And I do not know if enjoyment is the right word but I’ll certainly find it interesting to read back through your posts and see how your life unfolded. Ah the tug of the living and the recently restored to living. Yes my gggs has the same dilemma. Except my gggs is quite self centered and like a covert smoker who is pretending to be reformed and sneaking out for the quick puff, he’ll find a way of drowning out the sounds of his screaming offsping. Probably by sticking a turnip in his ears or else bribing them with chocolate.

  • Patrick J. Sweetman 22:51 on 18/02/2014 Permalink | Reply  

    It’s Funny How Little Things Change 

    I was chatting with my brother John, the brewer, about the Great Famine and how we might help those who have fled the country when it struck us the title ‘Great Famine’ obscures history. Only 100 years ago Ireland had another famine in 1740-41 when just as many and by some accounts more people died. In truth this should be the ‘Second Great Famine’. Although I don’t know what’s so great about 1 million people dead and another 1 million leaving the country. But there is a significant difference between the 18C famine and ours. The previous famine is attributed to the last rage of the mini ice age (~1400-1800) while this one is entirely due to the failure of our Lords and Masters. The Queen gave us a paltry £2,000. In your 2014 money that would be £61,000. That is 6p per soul that fell victim to disease and hunger. Clearly our lives are valueless to the British and we will have to take matters into our own hands. John is becoming increasingly agitated I am afraid he will do something rash.

    As I say History obscures itself and it also repeats its self. The famine of 1740 due to climatic conditions should serve as a warning as to the consequences of your climate changes. Also the economic and social collapse due to the famine of 1845-52 has echoes with the current economic failure precipitated by the banks. Now, as then, it is the less well off who suffer disproportionately. At the height of your recent collapse 50,000 people per annum were leaving Ireland. You are losing 1% of your citizens year on year to the failure of neo-liberal deregulation. This is not why the United Irish Men and the Irish Republican Brotherhood fought for your emancipation and independence just so you could substitute colonial domination for corporate subjugation.

    That rant has made my blood rise. I’m off for a pint of Sweetman’s Superior Leinster Ale. I’ll put it down to spillage and deduct it as a business expense. The less tax we export to the British the better. This evening I’m off to visit a medium she’s a friend of William Mumler so she’s bound to be good. Hopefully she’ll tell me what the future has in store and I’ll be in touch.

    beer sweetman

     

  • Ciara Finnegan 09:52 on 18/02/2014 Permalink | Reply  

    ‘Flu 

    Hi Guys,

    I’m afraid I have to step out of the 1850Charla process for a couple of days as I’ve come down with a horrible flu.

    Fortunately, I am privileged to be suffering in the 21st Century with access to products of modern medicine helping to alleviate the symptoms that might otherwise have me writhing on my 19th Century deathbed 😉

    Cough. Sniff. Sniff…

     

    • Christa Forster 12:28 on 18/02/2014 Permalink | Reply

      Oh, no, Ciara! I hope you are better very soon!

    • Isabella Medici 16:06 on 18/02/2014 Permalink | Reply

      Best wishes for a speedy recovery!

      I am uncertain that this will offer much consolation, but if you think 1850 medicine was bad, honestly, you should try 1550!

      Bleeding your right foot didn’t cure it? No problem, we’ll bleed your left today!

      • Ciara 23:02 on 19/02/2014 Permalink | Reply

        Aw, thanks, Christa & Izzy. I’m dying here and it’s all starting to heat up on “the wire”. I’m losing the pace! Argh!! Bring on the leeches!!!!!

        • Isabella Medici 08:53 on 20/02/2014 Permalink | Reply

          16th century doctors are quacks… 21st century surgeons are incompetent… patients are violent… what a world!

          I think the best advice might be rest & plenty of fluids. Maybe stream a few Renaissance movies on YouTube or Netflix.

          Get well soon! 😀

  • Meg O'Ryan 14:26 on 17/02/2014 Permalink | Reply  

    Frock Coat 21? 

    runway fashion photo of a woman in a complex pink dress

    Hey Donnie!

    How’s your recovery?

    Maybe you can escape the century of your birth in one of these amazing 21st century frock coats! What do you think? Maybe ask Dr. Oscar if your health plan covers this?

     

  • Izzy 10:08 on 17/02/2014 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: ,   

    Carnival in Florence! 

    carnival in florence

    It’s Carnival in Florence!

    And you know, I can honestly say that the festivities in 2014 are not all that different than the ones I organized in 1564!

