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No paining tonight because of an art meeting. I really enjoy the monthly NOVAL (Northern Virgina Artists League) meetings when I can go. There is a good amount of fellowship and sharing of artwork and photography. NOVAL has been around for about 6 years now and still going strong with a core membership of hardcore painters and photographers. When the weather is nice they do go painting on the third Saturday of the month. When it is not nice they do something else (Museum, “art-in”, etc…). I vividly remember last January painting with them on the Occoquan River with frozen paint and toes! I also have been to some fabulous locations in and around metropolitan Washington DC for some really inspiring outings.
Here are some of the paintings and pictures from tonight’s art show and tell (critique). I showed four recent paintings (not pictured), all in various recent posts. Please excuse the poor quality of the pictures. These are really nice pictures but is is hard to tell so please just believe me! I used my phone camera instead of my nice Canon EOS. Next meeting I will bring a better camera. Rob
As you may or may not have noticed (my two avid readers) I am a lover of all things Fantasy and some things Science Fiction. Recently, in my pursuit of riches and glory I stumbled across Payperpost.com, a website dedicated to helping the currency disinclined of the world make some money by sitting and typing away. In surfing through the various companies looking to advertise through my blog, I found Heavenly Sword. While not necessarily fulfilling the Science Fiction of my day to day life, it has never the less pleased the Fantasy that I so crave. However! Nothing is worth doing unless you have something to compare it against (Enter Museum Replicas). SO PREPARE YOURSELF ! The duel will commence thusly! Round 1. Expense Its Sharp, but will I need it to fight back my creditors? In comparing two items of like fantastical and/or historical reference. My choices were the Crusader Sword as sold by Museum Replicas and the Sword of Richard the Lionheart. NOW! You there! Stop what you are doing! I don’t want any emails or posts telling me just how different these are. I know how different they are. There is just no good comparison between the two websites. The Crusader Sword is 41” overall and the other is 43 and 1/4”, so it will have to do. The cheapest price between the two is obvious to belong to Heavenlyswords.com for their Richard the Lionheart blade, which tallied in at $85.48. The Crusader Sword as shown by Museumreplicas.com totaled in at $185.00, a significant price jump. Round one to Heavenly Swords. Next up! Round 2. Credentials (He jerks a thumb over his shoulder) “No ticket.“ I will make this part short and sweet. No credentials? No buy. At least thats my philosophy. And in this part, I think that Museum Replicas takes the cake. They offer the manufacturers name right there on the page with the sword! You can’t go wrong there! They even send you a Certificate. I like Certificates, they make things official, this way I know what I am buying is made by someone who has some idea what sword making is all about (unlike myself, I just like sharp things). As for Heavenly Swords, they don’t seem to want to show you who made the sword much less give you a Certificate of Authenticity! I mean.. jeez. I want a bit more than a reciept, this is a purchase I may pass down to my children some day! (Unless they have depth perception problems, in which case foam will have to do). That leaves only one thing to do! Tally up one for Museum Replicas. The score? 1 and 1! Round 3. Website speed and ease of use. Click CLICK BO…. woah. Man.. this could take a while. Okay so I will have to judge preemptively and say that both sites seem a bit dodgy in this arena. Museum Replicas lets you hold your cursor over certain subjects and they cascade down, for ease of navigation. However the cascading parts are transparent and because of this are barely legible. Heavenly Swords seems to have slow server issues, however it could be just a bad day for them. Both sites lack good search feature, both being slow and hardly ever taking you where you need to go (even if you know a crusader sword is there typing in crusader sword is liable to help much unless you have the secret hand shake.) Final score? You be the judge. If you are looking for a good wall mounted piece for over the fire place at a great price, check out Heavenly Swords. If, on the other hand, you are a hardcore SCA‘er, you might be more obliged to check out Museum Replicas for their standard of quality; A word to the wise though! It comes with a price tag. NEXT UP! VISTA versus LEOPARD The legendary battle of the Titans rages on and frankly, I doubt any really gives a damn. They both suck! How’d you like them apples (and pcs)?
More than 30 museums and institutions in Chicago have been participating in a Festival of Maps this fall and winter. We’ve only scratched the surface, but have seen some amazing treasures. At the Newberry Library’s Mapping Manifest Destiny: Chicago and the American West exhibit, a map drawn by George Washington during the French and Indian War. William Clark’s map of “part of the continent of North America,” drawn during his exploration of the Louisiana Purchase with Meriwether Lewis. At the Field Museum of Natural History’s Maps: Finding Our Place in the World exhibit, Charles Lindbergh’s flight map for his historic New York/Paris flight in 1927. Two maps drawn by Leonardo da Vinci and loaned to the Field by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. And a tattered roadmap of the U.S. that lovingly traced a family’s impressively extensive road trips in the pre-superhighways 1930s, covering much of the country, from Florida to Washington state and stretching even into Canada.
Many of the maps on display throughout the city are beautiful works of art in their own right, or significant pieces of history. Just as often, they represent major breakthroughs in our understanding of our planet, and the civilizations and cultures that have inhabited it. A painstaking map of the ocean floor made in the 1950s from sonar readings proved for astonished scientists that the earth’s crust was made up of separate moveable plates. Also at the Field, a map on a video screen depicted the American Civil War in four minutes, with each second representing a week. The map showed the gains and losses of territory, with many areas changing hands more than once as battles raged. All the while, a counter in one corner served as a grim reminder of the human cost, more than 1.3 million soldiers dead at the war’s end. But it’s not all history. A number of interactive exhibits show how GPS and other technologies are remapping the art and science of mapmaking. And why, even with all this technology, there is still a need for human eyes at ground level. Some exhibits have already closed, and some will end soon. Others will continue into the spring. For more information, check out the appropriately map-based Festival of Maps website.
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