Turning Down the Empty Glass #3

Click on the numbers for two earlier parts of this 4-part series, those relate to paternal ancestors. #1......#2

My mother's father, my maternal grandfather, was Sidney Bulpitt. Like my paternal Grandad Scott, so with "Siddo" or "Daddy Sid"(pet names for him), he also had made his way up to Yorkshire from the south of England in his youth, looking for better work opportunities. I sometimes tell myself that genes from these two wandering grandfathers of mine shaped my own wanderlust. My parents were great wanderers also, in their day.

Bulpitt is a fairly unusual surname. It's thought to derive from the place from whence families of Bulpitts, Bulpits, Bulpens, Bulpins, Bulepin etc.originated: the bull pit would have been a pit or depression in the ground where a bull or bulls were kept, either for stud purposes for the area, or a pit where bulls were kept for the ancient and very nasty "sport" of bull-baiting. The Bulpitts, and other versions of the name, must have lived near to a bull pit, I guess. The word bull came from Old Norse 'boli', which morphed into Old English 'bula'. The surname was first noted in the county of Somerset, adjacent to, and to the west of Wiltshire where Sidney Bulpitt was born. Many of his antecedents came from the county adjacent to Wiltshire to the east : Hampshire.

I've come up with little, other than names and dates and places, on this branch of my family, but as will become obvious, I do have more old photographs of some of these relatives than I do of the relatives in my father's lines.

Sidney Bulpitt was born on 10 June 1890 in a rural village, Upper Chute, in Wiltshire. His parents were Charles Bulpitt and Caroline (nee Newman/Smith). He was, I think, seventh of 10 or more children. Some of his siblings: William, Alice, Emily, Frederick, Albert, Mary, Susan, Lillian, Eliza, Dolly and Ruth, born between 1877 and 1900.

Sid's mother Caroline's parents were Henry Smith born in Fyfield, Hampshire and Sarah Newman. Henry Smith was son of John and Mary Smith of Fareham Hampshire, born around 1810; Sarah's parents: Edward and Louisa Newman of Andover, Hampshire, born around 1812.

 Sid's parents seated, and 5 of his elder siblings. 

 Caroline Bulpitt centre, daughter Dolly left, an in-law ? at right

Sid's youngest sister emigrated to Ontario, Canada. I met three of his other sisters, who all, eventually, made their homes around London; also knew one of his brothers, Albert, "Uncle Bert". I met Bert when I lived for a year or so in the south of England, in Brighton, where he had worked for most of his life as chauffeur to a wealthy family. He was a bright, happy guy, full of fun. My grandad was a fun guy too, in his own way. If stories are to be believed (they probably are)Sid was something of a philanderer in youth, in middle-age too, but his marriage to my grandmother lasted long enough for them to celebrate a Diamond Wedding anniversary (60 years).

 Sid and Micky

 Sid with his sisters

 Sid's sister who emigrated to Canada

 Sid's brother Albert ("Bert") and wife Rose

In the 1911 census, at age 21, Sid was still listed in Wiltshire, as a carter, working on a farm, boarding with the senior carter in Wherwell, a village in Hampshire. By 1915 though he had moved some 240 miles northward to East Yorkshire and had married my grandmother, May. They had two daughters, my mother, Mary, and her younger sister, Lillian -Aunt Lil - (see blog post HERE).

Once in Yorkshire Sid didn't stay with agriculture or horses and carts for very long. He somehow learned how to drive one of those new-fangled horseless carriages, and worked as driver for a local taxi firm in the market town close to where he lived.

My mother is in the car somewhere, Sid at the wheel

Sid with a  rather more stately vehicle

When a local 'bus service needed drivers Sid became one of the first 'bus drivers in the area. Just before World War 2 he had somehow saved enough to buy his own taxi, and for many years was the local taxi man.

 Sid and his taxi

When business became scarce, years later, he drove an ice cream van around local villages in summertime, along with various other jobs at the local post-war air field close to home. He had a streak of ingenuity in him - he electrically wired the little cottage where he and grandma lived most of their lives together. His knowledge of electricity was negligible, but that didn't stop him! It's a wonder the cottage didn't burn down, but it didn't. I lived with "Siddo and Nanny" for a couple of years or so, as a very young child, during the worst of World War 2.

Sid lost most of his his sight in his last years - but never lost his determination to overcome all difficulties.  He died in 1978.

One of the last photos of Sid and May with my parents and me

So - what of Sid's parents, Charles and Caroline, and their history?