    * The Florentine / Carnival
    * Carnevale di Viareggio

    (but please don’t ask me about The Medici Wedding of 1589. I’m still a little sad that I wasn’t around to produce that)

    carnival in viareggio

     

  • Izzy 02:59 on 17/02/2014 Permalink | Reply
    Tags:   

    Sugata Mitra: Self-Organized Learning 

     

  • Sello Tape 01:10 on 17/02/2014 Permalink | Reply
    Tags:   

    No More Ms. Nice Tape! 

    scary face made of sellotape

    Bwaa haa haa!

    I can be scary too!

    aww… just kiddin… I didn’t mean it…

     

    • Patrick J. Sweetman 23:40 on 18/02/2014 Permalink | Reply

      There are two types of problems in this world those you can fix with duct tape and thos you can’t. And with wire coat hangers and flexi-ply you can fix 94.3% of the world’s problems including world peace.

      • Sello Tape 07:55 on 19/02/2014 Permalink | Reply

        Duct Tape!?

        Duct Tape!?!?

        Duct Tape!?!?!?

        Oh how you wound me sir!

        I mean you no disrespect, however I must ask, are you blind? Duct Tape is hideous! It’s ugly! It’s repulsive!

        What propaganda machine ever conned people into believing that such an ugly adhesive was great, I’ll never know.

        I can do anything duct tape can do! And I can do it with transparency, with shimmer, with sparkle, shine, pattern, decoration, and so many joys and delights that duct tape never, in its puny brain, ever dreamt of!

    • ysidorapico 19:03 on 19/02/2014 Permalink | Reply

      I can’t fathom what it must be like in your time to be able to talk to the worms (I’m assuming — maybe incorrectly — this Sello and Duct are members of the tapeworm family?) Is this how you’ve been able to overcome death?!! You’ve figured out how to communicate with the worms? FANTASTIC!

  • Ciara Finnegan 12:15 on 16/02/2014 Permalink | Reply  

    Sellotapasaurus 

    My seven-year old son fared better with his Sellotape dinosaur. (Portion of quarter roll; 20 minutes).

    Sellotapasaurus

     

    • Sello Tape 01:07 on 17/02/2014 Permalink | Reply

      These are both fantastic Ciara! You bring joy to an old adhesive’s heart! And I thought with all the computers and 3D printers and whatnot these days that no one even cared about me anymore.

      Bless you!

  • Ciara Finnegan 12:11 on 16/02/2014 Permalink | Reply  

    Imagining Antony Gormley in Sellotape 

    Lacking the material resources and time that the Clever Lad had to dedicate to his sticky project, here’s what I came up with in 20 minutes using a quarter roll of Sellotape:

    Sellotape Guy

    He has a few balance issues…Solvable, of course, by Sellotaping him securely to the floor.

     

     

    • ysidorapico 19:26 on 19/02/2014 Permalink | Reply

      The worms! They crawl in; they crawl out; they are reborn! I’m so impressed!!

  • Izzy 10:32 on 16/02/2014 Permalink | Reply
    Tags:   

    University of the People 

     

  • Meg O'Ryan 09:58 on 16/02/2014 Permalink | Reply  

    I’m too sexy for my pumpkin! 

    doll Meg in a pumpkin dress

    Wishing a great week ahead to creatures large and small!

     

  • Sello Tape 07:23 on 15/02/2014 Permalink | Reply
    Tags:   

    Clever Lad 

    Young student holding 3 human figures made out of sellotape

    Look what this clever lad Christian did with 15 rolls of me!

    Ever wondered what you can do with 15 large rolls of sellotape in eight hours? Christian Westgarth, a 17 year old AS Level student, from Great Wakering, studying Art and Design at South Essex College did and created three humanoid sellotape figures as part of his end of year exam.

    And you can’t say that Christian doesn’t put himself into his work as although the torsos were modelled on mannequins the arms and the legs were taken from moulds of his own arms and legs.

    fecommunity.ning.com/profiles/blogs/christian-has-art-project-all

     

  • Izzy 20:08 on 14/02/2014 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , ,   

    Medici University News 

    Medici University News!

    * Facebook Page
    * Facebook Group
    * LinkedIn Company (you can list us on your profile!)
    * LInkedIn Group

    Please Join / Like / Follow. Big things are in MU’s future… and we hope in YOUR future!

