History

Lost in Wars

May 13, 2020 By Zola Zeester Leave a Comment

“The sun has gone
A long time ago
We’re waiting for the dawn
That will never show
Our hearts are getting hard
Souls covered by scars
We are made of stars
But we are lost in wars”

— Battle Beast, Lost in Wars

2^nd LT John Robert Holt, Jr (1978-2009) was a graduate of Luther Burbank High School in San Antonio, Texas and the University of Texas – San Antonio. He served as a US Army combat medic in Iraq, and was awarded the Meritorious Service Medal.

In the short video documentary, Vincent Valdez: Excerpts for John, produced by filmmakers, Mark and Angela Walley, Vincent tells the story of his friendship with John Holt while he works to create a memorial to John and all the soldiers ‘lost in the fog of war’.

San Antonio native, Vincent Valdez, is a graduate of the Rhode Island School of Design, and a recipient of the Joan Mitchell Foundation Grant for Painters and Sculptors. He focuses his creative work on cultural and historical themes with contemporary portrayals of human struggle, loss, sacrifice, war and injustice. In recognition of excellence in the arts, Valdez was designated a ‘Texas State Artist’ in 2015 by the Texas State Legislature. Exhibitions and collections include: Museum of Fine Arts Houston, The Ford Foundation, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, The National Portrait Gallery, Blanton Museum of Art, Parsons Paris, Bullock Texas State History Museum, OSDE Buenos Aires, the McNay Art Museum and Southwest School of Art. [Vincent Valdez website →here]

John, oil-on-canvas by Vincent Valdez, 2010-2012. It’s an intimate portrait of Vincent’s friend “in the midst of battle, an explosion and billowing smoke behind him, his eyes focused on an ominous sight that is invisible to the viewer and that anticipates John’s demise.” (Taina Caragol, co-curator, The Face of Battle: Americans at War)

Excerpts for John (2012) depicts the unfolding sequence of events and emotions Vincent Valdez experienced during his friend’s military funeral in a series of paintings created as an homage to Lieutenant Holt and “a eulogy for those who can’t find their way home”.

Information/Resources:

After more than a decade of war in the Middle East, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) has become a critical health concern among American war veterans as the number seeking help for PTSD has dramatically increased and the number of suicides exceeded 6,000 each year during the years 2008-17.*

Soldiers of Conscience, Q&A What is PTSD & how to get help, PBS (October 2008)
National Center for PTSD: US Department of Veterans Affairs
Veterans Families United: PTSD healing resources and helpful reference materials for veterans & families
*2019 National Veteran Suicide Prevention Annual Report

Artists reveal thoughts and feelings about their work
and living a creative life in “Creative Perspectives”,
an On2In2™ collection of videos– FREE To WATCH, On-Demand

Go to next → Watch: Introspection, an On2In2™ collection of videos featuring personal reflections on life that will move and inspire you — FREE To WATCH, On-Demand

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Feature photo is a screen shot taken from the video, Vincent Valdez: Excerpts for John, produced by Walley Films

Activist Arts

March 15, 2020 By Zola Zeester Leave a Comment

“If art is to nourish the roots of our culture, society must set the artist free to follow his vision wherever it takes him… We must never forget that art is not a form of propaganda; it is a form of truth.” — John F. Kennedy

Throughout history, art has been created by people for many different reasons and purposes, both non-motivated (no specific-purpose other than a basic human instinct to create) and motivated (e.g., the artist intends to communicate a specific emotion, comment on an aspect of society, or bring about political or cultural change), and works of art have often been controversial for a variety of reasons, provoking intense debate, criticism and indignation as well as influencing new ideas and shifts in prevailing sentiment.

An art movement is art with a specific common goal among a group of artists for a certain period of time (months, years or decades). There have been many diverse art movements during the 19^th and 20^th centuries, their meanings and objectives explained by the artists involved in the movement or art critics and historians.