Charles caused confusion. I have to thank someone who must be a distant relative of mine for shedding light on the muddle. On a genealogical message board some years ago he'd asked for assistance. He too had encountered confusion. He had obtained marriage and death certificates for Charles Bulpitt, his great-great grandfather. Charles was married to Caroline Newman in 1876 in Chute, Wiltshire, on the certificate Charles' father is noted as George Bulpitt. Census returns for 1871, 1881, 1891,1901 and 1911 all show Charles being born in Hurstbourne Tarrant, a village about five miles north-east of Andover, Hampshire, between 1843 and 1847. However, there is no Charles Bulpit(t) registered as born around that time or in that area. The death certificate shed some light. Charles is described there as Charles Warwick Bulpitt (died 1922 in Chute). A Charles Warwick is shown born around 1846 in Hurstbourne Tarrant - the birth certificate named his mother as Louisa Warwick, no father is listed. In the 1851 census there is a Louisa Warwick (Aged 25) unmarried, and living with her father in Hurstbourne Tarrant, but no sign of a Charles Warwick (or Bulpitt).

In the 1861 census a 15 year old Charles BULPIT, born in Hurstbourne Tarrant, was living with grandparents, John and Eliza Bulpit in Andover, Hampshire.

John BULPIT aged 56, carter, born in Hungerford, Berkshire.
Eliza aged 52 born in Pambourne (Pangbourne?) Berkshire.
Charles, aged 15, grandson/carter, born in Hurstbourne Tarrant.

In census of 1851 the same John and Eliza Bulpitt had a son, George aged 24, listed as living with them, he born in Hampstead Marshall. John and son George were both agricultural labourers. No sign of Charles in 1851. In 1861 George BULPITT appears as married and living in Andover. If this is the same George Bulpitt, he was then an innkeeper, his spouse Ann, formerly Ann Potter, who had been living next door to the Bulpitts in 1851 with her innkeeper brother.

It would appear, then, that Sid's father Charles was born out of wedlock, but was acknowledged by the father, George Bulpitt, as his son.

John Bulpitt's father was another John Bulpitt (born 1761), his wife was Martha, formerly Martha Shepherd, and that's as far as I've been able to trace the Bulpitt name, no extra detail has emerged, so far.

So...Louisa Warwick was my great-great grandmother. She didn't marry George Bulpitt, though their son took his name. Louisa possibly married another George later on - a George White/Wight in 1853 in Andover. I cannot be certain this is the same Louisa Warwick, but it seems likely.

Louisa Warwick's father and his antecedents can be traced back to the mid 1600s, but nothing is known of them other than their names. Louisa's father was Richard Warwick, beyond him were another Richard, two Williams, a Stephen and an Edward Warwick, he born 1624. These Warwick men married women from families of Cummins, Potticary, Cowdery, Welloway, and Moore.

Turning down an empty glass to my grandfather Sidney Bulpitt then, along with his, and therefore my, ancestors.

And when Thyself with shining foot shall pass
Among the guests star-scatter'd on the grass,
And in thy joyous errand reach the spot
Where I made one - turn down an empty glass!

Arty Farty Friday ~ John Singer Sargent

 Self-portrait

John Singer Sargent, an American painter I haven't investigated before, Sun in Capricorn type too, born 12 January 1856 in Florence, Italy, to American parents. His father was an expatriate Philadelphia surgeon, his mother from a wealthy Philadelphia family. The Sargents were based at various times in France, Italy, Switzerland and Germany. John learned to speak four languages, studied art in Florence, Dresden, Berlin and finally Paris, where he launched a career in portrait-painting for the wealthy classes and rulers of Europe. The artist didn't visit the USA until age 21, after which he was commissioned to paint portraits of members of the American elite also. He settled in London in 1886, is best known for his studio portraits, but on his many travels also experimented with sketching and produced some lovely water colours.

John Singer Sargent had no romantic back story of struggle and poverty, no scandals to speak of, apart from a bit of a stir made by certain elements of Parisian society over his Portrait of Madame X.
The painting was criticised as being too erotic, due to a strap of the subject's gown, in the original version of the paining, having slipped down over her bare shoulder. The horror of it! It was after this "scandal" that the artist relocated to London, England.

 Portrait of Madame X

Sargent was said to have been a private man, industrious, turning out consistently excellent work. Some snips from a biography of the painter from a piece HERE highlighting traits which might find reflection in his natal chart, later in this post:

It has been claimed by (the artist's biographers) Elaine Kilmurray and Richard Ormond: "The impression that emerges from descriptions by his sitters is of a vigorous, decisive, and driven artist. There are stories of Sargent's rushing to and from the easel, totally absorbed, placing his brushstrokes in gestures of absolute precision, of the cries of frustration as he rubbed out, scraped down, reworked, and grappled with the problems of representation, cries punctuated by his mild expletives... Occasionally, he would dash to the piano and play as a brief respite from painting. He was single-minded about what he wanted to achieve and would brook no interference - an approach born of professional self-belief rather than personal arrogance, from which he was remarkably free. He insisted on the right to select his sitters' costumes and accessories, and took brisk exception to comments from his sitters and their families about the truth of the likenesses and characterizations he created."