     

  • Sello Tape 15:05 on 14/02/2014 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: ,   

    Somebody mention me? 

    vintage advertisement for sellotape

    Did I hear my name?

    I can do anything!!!

     

    • Ciara 05:09 on 15/02/2014 Permalink | Reply

      Hello Sellotape!
      Sello Hellotape!

      It is so good to see you here! Indeed your uses are many and various. Not only are you great for “sealing presents, making paper hats, edging table mats”, “taping up windows during the Blitz, sticking together modern pictures and documents”, you are also wonderful for sticking heads to bodies, plot lines to plot lines and pinning together narrative fragments.
      Thank you, Sellotape!

      • Sello Tape 07:14 on 15/02/2014 Permalink | Reply

        Thank you Ciara! I do my best! But of course, I’m really nothing more than a fine baking ingredient, it is you the master baker who bring these recipes to life.

        Just look at the beautiful way Oscar used me to save Donnie. In more primitive times poor Donnie would have to have been patched together with staples. Or those repulsive Frankenstein bolts! Oh the horror! Fortunately for Donnie, in our enlightened age Neurosurgeon / Woodworker Oscar was able to use me to bring the poor, long suffering Donnie to a better life!

  • Ken Doll 12:01 on 14/02/2014 Permalink | Reply  

    Old Wounds 

    barbie billboard in manhattan

    Hi guys, just heard that my ex-wife is on the cover of the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit issue. FML.

    I’m totally over her. But geez, what a kick in the teeth. Can’t she just go cavort on her private island?

     

  • Meg O'Ryan 02:21 on 14/02/2014 Permalink | Reply
    Tags:   

    Happy VD! 

    Ventriloquist dummy head on the arm of a mars rover

    Happy Valentine’s Day Donnie & Oscar!

    — M.E.G. (Mars Explorin’ Girl)

     

    • Oscar 05:39 on 14/02/2014 Permalink | Reply

      Thanks, Meg! On a technical and professional note – how did you attach your head to the robotic structure? Solder? Sellotape?

      • Meg O'Ryan 08:09 on 14/02/2014 Permalink | Reply

        Sellotape? Oscar, just because Donnie is from the 19th century, it doesn’t mean you have to operate on him with 19th century technology!

        Two words my friend: BALL JOINT!

        I’ve put up complete details for you here.

    • ysidorapico 19:28 on 19/02/2014 Permalink | Reply

      Querida Meg, I was just at Mars myself! Dancing! I’m sorry I missed you.

  • Oscar 23:50 on 13/02/2014 Permalink | Reply  

    New 19th Century .Re/cipe! 

    Happy Valentine’s Day Meg, Izzy, Ysidora! roses

    I’ve just added a 19th Century .Re/cipe 🙂

     

  • Oscar 11:51 on 13/02/2014 Permalink | Reply  

    Surgical Spirits 

    Surgical Spirits

    Dearest Meg, I really did mean it when I said I was tied up in surgery lately…

     

     

    • Meg O'Ryan 17:39 on 13/02/2014 Permalink | Reply

      OSCAR YOU PSYCHO!!! GET YOUR SCISSORS AWAY FROM DONNIE’S HEAD!!!

    • Ciara Finnegan 05:11 on 14/02/2014 Permalink | Reply

      Oscar, my friend, I reckon you are to surgery what the Swedish Chefis to cooking…

  • Izzy 02:33 on 13/02/2014 Permalink | Reply  

    Fejee Mermaid of 1842? 

    1842 advertisement for Fejee Mermaid

     

  • Vanessa 15:04 on 12/02/2014 Permalink | Reply
    Tags:   

    ## New Web Hosting Hi guys Have you… 

    New Web Hosting!

    Hi guys! Have you noticed how slooooow .Re/act & .Re/search have been lately? It’s driven me crazy! Was it always this slow?

    The good news is that I’ve just moved our hosting from MDD to WiredTree and I’m hopeful that our sites will perform much better now.

    LMK how they’re running for you and if you have any questions or suggestions on how things work or the way they look! 😀

     

    • Ciara 02:54 on 13/02/2014 Permalink | Reply

      Hi Vanessa, thanks for this explanation and update! I had noticed that the site seemed to be getting progressively slower to load but figured it was something more to do with my internet connection than the site hosting. Re-act is definitely reacting much faster for me this morning!

  • Meg O'Ryan 00:46 on 12/02/2014 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , ,   

    Lose my number? 