In the US, the ‘60s were years of social unrest and cultural change, and contemporary artists responded to the turmoil and addressed the issues by producing creative works of activism. The Black Arts Movement (1965-75), aka Black Aesthetics Movement or BAM, emerged when a group of African American artists were inspired by the Black Power movement to create expressive works of poetry, novels, visual arts, and theater that reflected pride in black history and culture and explored the African American experience as a means of arousing black consciousness. Although it began in New York, BAM spread across the country and influenced a generation of artists.

In Southern California, the Black Arts Movement generated new forms of artistic and cultural expression and the development of community-based arts organizations in an effort to end discrimination in entertainment industries and focus attention on the conditions within black working class neighborhoods.

In her book South of Pico*, MacArthur winner and Columbia University professor Kellie Jones explores how artists in Los Angeles black communities during the 1960s and 1970s created a vibrant, engaged activist arts scene amidst racism and social upheaval. Building on her research and work on the Hammer Museum exhibition Now Dig This! Art and Black Los Angeles, 1960–1980, Dr. Jones, along with a discussion panel including UCLA professor Robin D.G. Kelly, will expand your understanding of the history of black arts in Los Angeles and beyond. If you missed the live broadcast of this event, there’s still time to watch a video recording. Just click/tap the “Watch Again” button or the post located on the video player below ↓

Creative Perspectives – artists reveal thoughts and feelings about their work and living a creative life in this On2In2™ video collection, available to watch free & on-demand.

Find out how you can help with art history research right from home, and discover the life of an artist using a very cool, free to
use online tool “AnnoTate”

Information/Resources:

Political Change from the 1960’s to Now: Connections Between Arts and Activist Movements by Andrea Assuf (The Public Humanist, Massachusetts Foundation for the Humanities, October 30, 2009)
On Black Aesthetics: The Black Arts Movement by Candice Frederick (New York Public Library, July 15, 2016)
The Black Arts Movement (blacklist.org)
Witness: Art and Civil Rights in the Sixties (Brooklyn Museum)
Wikipedia (Art and Art movement)

*Zeester Media LLC may receive a small commission for a book purchase you make via the link within this page. This in no way affects the price you pay for the purchase.

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Feature photo is courtesy of Pixabay CC0

Beautiful & Fascinating

February 28, 2020 By Zola Zeester 1 Comment

The memory of my grandmother, an avid ‘up-cycler’, carefully cutting off buttons from the family’s time-worn clothes and saving both the buttons and fabric for future use, is what probably inspired me to hold onto buttons. Kept in a zip storage bag, my eclectic assortment has grown slowly over the years — It isn’t a large or valuable collection. In fact, many of the buttons are quite ordinary, but they are uniquely mine, taken from my wardrobe, and they’ve become a collection of memories as well as a personal style timeline. I’ve also used some of the buttons for arts and crafts projects, and they’ve often come in handy for button replacement.

“Le bouton est non seulement indispensable, mais capable d’enjoliver un vêtement, de le personnaliser et de lui apporter la touche finale.” *— Herbert de Givenchy, Introduction to Boutons by Loïc Allio (2001) *The button is not only indispensable, but capable of beautifying a piece of clothing, of personalizing it and giving it the final touch. (Translation by Caroline Baumann, Director of Cooper Hewitt Museum)

Buttons have been placed on clothing as ornamentation for thousands of years, and crafted in a variety of ways by artisans and artists or manufactured in low and high-tech factories from every imaginable material, making these small objects significant in fields of decorative arts and design, fashion, visual art, and arts and crafts as well as archeology and materials technology.

Beautiful and Fascinating! Long admired for the artistry as well as historical value, button collecting began centuries ago and is still a popular hobby today. The photo gallery below includes just a few examples from extraordinary button collections.

