For the first installment of Caturday Saturday, we are going to start with Egyptian inspired cat art. Disclaimer: Most seems to be AI Modified. I have an idea as to what that means but not to the point that I understand how it is achieved.
Gustav Klimt's 1905 painting ' The Three Ages of Woman's is this Mother Monday entry. Co
Completed in 1905 while residing in Austria, 'The Three Ages of Woman' is one of the most distinguished pieces of the Vienna Movement.
'The Three Ages of Woman' is exactly what the title says. A baby girl being held by her mother with an older woman looking down with her long hair and hand hiding her face. To me this also represents the Triple Goddess and/or Maiden ( the baby) , Mother and Crone. The woman covering her face is heartbreaking. Whether by design or not there seems to be a suggestion that a woman should be ashamed of growing old but a man's body is in the same boat as he ages. Again, this is my thought.
It has been just one of those days where the thought of what the day would bring was stressing me out this morning. It turned out not be all to bad. Yes the seafood salad did help...some. But I am still feeling tense and am looking for some more ways to destress before my Spooky stresses me out some more with lovin's. He is so territorial when it comes to me.
Anyway, I am starting to look through somethings on mainly Pinterest and that is where I came across this emerald and diamond armlet.
Then from a friend on Facebook a picture of Samantha, Tabitha and Endora from "Bewitched" put a smile on my face. I always wanted to look like Samantha and act like Endora. Who am I kidding? I still want to look like Samantha and act like Endora.
Flight of the Bumblebee is relaxing for me, especially if it is paired with 'Ave MAria' and is performed by Yehudi Menuhin as from "Stage Door Canteen"
Oh I love this picture. I really NEED to get off my lazy butt and work on my roses before it gets too cold.
Richard Armitage. Smile on my face, thank you very much.
I have loved this 'The Christmas Guest'since I was about nine or ten years old. Then it would give me goosebumps now I just cry. I don't know why but I have seemed to have gotten more weepy as the years have gone by. Oh well, it's a good release. Anyway, the song is by Grandpa ones and all I really know of him is that he was on the American television show 'Hee-Haw' with Buck Owens and Roy Clark and this is the only song I ever remember hearing from him. Anyway, the story of 'The Christmas Guest' is that of a man whose family has died and he is all alone on Christmas until the Lord speaks to him and tells the man to expect Him as on Christmas. So the man tells his friends and makes his house ready for his special Christmas Guest. He waits all day and three times his door is knocked upon by strangers in need of help, in which the man does help them, but the Lord does not show up. At the end of the day the man kneels and asks the Lord why He did not visit like he had promised... I do not want to spoil the end of it for you so I'll let you watch the video. But you may have it already figured out. But just in case you haven't :
The Christmas Guest
It happened one day near December's end
two neighbors called on an old friend
And they found his shop so meager and lame
Made gay with a thousand bows of green
And Conrad was sitting eith his face ashined
When he suddenly stopped his stitch a twine
And he said "Oh friends at dawn today
When the cock was crowin the night away
The Lord appeared in a dream to me
And said 'I'm comin' your guest to be.'
So I've been busy with my feet astir
And strewn my shop with branches of fir
The table is spread and the kettle is shined
And over the rafters the holly is twined
Now I'll wait for my Lord to appear
And listen closely so I will hear His step
As he nears my humble place
And I'll open the door and look on His face"
So his friends went home and left Conrad alone
For this was the happiest day he'd known
For long since his family had passed away
And Conrad spent many a sad Christmas day
But he knew with the Lord as his Christmas guest
This Christmas would be dearest and best
So he listened with only joy in his heart
And with every sound he would rise with a start
And look for the Lord to be at his door
Like the vision he'd had a few hours before
So he rant o the window after hearin' a sound
But all he could see on the snow-covered ground
Was a shabby beggar whose shoes were torn
And all his clothes were ragged and worn
But Conrad was touched and went to the door
And he said "You know, your feet must be frozen and sore
I would just like to say that I appreciate everyone who has stopped by and read my blog, it is gratefully appreciated. So, here is wishing you and yours a Peaceful and a Happy Christmas.
Nativity by Italian Renaissance artist, Pietro Perugino, ca. 1504
It seems that we have lost a lot of people in the music industry these last months Levon Helms, Adam Yauch (MCA of the Beastie Boys ) and now, shockingly today, the Queen of Disco, the lovely Donna Summer, from what has been reported, to cancer. She died this morning in Key West, Florida with her husband Bruce Sadano, of the R&B group Brooklyn Dreams, and her three daughters.