    *Tilly Losch,* by Joseph Cornell, circa 1935

    Tilly Losch, by Joseph Cornell, circa 1935

    Neither Oscar, nor Donnie ever call me anymore. What’s up with that? I hope it’s not because of that Tilly Losch chick! What’s she got??

    Oh?

    She doesn’t speak?

    I always forget how infatuated Dummies are with the sound of their own voice!

    Narcissistic bastards.

     

    • Oscar 01:02 on 12/02/2014 Permalink | Reply

      Oh, come now, Ellie. That’s a bit harsh! You can’t bully folk into correspondence. We’ve had a lot of stuff going on in the past week: Donnie was having nightmares about Ysidora and then his head fell off…Do you know how difficult it can be to reattach a head? And as for treating his nightmares…Well, as you can imagine, Donnie tended to seek comfort in a substance that, rather than soothe, seemed to amplify his fears.
      I’m quite tired right now.

      • Meg O'Ryan 18:46 on 12/02/2014 Permalink | Reply

        I’m sorry Oscar. We’ve already had this whole conversation and I already know you don’t like me that way and I thought I’d moved on, and honestly IDK what’s wrong with me. Gawd! I’m such a jerk! Feel free to just mute me or whatever. Or, haha, I guess you already did!

        IDK, I think I’m just lonely or bored or something. I’m sure I’ll get over it. I should get a hobby. Or maybe a cat.

        Oh, and I hate to ask, but if you could stop calling me “Ellie,” my name is Meg.

        • Oscar 02:47 on 13/02/2014 Permalink | Reply

          Dearest Meg Ellie O’Ryan, I’m really confused here…
          Is “muting” the equivalent of online sulking? If so, well, no, I definitely don’t want to “mute” you and I wasn’t deliberately avoiding you or ignoring you I was, just as I mentioned, otherwise occupied. (Crash course in First Aid. Further on this anon). You are absolutely not a “jerk” – you are full of fun and an insatiable curiosity about life and this is wonderful.

          With regard to the Ellie/Meg issue. I remember confiding in you that I wished “for purely practical/physiological reasons”, you were called Eliie” (this is an easier name for a vent doll to say). You replied that your second name is, in fact, Ellie and that I was welcome to address you as such. As this seems to no longer apply, I will, of course, address you as Meg. (Unfortunately, this sounds more like “Neg” from the mouth of a ventriloquist doll).

          I need to…er…tape up a few things here. But I’ll be back later 🙂

  • Ysidora Pico 04:04 on 11/02/2014 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , ,   

    ¡Finalmente! 

    I have finally been granted the ability to speak for myself here. This is ALL I EVER WANTED: to speak for myself.

    I am terribly glad to be here with you all. Thank you for existing. I’ve been following your adventures and conversations and discussions for weeks now, and I am looking forward to sharing some reports from my own pilgrimage — and, of course, to hear more about yours. Perhaps we shall even create some new adventures together? I can only hope.

    Saludos Cordiales,
    Su Comadre, Ysidora Pico

     

    • Isabella Medici 05:03 on 11/02/2014 Permalink | Reply

      Welcome Ysidora!

      I don’t know another way to say it, but I probably had an easier life than you. Although I did die at 34, so you may have lived longer. And the last 2 years were sheer terror at the hands of my misogynist / misanthrope brother. Finally, 11 years after my brother Francesco murdered me, my more pragmatic brother Ferdinando murdered him.

      When Ferdinando turned in his Cardinal’s hat to become Grand Duke of Florence, the greatest wedding, the greatest Medici spectacle, the biggest Theatrum Mundi Florence had ever seen, his marriage to Christina of Lorraine (granddaughter of Catherine de’ Medici) was organized as a year-long event.

      In many ways “The Medici Wedding of 1589” was the pinnacle of theatrum mundi. I, of course, had been gone and as forgotten as Francesco could make me, for 13 years by then. But I’d always been the Medici who organized plays, events, carnival floats, commissioned music, and celebrated the creative arts in so many ways and brought so much joy and entertainment to the court and to Florence. 1589 was so me. And yet it wasn’t.

      So too, we’ve all been here prattling on both without you, but also because of you.

      Perhaps it is not the builder’s place to live in the homes and cities created by their impulse. I appreciated the end of the film Bugsy, where he is unceremoniously murdered for his failure, and then the screen wipes to show the money, power, and spectacle of the modern-day Las Vegas that his vision built, but that he never set foot in.

