Tag Archives: holiday

Jan19

raining popcorn.

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popcorn is art and one of my favorite snacks

(though it’s no flamin’ hot cheetos!),

something to consider on national popcorn day.

Raining Popcorn (2001) is a piece commissioned by the Faulconer Gallery of the Grinnell College in Iowa. The commission would take artist, Sandy Skoglund many months to complete. In Skoglund’s art practice, the conceptual subject matter works in conjunction with the physical materials she uses, drawing on historical references, and instilling them with psychologically complex meaning.

Produced in 2001, just before the September 11 attacks, Raining Popcorn references the complex roots of American contemporary culture and overconsumption. The unifying subject throughout the piece is popcorn, so pronounced and repetitive it replaces nature. The popcorn becomes an all-encompassing reality, lining the walls, the floors, the subjects, and alas growing from trees. This obsessive environment constructed by Skoglund derives from the artist’s desire to combine sculptures of animals, live humans, and nature into a space that involves thought and play, as part research and part recreation.

The abundance of Popcorn acts as a reflection of the cultural environment, being noisy, excessive, universal, and part of popular culture. Currently, Americans eat 13 billion quarts of Popcorn a year, produced mostly in the heartland of America, from Illinois to Ohio. The piece is a response to memories and experiences Skoglund felt as a graduate student in Iowa.

The painstakingly handcrafted quality of the endless popcorn creates a fantasy landscape, one that raises questions about climate issues and our surrounding environment, as well as fantasy and reality. In Raining Popcorn, Skoglund’s objects and composite staging have a base in truth; they are not a product of photoshop or digital manipulation. It is critical for the artist that the photographs evidence something genuine. The constructions are explicitly staged to be photographed from one unique viewpoint.

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“americans love popcorn, and their love doesn’t quit.”

-rosecrans baldwin

 

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Credits: Sandy Skoglund, Raining Popcorn – Holden Luntz Gallery

Jan13

the right days.

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it’s january and i see the easter bunny

is already busy laying chocolate eggs

maybe she’s switching holidays

planning to take over groundhog day?

 

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“we have christmas and thanksgiving, and easter,

although we’re not exactly sure we celebrate them on the right days.”

–Henry De Vere Stacpoole

Jan9

bubbles….

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 someone, (not me) celebrating by bubble-bathing 

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last night

i once again celebrated one of my favorite holidays

national bubblebath day

 actually i celebrate this most every day

i’m a huge fan of baths, less so of showers

 often so relaxing that i fall asleep in the bath

if ever my post doesn’t show up one morning

you’ll know what has happened to me.

what about you? are you team bath or team shower?

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national bubble bath day:

Few things are as soothing and relaxing as a bubble bath. This is especially true if the bather decides to take their bubble bath to the next level using scented bath oils. Because bubbles form an insulating layer on top of the water, bubble baths also tend to stay warmer longer than ordinary baths. With that said, it’s National Bubble Bath Day, which celebrates the joys of these baths.

history of the bubble bath:

Although soap is a substance used since ancient times, it was very different from today’s soap. Baths were important to the Greeks and Romans, but most of the time oil, not soap, was used to dissolve dirt and grime on the skin. Sometimes this oil would be mixed with fire ashes, which creates a primitive soap that dissolves dirt and oils.

After the fall of the Roman Empire, Europe entered the Dark Ages and bathing fell out of fashion. That’s because suspicion and myths arose around the act of bathing, and many households only had access to primitive soaps. As bathing declined, the public became more prone to various diseases and plagues which continued until the Renaissance.

During the Renaissance, scented bath oils became extremely popular, but they were only enjoyed by the aristocracy and they didn’t produce a whole lot of bubbles. Fortunately, during this time, bathing also increased among the lower classes. However, the types of soaps used by the upper and the lower classes differed greatly. While the upper classes enjoyed high-quality scented soaps made from olive oils, the lower class had to be content with lye-based soaps made from rendered animal fats.

Bubble baths as we would know them today started with the invention of soap flakes—which was around the turn of the 20th century. By the 1930s, bubble baths were a widespread practice and the practice continued to increase in popularity from the 1940s on. Today, a variety of bubble baths are produced and enjoyed by people all over the world.

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“you can often wash your troubles away with the right kind of bath.

throw everything you have into the tub; bubble gels, bubble oils, bubble powders, bubble gum. “

-henry beard

 

 

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image credit: bored panda

Dec25

over-joyed on christmas eve.

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right in the midst of all of the holiday hulabaloo

puppy coco is over-joyed.

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“christmas is the spirit of love, joy, and peace.”

-lailah g. akita

Dec24

almost christmas.

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still not christmas yet? 

no, but so close i can feel it.

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“a good holiday is one spent among people whose notions of time are vaguer than yours.”

-j. b. priestley

 

 

 

 

 

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art credit: e. halpin

Dec22

all is bright.

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out seeing the lights tonight.

may you and your family be filled with light and laughter.

 

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“always be on the lookout for the presence of wonder.”

-e.b. white

Nov12

happy hour.

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friends on november 12th celebrating national happy hour day to the fullest.

why limit happiness to just one hour?

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note: happy hour began as an event in the military.

it is believed that the term comes from events organized

by a club called the happy hour social for the United States Navy in 1913.

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“fair thoughts and happy hours attend on you.”

-william shakespeare

 

 

 

 

 

 

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image credit: google images

Oct11

indigenous people.

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According to the United Nations, there are currently more than 370 million Indigenous people spread across 70 countries worldwide. In total, they belong to some 5,000 different Indigenous groups and speak more than 4,000 languages. Many of these groups have distinct social, economic, and political systems, as well as distinct culture and beliefs. Sadly, they are often marginalized or directly threatened by more dominant powers in society — despite having been the original inhabitants of the land they occupy.

Indigenous peoples often have a strong attachment, understanding, and respect for their native lands, be it the great plains of the United States, the Canadian prairies, or the Amazon rainforest. This connection is frequently apparent in the wise words of Indigenous leaders both past and present. Today, with many Indigenous communities on the frontlines of the battle to protect our natural world, this wisdom is perhaps more important than ever.

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“Even though you and I are in different boats,

you in your boat and we in our canoe,

we share the same River of Life.

What befalls me, befalls you.”

-Oren Lyons, Onandaga Nation Chief

and member of the Indigenous Peoples of the Human Rights Commission of the United Nations

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Indigenous Peoples’ Day is a holiday that celebrates and honors Native American peoples and commemorates their histories and cultures. On October 8th, 2021 President Joe Biden signed a presidential proclamation declaring October 11th to be a national holiday.

 

 

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– credits: Penobscot History Museum, United Nations

 

Sep3

get in line.

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safe travels.

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“if all the cars in the united states were placed end to end,

it would probably be labor day weekend.”

-doug larson

 

 

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image credit: national toy museum (record for world’s longest line of toy cars)

Aug21

oldies.

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happy i’m still around and sweatin’ with the rest of the michigan oldies – one more special day to celebrate

Header 2021

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

August 20, 2021

Governor Whitmer proclaims August 21 as Older Michigander Day

LANSING, Mich. – Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, in partnership with the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS), is celebrating the state’s more than 2.4 million adults aged 60 years and older by proclaiming Aug. 21 as Older Michigander Day.

 

“the great thing about getting older is that you don’t lose all the other ages you’ve been.”

-Madeleine L’Engle