Yes, we think of Donna Summer as the Disco Queen but that was not her first choice of music. Born Ladonna Adrian Gaines on December 31, 1948 in Boston, she got her start in her church in the Boston area neighborhood of Dorchester, Massachusetts, when she was 10 years old and replaced the singer that was supposed to be there but did not show up. Her priest thought it would be cute to have Donna sing, thinking she would have this cutesy little girl voice and boy did she fool him. She opened her mouth and out came a voice that belied Donna's 10 years. Weeks before she was to graduate from high school, in 1967, she left home for New York with her blues-rock band Crow, where they tried and failed to land a record deal. When the band realized this was not going to happen, they decided to split up with Donna staying behind to pursue her dream of making music. She auditioned for the role of Dionne in the musical Hair but lost the part to fellow aspiring singer, Melba Moore, but Donna Summer did agree to take the part in the Munich production of the play. Reluctantly, her parents gave her permission to move to Germany for the work.
While she lived in Munich she became fluent in German and performed in the musicals, the German version of the Broadway musical The Me Nobody Knows, Ich Bin Ich ( I Am Me), Show Boat and Godspell. In three years time she had moved to Vienna, Austria and was performing with the Viennese Folk Opera. In 1971 she had a one-off European record deal with Decca Records in which she did a cover of the Jaynetts song "Sally Go 'Round the Roses". In 1972, she released the single, "If You Walkin' Alone" on the Dutch label Phillips Records. In 1973, Donna married Austrian actor Helmuth Sommer and they had a daughter, Mimi, the following year. However, by 1975 her marriage had crumbled because of her affair with the German artist, Peter Muhldorfer and she formally divorced from Helmuth Sommer. Donna kept his last name and Anglicized it to Summer, hence Ladonna Gaines became forever known as Donna Summer. After her divorce she along with her boyfriend Peter Muhldorfer, who was a surrealist painter, moved back to America living in Los Angels.
While providing background vocals for the 1970's group Three Dog Night, Donna met music producers Giorgio Moroder and Pete Bellotte. She eventually would sign a deal with European label Groovy Records and in 1974 issued her first album, Lady of the Night. But there was no release of it in America and was met with limited success in Europe mainly due to the song "The Hostage", which went to #1 in Belgium and #2 in the Netherlands.
In 1975, Donna went to Moroder with an idea for a song that Bellotte and she had been working on for another singer.She had come up with the lyric " love to love you, baby". Moroder became interested in the new popular sound that happening and used Donna's lyric to develop the song. Summer was persuaded by Moroder to record the demo for another artist but when Moroder listen to the playback of the demo, he felt that Donna's version ought to be released instead.
The song was sent to Casablanca Records president Neil Bogart in hopes that it would be released in America. Bogart told Moroder and Bellotte that if they could do a longer version for the discothequeshe would release the song, now called "Love to Love You,Baby". So, Moroder, Bellotte and Summer came back with a 17 minute version and Casablanca signed Donna Summer and released the single in November of 1975. While the clubs were playing the 17 minute version of the song ( also on the album "Love to Love You, Baby"), the radio stations were playing the shorter version. By early 1976, "Love to Love Youu, Baby reached #2 on U.S Billboard Hot 100, while the album sold over a million copies.The song became controversial due to Donna's moans and groans and some radio stations in America and Europe, including the BBC, refused to play it. But the song found success in Europe and made it the Top 5 in England, despite the BBC ban.
Thus began Donna Summer's successful musical career. But while she was becoming successful her boyfriend Peter Muhldofer was becoming resentful of all of her fame and it drove a wedge in between the two.Donna had stated that he became violent and with the help of Casablanca president Neil Bogart he was eventually forced to return home to Germany after his visa was revoked.
In 1978, while recording the hit track "Heaven Knows", featuring Brooklyn Dreams member Joe "Bean" Esposito on vocals, Donna met fellow member Bruce Sudano. Within a few months they were dating. Donna and Bruce married on July 16, 1980. A year later she gave birth to their first child together, a daughter, Brooklyn and the following year another daughter, Amanda was welcomed into the family.