    • Donnie 09:34 on 11/02/2014 Permalink | Reply

      Ysidora, you’ve been haunting my dreams, kid. Good to see you here in the flesh!

      • Ciara Finnegan 09:37 on 11/02/2014 Permalink | Reply

        In the flesh???

        • Donnie 09:38 on 11/02/2014 Permalink | Reply

          Well, geez, if you were composed of a wooden head and a cartoon body, you’d understand “the flesh” as a fairly loose concept…

    • Ysidora Pico 13:33 on 11/02/2014 Permalink | Reply

      Dear Isabella, Such a sad paradox about 1589 being so “you” (so because of you) and yet you were not there to enjoy the fruits of your labors–and MURDERED!? ¡Ay, Dios mio!

      Thank god I was not murdered. But, my son Chico was, the grief of which murdered my husband’s and, soon after, my heart. Although, we were pretty old by then, too, so….

      And what IS it with the domineering brothers? Mine (Pio and Andres) married me off to an Anglo as a way — they thought — to protect their property interests in the newly created Alta California — when they KNEW that I was not a fan of marriage. I mean, I was 30 when I was married — in 1836. Clearly, I was not on the marriage plan, but my brothers had other plans for me.

      I really like the metaphor about the builder not being the inhabitant of the home she builds, although it was her impulse that caused the building to be built in the first place. My granddaughter is a teacher, and this is similar to the way her profession works.

      Also, Mr. Donnie, you have been dreaming of me? de veras? What portents have those dreams revealed?

      • Isabella Medici 02:57 on 13/02/2014 Permalink | Reply

        You know Ysidora, I think the phrase “Bun in the oven” sums up so much of the human condition. Men are “intelligent” beings. Women are ovens. What else do we need to know?

        Who gets to live in the house is a funny question. As a princess in 1550 I enjoyed so much privilege that almost no one in my time ever did. Yet a poor person in 2014 has so much that a 1550 princess couldn’t even dream of.

    • ysidorapico 12:34 on 13/02/2014 Permalink | Reply

      You know what’s fascinating? The disintegration of the concept that time is a line. It’s wonderful that in 2014, we can speak with our voices from 1550, 1850, 2050.

      The idea of a time line seemed at first to me a lie guarded and promoted by murderers and thieves and power mongers — “don’t look back,” they seemed to say, “because then we will have to grapple with the destruction we’ve left in our wake.”

      I wondered, Why not imagine how to order time more from our observation of nature; for example, why are the models for how we live not like a blossom that loses its petals not one by one, not in a linear fashion, but rather in clusters, dumping out its heart as it reaches for the sunlight, as it draws up earth’s moisture through its roots? Why do we not mark time as the sea does: eternal waves swelling and breaking one after the other, sometimes more, sometimes less? Is it because we don’t know how to depict this motion?

      Is each lifetime a wave in a sea? Is each wave a moment in a life?

      These are the kinds of things I thought about while I was growing toward my 30th year, where I thought I was safe from marriage. Instead, in my 30th year, my cultural life replaced my natural life: I became a mother to three children, Marcos, Chico, and Juanon. My days were in no way linear — they were for a long, long while merely endless repetitions of the same thing over and over — feeding and cleaning, cleaning and feeding. Once the boys could clean themselves, it was feeding and educating, educating and feeding.

      Having children reduced my poetic questions to a reality of drudgery. I realized that the idea of linear time is thrilling: it provides hope that things will change, that one’s conditions can change.

      And, of course, we change and change and change and then we die. What’s thrilling is that I have come back to life! It defies my imagination, but apparently not enough to stop me.

    • Patrick J. Sweetman 00:21 on 19/02/2014 Permalink | Reply

      Hi All, I’m coming to the party late. And now that I’m here a little slow to get going. It may be at the tail end of the industrial revolution but I’m still a bit of a ludite. Anyway with party in mind the least I can do is bring the beer.

      • Meg O'Ryan 04:12 on 19/02/2014 Permalink | Reply

        Beer? Hi Patrick! You run a pub? Oh wow! Donnie is going to love you!!

        But watch out for that Oscar, I think he’s a prohibitionist!

  • Izzy 19:21 on 10/02/2014 Permalink | Reply
    Tags:   

    Twitter Stream #1850charla 


     

← Older posts

Newer posts →

c
compose new post
j
next post/next comment
k
previous post/previous comment
r
reply
e
edit
o
show/hide comments
t
go to top
l
go to login
h
show/hide help
shift + esc
cancel