Chinese, 249-210BC, Hanna S. Kohn Collection, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, PD

Walrus Ivory (Alaska 3-4th Century), Michael C Rockefeller Memorial Collection, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, PD

Stone (8-10th Century) excavated in Iran, Rogers Fund, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, PD

Etruscan, 6th C BC, Rogers Fund, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, PD

Metal (American 1770-1800) Hanna S. Kohn Collection, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, PD

18th Century, Hanna S. Kohn Collection, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, PD

Enamel (British, 1770) Hanna S. Kohn Collection, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, PD

Chinese (1770 – 1895) Hanna S. Kohn Collection, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, PD

Enamel 1780 (probably European) Hanna S. Kohn Collection, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, PD

Glass (French 1770) Hanna S. Kohn Collection, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, PD

1770-1895, Hanna S. Kohn Collection, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, PD

Glass (French 1775) Hanna S. Kohn Collection, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, PD

Glass (French 1780) Hanna S. Kohn Collection, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, PD

Hungarian button (1780) quartz, garnets & metal, Hanna S. Kohn Collection, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, PD

French water color, 1780, Hanna S. Kohn Collection, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, PD

Pearls & Sapphires (French 1785) Hanna S. Kohn Collection, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, PD

Metal & Enamel (French 1785) Hanna S. Kohn Collection, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, PD

Mother of Pearl (British 1820-50) Hanna S. Kohn Collection, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, PD

Hanna S. Kohn Collection (1770-1895 American or European) The Metropolitan Museum of Art, PD

French enamel 1850-80, Hanna S. Kohn Collection, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, PD

Union Porcelain Works (1876) The Metropolitan Museum of Art, PD

Metal (Japan 1850) Hanna S. Kohn Collection, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, PD

Horn (German 1850) Hanna S. Kohn Collection, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, PD

Metal (British 1880) Hanna S. Kohn Collection, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, PD

Metal (Thailand 1880) Hanna S. Kohn Collection, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, PD

Glass (American or European, 1880) Hanna S. Kohn Collection, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, PD

Italian mosaic 1860, Hanna S. Kohn Collection, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, PD

Metal (British 1850-80) Hanna S. Kohn Collection, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, PD

Metal & Enamel (British 1880) Hanna S. Kohn Collection, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, PD

Semi-precious stone (British 1880) Hanna S. Kohn Collection, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, PD

Italian 1880, Hanna S. Kohn Collection, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, PD

See More Glass Buttons (1700–1951, American or European) from the Hanna S. Kohn Collection, The Metropolitan Museum of Art
→ Gallery 1
→ Gallery 2
→ Gallery 3

See More Wood Buttons (1900-20, American or European) from the Hanna S. Kohn Collection, The Metropolitan Museum of Art
→ Gallery 4

The Cooper Hewitt button collection is amazing, and available to view online → HERE

Inspired Button Art – “I hold the button to my ear and it whispers to me, “I want to be…..” Augusto Esquivel creates sculptures from buttons, and he shares his work and creative process → Augusto Mucho Gusto website

Kenneth D. King created this stunning jacket using some of the 75 pounds of antique uniform buttons he inherited. [Pinterest pin “Using Buttons As Embellishment” by Threads Magazine]

Information/Resources:
Button Society Websites & Contacts – List of button society websites and contacts by country and US states
Button, Button, We’ve Got the Button(s)! by Margery Masinter (Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum, November 1, 2017)
Buttons: In the Collection of the Cooper Hewitt Museum by Carl Christian Dauterman (The Smithsonian’s National Museum of Design, 1982)
Hammond-Turner & Sons – Button Galleries – an online museum displaying buttons manufactured by Hammond Turner & Sons (and related companies), button makers of Birmingham (and Manchester), England. Created by Lesley Close, a descendant of one of the owners of the company.
The Waterbury Button Museum – More than 3,000 buttons are on permanent display in the Button Gallery of the Mattatuck Museum, Waterbury, Connecticut
Déboutonner la mode (Unbutton Fashion), Les Arts Décoratifs exhibit presentation
Boutons, Decorative Arts Museum (Les Arts Décoratifs), Paris, France
Lucie Rie: Ceramics & Buttons Exhibit (22 June 2018 – 12 May 2019, Centre of Ceramic Art at York Art Gallery, UK
European Fashion Project – Buttons, Victoria and Albert Museum, London
Keep Homestead Museum – Button Collection, Monson, Massachusetts – The vast collection is exhibited on a rotating basis, but on permanent display is a wonderful collection of mosaic buttons.