She had often talked about the early part of her career as being filled with confusion and anxiety. By mid-1977, because of her struggle with the media's naming her "the first lady of love", she began suffering from anxiety attacks and depression. Donna Summer wrote in her memoir that she had made several attempts at suicide. During this time she began to take prescription drugs as a self-medication and this led to her becoming an addict. Following a nervous breakdown in her home in 1979, Donna went to a local church with her sister and became a born-again Christian. It was then that she decided that she would no longer sing "Love to Love You, Baby", but 25 years later she did. Even as recent as 2011 she re-recorded the tracks, complete with moans and groans, for the "Loveoverdose" fragrance by Diesel.
Donna Summer and her family moved to Nashville, Tennessee in 1994 because she was taking time out of show business to focus on painting, a hobby she took up in 1985.
Driven by Music by Donna Summer, artist
Now we come to today May 17, 2012 with the loss of singer and artist, Donna Summer. Thank You for the music and the paintings. You will live forever in your family, fans and your art both music and paintings.
Saint Cecilia(Latin:Sancta Caecilia) is the patron saint of musicians,composers,instrument makers, music( especially Church music) and poets. The name Cecilia means blind and so, although it is not known for sure if she could see or not, she is also the Catholic patron saint of the blind. Saint Cecilia is the patron saint of music because as she was dying she sang to God. It is also written that when she was forced to marry Valerian, a pagan, she "sang in her heart to the Lord" as the musicians played. Her feast day is November 22 . She is one of seven women, excluding the Virgin Mary,commemorated by name in the Canon of the Mass.
It is believed that Saint Cecilia was born in the 2nd or 3rd century A.D. A religious romance telling the love story of Saint Cecilia and Valerian appeared in Greece in the 4th century A.D., and there is a biography of Saint Cecilia from the 5th century A.D. She is said to have been the daughter of a wealthy Roman family, a Christian from birth, who was promised in marriage to Valerian. Cecilia, however, had vowed her virginity to God and wore sackcloth, fasted and prayed in hopes of keeping this promise. Saint Cecilia told her husband of her wishes on their wedding night. She also told him that an angel watched over her to guard her purity. He wanted to see the angel, so Saint Cecilia sent him to Pope Urban Accounts on how and when Valerian saw the angle vary, but one states that Pope Urban baptized him and upon his return to Saint Cecilia, he saw her praying in her chamber and an angel by her with flaming wings, holding two crowns of lilies and roses, which he placed on their heads and then vanished. Another version says that Valerian's brother, Tibertitus, sees the crowns and is also converted.
After their conversion, the two brothers made it their mission to bury the martyrs that were daily being put to death by the prefect of the city, Turcius Almachius ( there was no prefect of that name). When the prefect heard of the brothers doings, he had them arrested and brought before the prefect, when Valerian and Tibertitus refused to sacrifice to the gods, they were executed by the sword. In the meantime, Saint Cecilia continued with making conversions of 400 people, who Pope Urban immediately baptize. She also prepared her home to become a church at her death.Then she was arrested and brought before the prefect.He ruled that she should die by suffocation in the baths. She was shut in for a day and a night and the fires were heaped up and made to glow and roar to their utmost, but Saint Cecilia did not perspire through the heat. Since she was still alive she was the ordered to be beheaded, but the executioner struck Saint Cecilia 3 times without severing her head and she would not die without receiving the Holy Communion. This left her mortally wounded and survived for 3 more days. In this time Saint Cecilia made more conversions and people came to her cell to soak up her blood with cloths and sponges. When she died the people by her cell knew she was destined to be a saint in Heaven.
Martyrdom of Saint Cecilia, by Stefano Maderno, ca. 1599-1600
There is in Rome a church, Santa Cecilia in Trastevere, in Saint Cecilia's honor that dates from around the 5th century. Tradition holds that the church was built over her house. Her relics are believed to have been found by Pope Paschal I in 821 A.D., in the cemetery of Saint Celestas. The remains were exhumed in 1599, when Cardinal Paul Emilius Sfondrati rebuilt the Church of Saint Cecilia, and was said to be incorruptible. It was also found at this time that one hand Saint Cecilia had 2 outstretched fingers and on the other hand just a single finger, denoting her belief in the Trinity.
Facade of Santa Cecilia, a 1775 project with a 12th century belltower
The Virgin With Angels was done in 1900 by the French artist William-Adolphe Bougereau. He was a traditionalist whose realistic genre paintings and mythological themes were modern interpretations of Classical subjects with a heavy emphasis on women.
