Picture

Boy butts #3.

Donatello's David.

Before he was a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle, Donato di Niccolò di Betto Bardi (you see why his mother used the nickname Donatello, except when she was really angry) was a fifteenth-century Florentine sculptor.

This David, commissioned by a Medici, is his best-known work.

Like Michaelangelo's David, it also was an earliest large Western work unconnected with architecture, created to be a free-standing piece.

It's one of the first big bronze sculptures of the Renaissance. I've no idea of all the technology involved in its creation. A quick search around came up complicated and confusing. There's wax and clay and cloth and armatures that eventually lead to a mold. In goes molten copper and tin. Any moisture and the whole shebang would explode, possibly killing someone.

As a kid in the 1950's I cast toy soldiers out of molten lead. Yeah, lead. It was a toy, with a little electric furnace and a ladle and molds. Never mind the poison fumes, we didn't know about that stuff then.

My favorite soldier was the one without a gun. He had a nice butt, too.



And, wow, what a hat!

Leonardo, Raphael, Michelangelo and Donatello.
About a minute. Don't bother.

Related: Butts #1, #2.

Look

Photoshopped-up version of what I saw.

The past few nights, in central North America the waxing crescent moon has been closely aligned with a very bright Venus.

It looked like an illustration from a childrens' book. Goodnight Moon is to a full Moon, but the crescent is more iconic.


The night sky, at space.com.

Balls ball, but without dancing

No way we could skip this story from the weekend, for all that we go on about balls around here.

Restaurant serves REAL meat balls

ELDERON, Wis. (AP) - They call it "a nut fry." But these aren't cashews or peanuts. More than 300 people feasted on deep-fried testicles at Mama's Place Bar and Grill in Elderon, Wisconsin, over the weekend.

They paid five bucks each for all-you-can-eat goat, lamb and bull parts. Buster Hoffman says they taste pretty good after you get over what you're eating.

Butch Joubert says after a few beers, you think you're just eating regular meatballs.

From KETV and the AP.

Well, after a few beers. all kinds of things are possible, but few you'd want to tell a news reporter about.

Supernova

Largest supernova ever

Used with permission, thanks, olivia.

There was news last week of a gigantic exploding star - the brightest supernova ever seen. Fortunately for us, it's 240 million light-years away. NPR's Scott Simon today mused about why he hadn't noticed "the largest and brightest explosion ever in the universe."

[U of C astronomer Nathan] Smith said the star, SN2006gy, "is a special kind of supernova that has never been seen before." He called the star "freakily massive" at 150 times the mass of the sun.

[Emphasis mine.]

The discovery was first made last September by a graduate student in Texas.

That's the really cool part. Astronomy need observations. Obviously, they can't quite do controlled experiments. While the cutting edge is happening with the expensive high-tech arrays and orbiters like Hubble, there remains a place for amateurs and grad students doing yeoman work, gathering information about things like asteroids and oddball stars like this one.

Via Sci-Tech Today, from the Accosciated Press.

Now, for the bossa nova, here's Astrud Gilberto and Stan Getz, and maybe Gary Burton on vibes.

The Girl From Ipanema.
About three.

[Update: Corrected "milion miles" to "million light-years."

How embarrassing. I not only misspelled "million" but bollixed up my units by a literally astronomical magnitude.
]

[Another update: fixed the video embed.]

Picture

Boy butts #2.

Stone putti at Il Duomo di Milano cathedral, Milan, Italy.

Two (four?) reasons to go to church.

Used with permission, and thanks to julia997.

Another butt, earlier, at Dirty John Bonny here.

There's a series devoloping here that I'm quite sure I'll live to regret.

Picture

More lions

More found pictures on a theme.

Credit alalsacienne.

From Newcastle upon Tyne, England. That alone would be delightful, even if they did't have a lion.

Credit Bob K.

A truly remarkable set of teeth. My first impression was that there were entirely too many - that they were part of the painting.

Credit avyakata.

I can't help but think of C. S. Lewis and Narnia and Aslan.



Related: Lions at Dirty John Bonny.

And Cute, too.

Oh, yeew !

Doctor Finds Spiders in Boy's Ear

It sounded "like Rice Crispies."

"They were walking on my eardrums," Jesse Courtney said.

"It was real interesting, 'cause, two spiders in my ear - what next?" Jesse said.

Story here, at AOL via the AP. I Heard about in on NPR this morning. I squealed like a girl.

Picture

Given how popular David Hockney is around here (that post accounts for most of hundreds of recent page loads), I figured that people would be pleased if I added another.

Peter Getting Out of Nick’s Pool, by David Hockney

Again, there are three bits of space, vertically stacked; a simple composition built from a series of Polaroid photographs of Hockney's friend Peter Schlesinger.

The top draws the eye horizontally, but it's still a background, strangely flat. It calls to mind Japanese screens. The figure in the middle is the only three-dimensional part. And then there's the flat visual space of the swimming pool.

Abstract, decorative swirls stand in for the movement of water.

I like it.

And not just 'cause it's a picture of a boy's butt.

But that'll do.

Look

Credit fathero9.

If you happen to be outdoors really late or really early, that very bright "star" about three hand-spans to the right of the Moon is the planet Jupiter.

It looks different when you know that.

Picture

prairie belt canned boy parts

His title, not mine. Found while looking for something else. Really.

I can't wait to see what happens when this makes its way through the search engines.

Credit youcansleepwhenyoure dead.

Moving picture, Mockingbird version

Found in The Dictionary of My Generation, under Queer:
Elton John, Bette Midler and Cher. All at the same time.

Mockingbird.
A short, shaky video.

After that bit of teaser I had to dig up the original by Carly Simon and James Taylor (links provided at no extra charge to benefit you youngsters):

Mockingbird.
Almost four.

Mock
Ing
Bird
Yeah
Mocking bird now.

Everybody, have you heard,
He's gonna buy me a mockingbird,
And if that mockingbird don't sing,
He's gonna buy me a diamond ring.

And if that diamond ring don't shine,
Surely break this heart of mine.

Best duet yet, here, at Dirty John Bonny.

More meta-stuff

Looking at the search strings that led here sometimes just tickles me.

adaptations for antrozous pallidus
I'm, like, so erudite.

bunny and synapsida
Bats and bunnies! You've come to the right place.

longbottom miracles pentecostal
What the fuck? I can see how it got here, but can't imagine what they were really looking for.

scuttling across floors of silent seas consonance
That led to one of my favorite posts.

boys kissing
Dirty John Bonny rules.

Meanwhile, I somehow did something right by posting this here:

David Hockney, Portrait of an Artist (Pool with Two Figures) found at Ibiblio.

It continues to account for over two-thirds of the page loads around here.

No, I've no idea.