Button Button: Identification and Price Guide* is a well-organized guide recommended by the Button Society as a book that every button collector and dealer should own.

Buttons: The Collector’s Guide to Selecting, Restoring, and Enjoying New and Vintage Buttons* shows and describes fabric, metal, glass, ceramic, enamel, plastic, and uniform buttons along with the history of buttons.

Buttons by Diana Epstein and Millicent Safro* looks at the authors’ collections of buttons, describing their history and value as art.

Creating art with buttons is a fun arts and crafts project. — ⓒ Button Art by Zola Zeester

FREE To WATCH: Collector Confessions – A diverse group of engaging collectors tell their stories about lifelong passions for objects. [Videos on Demand]

*Zeester Media LLC may receive a small commission for a book purchase you make via a link within this page. This in no way affects the price you pay for the purchase.
Feature photo “My Button Collection” © Zeester Media LLC, 2015-18

The Bigger Picture

February 27, 2020 By Zola Zeester Leave a Comment

Henry Tate (1819-1899) was an English industrialist and philanthropist. Starting his business career as a grocer with an apprenticeship at 13 years old, Tate made a fortune in sugar refinery, and was known for his humble nature and generous charitable donations in support of health and education causes. In 1889, he offered to donate his collection of 65 contemporary paintings to the British government on the condition the collection be displayed in a suitable gallery. As there was no gallery space available at the time, Tate also offered £80,000 toward the building of a new gallery. His donation toward construction of the gallery eventually reached the sum of £150,000. (An unverified guesstimate as we’re talking about an amount equivalent to US$20+ million in today’s money.)

Photo by Tony Hisgett CC BY 2.0 — Photo byTony Hisgett CC BY 2.0

The Tate Gallery, now Tate Britain, first opened to the public on July 21, 1897 as the “National Gallery of British Art” in central London at the site of the former Millbank Penitentiary (1816-90), a prison that had served as a holding facility for convicts prior to transport to penal colonies in Australia. At the opening, a total of 245 art works dating back to 1790 (including the Tate collection) were displayed in eight rooms within a grand new building featuring a central dome and classical portico entrance topped by a pitched gable mounted with symbolic statuary of Britannia, the Lion and the Unicorn.

It was the launch of what has become a network of four Tate art museums holding the UK’s national collection of British art (from 1500 to present day) as well as international modern and contemporary art: Tate Britain, Tate Modern, Tate Liverpool, Tate St Ives (closed until Spring 2017). Each is unique, and there is always something fun going on; special events and exhibitions, films, performances, special tours, talks and lectures. General admission is free; there’s a charge for some exhibitions and events. Tate also offers an extensive digitized art and archival collection, part of an initiative designed to make art more accessible to the public by utilizing new technologies and media.

Discover the Life of an Artist

In September 2015, Tate introduced “AnnoTate”, an innovative web-based crowdsourcing transcription tool that allows online users to get directly involved with art history research by browsing and transcribing a collection of digitized handwritten documents from the Tate archival collection, including artists’ letters, diaries, notes, journals and sketch books.

The process of transcribing is somewhat similar to deciphering a secret code depending upon the condition of the document and quality of handwriting, and it’s also fascinating to view these personal writings and learn details of an artist’s life and work. Using AnnoTate, you can get involved in this important research (no art history education or experience required) – any time, any place, choose from two different approaches:

Start Transcribing. Jump right in and start transcribing items at random (links are provided so that you can learn more about the artist and context of an art work); or

Find Artists. Select an artist from a list and focus transcribing the writings of a specific artist.

Do as much or as little as you wish; work at your own pace. The amount of time you put in is totally at your discretion. [A word of caution: AnnoTate users have reported that transcribing can be addicting! ]

You’ll find inspiration in this collection of selected videos about contemporary artists and their work— Creative Perspectives –FREE to watch, on-demand

Researching family history can be quite an adventure, and the
discoveries both heartrending and joyous → The story of Finding Peter

Information/Resources:
History page, Tate website
Wikipedia: Henry Tate, Millbank Prison, Tate Britain
MeasuringWorth.com

Feature photo courtesy of Pexel CC0

Art Collecting

February 13, 2020 By Zola Zeester Leave a Comment

You might be surprised to learn private art collecting is an avocation with a history that goes back as far as the Middle Ages (5^th– 15^th centuries) in Europe and East Asia. It later evolved in Italy during the Renaissance period (14^th – 17^th centuries) of cultural change and achievement in painting, sculpture, architecture, literature, music, philosophy, science and exploration, and spread across Europe as kings and nobleman amassed vast art collections to display within their grand palaces. By the 18^th century, an art collection had become a status symbol for the wealthy, and collectors’ preferences influenced what new works artists produced for the art market.

Art Collection of Archduke Leopold Wilhelm in Brussels by David Teniers the Younger, 1650, PD

Art Collection of Archduke Leopold Wilhelm in Brussels by David Teniers the Younger, 1651

Chamber of Art and Curiosities: A corner of a cabinet of collected art and objects, painted by Frans II Francken in 1636, reveals the range of connoisseurship a Baroque-era virtuoso might evince — Chamber of Art and Curiosities by Frans II Francken, 1636, PD

Information/Resources:
Art Collection of Archduke Leopold Wilhelm is an example of art collecting in the 17th century and can be viewed at the Museum of Fine Arts in Vienna, Austria
Bartolomé Esteban Murillo, The National Gallery, London
Arts Council England, Bartolomé Esteban Murillo (bio & artworks)
How to Collect Art Like a Pro – How to Build an Art Collection, Alan Bamberger, Art Business consulting
A Poor Collector’s Guide to Buying Great Art (10 tips) by Henri Neuenndorf, Art Net News (June 19,2015)

Find out how you can help with art history research right from home, and discover the life of an artist using a very cool, free to
use online tool “AnnoTate”

A Collector’s Passion: The many varied interests and passions
of collectors are similar in one significant characteristic — sometimes the hobby can get out of control.

We’re the social type as well as art lovers. Please register via the ENGAGE page to join the conversation, share your inspiration, ideas and creation, and network with On2In2™ playmakers.

Feature image sourced via Wikimedia: Two Women at a Window by Bartolomé Esteban Murillo, c. 1655–60 (National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC) Public Domain
Images of 17th century collections in slideshow were sourced via Wikimedia

Legendary Lovers

February 1, 2020 By Zola Zeester 1 Comment

“If two people love each other, there can be no happy end to it.” — Ernest Hemingway

Love is an emotion…. a powerful emotion that creates in the human mind a longing and psychological dependence on a romantic partner. And, great loves make great reading. Here’s a list of Zola’s all-time favorites. All non-fiction.

Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton lived very public, extravagant lives (Hollywood glitz, glamour and scandal), but Furious Love by Sam Kashner and Nancy Schoenberger, provides more to the story of these lustful lovers with an intimate look at the obsessions, conflict, and heartache in their tumultuous private lives and a view of the players and deals involved in the business of movie-making. When I started reading, I couldn’t put the book down.

I first got interested in the DiMaggio – Monroe love story after reading Joe DiMaggio: The Hero’s Life by Richard Ben Cramer. It was a ‘true love’ marriage of a sports icon and Hollywood super-star, but not so surprisingly, it was ill-fated. In fact, they were tragically mismatch, and the relationship became volatile and abusive. Joe and Marilyn: Legends in Love by C. David Heymann fills in the details.

The 40 year marriage of Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt was controversial because it seemed so out of the norm at the time, leading to much speculation about their relationship with one another and others. It was certainly complicated, and filled with tragedy, turmoil, and betrayal as well as devotion and commitment. Doris Kearns Goodwin recounts the Roosevelt presidency during the war years (1940-45) through the telling of their intriguing personal story in No Ordinary Time (Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt: The Home Front in World War II).

King Henry VIII’s love letters to Anne Boleyn are a fascinating read. Written in the years 1527-29, Henry professes his love and devotion to Anne beautifully, but the drama is in the knowing that by the year 1536, Henry had found a new mistress and Anne was beheaded. You can read the letters (including historical notes) online, free → HERE

Much has been written about these scandalous lovers, and it’s never enough. King Edward VIII’s love affair with the married American, Wallis Simpson, and his subsequent abdication in 1936 changed the course of history. Start with The Windsor Story by Charles J.V. Murphy/J. Bryan III and Wallis and Edward: Letters (1931- 1937), then move on and find more to the story. [A couple of these books were first published 25+ years ago, so you might have some luck finding them at your local, public library]

You’ve probably never heard of Sara and Gerald Murphy. I hadn’t when I picked up Everybody Was So Young (Gerald and Sara Murphy, A Lost Generation Love Story) by Amanda Vaill, but was immediately fascinated with the story of their love and friendships with artists and writers (including Hemingway, Fitzgerald & Picasso) while living in Paris and the French Riviera during the 1920’s. It seemed the party would never end, but it did, and the Murphy’s were forever changed after enduring the sufferings of great loss and facing financial trouble during the Depression.

Do you have a book recommendation to share with us? We’d love to hear from you! First, join our community of playmakers by registering via the ‘Engage page’, and let us know what you’re reading. Don’t worry, it’s FREE & and easy. Unless you’re a robot.

Zeester Media LLC may receive a small commission for a book purchase you make via a link to Amazon within this page. This in no way affects the price you pay for the purchase.

Feature photo is edited image provided by Josh Felise/Unspash CC0

Love Conquers All

January 27, 2020 By Zola Zeester Leave a Comment

Love conquers all things; yield we too to love! —Virgil, Eclogue X, line 69

Resolved am I
In the woods, rather, with wild beasts to couch,
And bear my doom, and character my love
Upon the tender tree-trunks: they will grow,
And you, my love, grow with them. (excerpt, Eclogue X, Gallus)

Considered one of Rome’s greatest poets, Publius Vergilius Maro (aka ‘Virgil’) (70 -19BC) wrote three of the most famous poems in Latin literature: Eclogues (also called ‘Bucolics’), Georgics, and the Aeneid.

The first, Eclogues (a Greek word for “selections”), is a group of ten poems featuring a mix of visionary politics and eroticism that made Virgil a celebrity and legend in his own lifetime.

In Eclogue X (Gallus), Virgil creates a myth using the impassioned voice of his friend, the poet Gallus, imagined dying of love in Arcadia, celebrated in Roman times as an unspoiled, harmonious wilderness and the home of Pan, Greek god of nature, the wild, shepherds, flocks, of mountain wilds.

♥ Go to Project Gutenberg for English translation of Virgil’s Eclogues (Free to Read)

Take a look at the On2In2™ article Contemporary Poetry. You’ll find both live and recorded readings featuring unique and inspiring literary voices of today.

Feature photo is courtesy of Pixabay/Pexels CC0

Skiing China

December 6, 2019 By Zola Zeester Leave a Comment

The short documentary, China: A Skier’s Journey, from Jordan Manley, is an exploration of the past, present and future of skiing within the diverse cultures and terrain of China. Stunning mountain vistas and some gutsy backcountry runs, too.

In the Altai mountains of northwestern China, prehistoric pictures carved in rock (petroglyphs) that show humans traveling over snow on skis are believed to be 10,000 years old, and the oldest written reference to skiing is from the writings of a Chinese scholar (The Hai New Jing) during the Western Han period of the Han Dynasty (206 BC – 9 AD) describing how the people of the Altai mountains “sped like goats in the valleys and on the flatlands wearing the ‘horns of goats’ – a kind of knee high fur boot under which is bound a wooden board with a hoof-shaped front tip.”

Ancient traditions of skiing are still evident today in the mountain region of northwest China, but seem likely to be lost to future generations, and the sport of skiing never gained popularity in China as in other parts of the world. That, however, is beginning to change as the country prepares for the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics.

samische_skifahrer-pd — Skiing in Scandinavia by Knud Leem December 31, 1766 (PD)

Despite the early history in Asia, today’s modern skis actually evolved in Scandinavia, not China (in 2014, a 1,300 year old ski with leather bindings was found in Norway), and not until the mid-19^th century did people start to enjoy skiing as a recreational sport, rather than strictly utilitarian purposes.

1849: First public ‘ski tour’ organized in Trondheim, Norway
1868: Winter train travel made mountain resorts commercially viable
1901: First skiing in the Pyrenees at La Llagonne, France
1910: First rope tow demonstrated at Truckee, California USA
1936: First chair lift introduced at Sun Valley, Idaho USA
1952: First large commercial snow-making machinery installed, Grossinger’s Catskill Resort Hotel, New York, USA

Info/Resources:
Wikipedia: History of Skiing
“The Ancient Art of Skiing: A Chinese or Norwegian Invention? (Ultimate History Project website)

WATCH more adventure skiing → A Skier’s Journey is a free-to-watch, on-demand video documentary series that follows adventure skiers as they travel the world, discovering great beauty and dangers in the mountains.

Feature photo is a still shot from the film “China: A Skier’s Journey“

The Overview Effect

December 5, 2019 By Zola Zeester Leave a Comment

The iconic Earthrise photo was taken in 1968 by NASA astronaut William A. Anders during the Apollo 8 mission, the first manned spaceflight to orbit the Moon. Never before had a human observed the Earth rising, and Anders’ amazing, first-ever color photo of our stunningly beautiful planet emerging from a lunar horizon still takes your breath away.

“We came all this way to explore the Moon, and the most important thing is that we discovered the Earth.” — William A. Anders

To See The Earth As It Truly Is*

[su_quote cite=”Frank Borman “]It was very, very sobering to see this little blue marble in the middle of all that darkness. [/su_quote]

The awe-inspiring effect of seeing the whole Earth from the vantage of space (known as “Earth gazing”) is most often described as an overwhelming sense that Earth is an “interconnected whole with one destiny”. An understanding that’s key to our survival. Of course, we can’t see it and feel it firsthand (only 24 humans out of 7.3 billion world population have had the experience) until space travel becomes practical for the general public, but innovative technology continues to provide us with more and better information and visuals.

The short documentary Overview (from Planetary Collective) explores a cosmic worldview with reflections from “Earth gazing” astronauts and philosophers as well as beautiful space imagery. Watch and be inspired by the “unity and oneness of all life on Earth”.

Earthrise: Remembering Apollo 8. Launched on December 21, 1968, Apollo 8 became the first manned spacecraft to reach the Moon, orbit it and return, and its crew became the first humans to see and photograph the Earth emerging from behind the lunar horizon. Watch as the Griffith Lab All Space Considered team recalls the lead up, events and discoveries of this historic mission in celebration of its 50th anniversary.

*”To see the earth as it truly is, small and blue and beautiful in that eternal silence where it floats, is to see ourselves as riders on the earth together, brothers on that bright loveliness in the eternal cold — brothers who know now they are truly brothers.” Archibald MacLeish (1892 – 1982) American poet

Take a virtual ride on a satellite for awesome views of Earth

Apollo 17 photo taken December 13, 1972 on the lunar surface — Moonwalk (December 13, 1972) NASA

Want to see more of what’s out there in space? The short video documentary, “The Last Steps” will take you to a ‘back to the future’ moment in time with original film footage, photographs and audio recordings from Apollo 17, NASA’s final Apollo program mission, and the last time a human walked on the moon. Watch more “out of this world” videos via the “Cosmos Channel“, free to watch, on-demand.

A retrospective look at discoveries and images of Saturn
captured during the 20 year Cassini Mission, plus some
info on when and how you can see Saturn in 2017

“The Overview Effect” is an edited version of an article originally published on the “Zblog” by Zeester Media LLC.

Earthrise photo credit: NASA

Crowning Cassini

November 1, 2019 By Zola Zeester Leave a Comment

Saturn is a giant planet (2nd largest in our Solar System) composed mainly of hydrogen and helium and visible from Earth without the aid of optical instruments as it shines a golden steady light in evening skies. Consequently, Saturn was known by prehistoric man, and became a major character of ancient mythologies.

The rings of Saturn, however, are not so easily viewed, and were not known to exist until Galileo Galilei (1564-1642) first saw them in 1610 using the newly developed refracting telescope. He thought the rings were actually two moons alongside Saturn. Forty-five years later, he was proven wrong when Christiaan Huygens (1629-1695) observed a “thin, flat ring” surrounding Saturn using a telescope he designed with greater magnification. In 1675 at the Paris Observatory, Giovanni Cassini (1625-1712) discovered a wide, dark gap between the rings of Saturn, known as the ‘Cassini Division’. As technology has increased visibility, nine continuous main rings and three discontinuous arcs have been observed within Saturn’s ring system.

Christiaan Huygens also discovered the first and largest of Saturn’s many moons, Titan, in 1655, while Giovanni Cassini was the first to observe four others, Iapetus (1671), Rhea (1672), Tethys and Bione (both in 1684). There are currently 62 known moons of Saturn, 53 confirmed and officially named and nine provisional moons as well as dozens to hundreds of ‘moonlets’ (small natural satellites orbiting a planet).

The Cassini Mission

An international mission to explore Saturn, its magnetosphere (region surrounding a planet that’s dominated by the planet’s magnetic field), rings and moons began more than 25 years ago, starting with seven years of development prior to the Cassini-Huygens spacecraft launch in 1997. The design of the unmanned spacecraft included a Saturn orbiter (Cassini) and a lander (Huygens) for Titan.

On December 25, 2004, Huygens separated from Cassini, and on January 14, 2005, successfully landed on Titan, while collecting and transmitting data to Earth using Cassini as a relay. It’s batteries died shortly after landing; therefore, Huygens now sits in silence on Titan’s surface.
[ESA Science: Huygens Top 10 Discoveries at Titan]

Cassini entered Saturn’s orbit on July 1, 2004, and photographs taken during the last 12+ years have led to significant discoveries. The 2012 NASA/Jet Propulsion Laboratory video, Cassini: 15 Years of Exploration, hits some of the highlights.

End of Mission: Cassini’s primary mission was completed in 2008 as it had made 74 orbits around Saturn. The mission, however, was extended to September 2010 for additional study, and extended a second time to 2017. It’s fuel supply running low, Cassini made a number of passes through the gap between Saturn and its inner ring before it was intentionally destroyed on September 15, 2017 by forcing a dive into Saturn’s atmosphere. The purpose of the deorbit was to mitigate the risk of Cassini later colliding with one of Saturn’s moons.

Information/Resources:
When & How to Find Saturn in 2017 Astronomy Essentials (5/11/2017), Bruce McClure & Deborah Byrd
NASA: Cassini Mission Overview: Planets – Saturn
European Space Agency: Cassini-Huygens
Missions to Saturn (Past, Present, Concepts)
Wikipedia: Saturn, Galileo Galilei, Christiaan Huygens, Giovanni Cassini

More cosmic wonders and mysteries
can be explored here → The Sun Galaxies The Universe Stars

Feature photo: The image of Saturn was captured on February 9, 2004 by the narrow angle camera of the Cassini-Huygens spacecraft when it was about 69 million kilometers (43 million miles) away from Saturn. A series of exposures through different filters were combined to form the colors seen in the image. The icy moon Enceladus is faintly visible on the left. Image Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute, Public Domain

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