Cynthia Asquith claims that he was a "curiously inarticulate man, he used to splutter and gasp, almost growl with the strain of trying to express himself; and sometimes, like Macbeth at the dagger, he would literally clutch at the air in frustrated efforts to find, with many intermediary ‘ers’ and ‘ums’, the most ordinary words." Vernon Lee, a very close friend, added: "He was very shy, having I suppose a vague sense that there were poets about… I think John is singularly unprejudiced, almost too amiably candid in his judgements… He talked art and literature, just as formerly, and then, quite unbidden, sat down to the piano and played all sorts of bits of things."

Evan Charteris, author of John Sargent (1927), has written: "He read no newspapers; he had the sketchiest knowledge of current movements outside art; his receptive credulity made him accept fabulous items of information without question. He would have been puzzled to answer if he were asked how nine-tenths of the population lived, he would have been dumbfounded if asked how they were governed."

And from HERE

Traveling was Sargent’s natural state. .......he didn’t like being tied to his studio, so in the first decade of the 20th century, he played hooky by usually spending August to October traveling in Switzerland, Italy and Spain with a small circle of family and friends (including fellow painters).

He is said to have possessed a huge appetite and became corpulent in middle age. In 1925, at age 69, Sargent died in London, without having married or left behind any known descendants.

This doesn't strike me as one of the most obvious fits of a natal chart to an artist. From descriptions of Sargent's personality in quotes above he sounded rather Virgoan to me. Virgo might be his rising sign, I suppose. His Venus in Sagittarius matches his need for travel: "travelling was Sargent's natural state", that's a good fit.

I think Pisces Moon (it would be in this sign unless he were born in the last breaths of 22 December)with Neptune and Jupiter in Pisces too - the sign's traditional and modern rulers - accounts for a lot, including his creative talent and rather absent minded approach to current events, maybe even his apparent inarticulateness. Not sure on that though - Mercury in Saturn-ruled Capricorn, along with Saturn in Gemini, might impede mind-to-tongue co-ordination. I can attest to something akin to this, having Mercury in Capricorn myself, but not Saturn in Gemini. I feel far more articulate in writing than in speech (others might suggest I'm articulate in neither, and I would not dare to argue).

Sargent is described also as being "very shy". This affliction, too, could be related to Saturn in Gemini.

There's a "Yod" (Finger of Fate) linking a sextile between Uranus and Neptune at 16 degrees of Taurus and Pisces to Mars at 12 Libra, and his Vertex point. Taurus and Libra are both Venus-ruled signs - Venus is planet of the arts. There is emphasis on Venus and Venus-ruled signs, Pisces and the sign's rulers throughout the chart...creative, arty, soft-feeling. Capricorn Sun and Mercury contrast this with an overlay of a harder more taciturn facet in his nature, his traditional realist art style, and his professional portrait painting with close connection to the upper-classes.

Examples of his work:

Lady Agnew of Lochnaw

 Ellen Terry as Lady Macbeth

Theodore Roosevelt

 Gassed (See HERE)

 Sketches of detail for Gassed, above

El Jaleo

 In a Levantine Port

Girls

 A Bedouin Arab

 Escutcheon of Charles V

 Ethel Smyth (chalk drawing)

Any copyrighted material on these pages is included as "fair use", for the purpose of study, review or critical analysis only, and will be removed at the request of copyright owner(s).

Craven Images

Any time our home state, Oklahoma, gets itself into the news it's always for something either horrific, or vaguely embarrassing! This time, thankfully, it's the latter. It's a variation on the old controversy about depictions of The Ten Commandments being displayed in State buildings or on State property. If I recall correctly The Ten are displayed in the foyer of a public building in our town - the courthouse, I think. I remember doing a "tsk tsk" as I walked past last time we were in there. It wouldn't rankle half as much if those displaying The Ten would live up to 'em. "Thou shalt not kill!" that one didn't take, did it? And what about the warning against graven images - could it not be argued that a sculpture or any display of The Ten is nothing more than a graven image?

This latest news has a lighter side to it - it's another "if you didn't laugh you'd cry" moment. From The Daily Mail:

Satan worshipers want 7-foot-tall statue of devil put at Oklahoma state Capitol

The New York-based Satanic Temple formally submitted its application to a panel that oversees the Capitol grounds. The application includes an artist's rendering of Satan as Baphomet, a goat-headed figure with horns, wings and a long beard. They want it to sit where a Ten Commandments monument sat in 2012. In the rendering, Satan is sitting in a pentagram-adorned throne with smiling children next to him.......................

The push by the Satanic Temple has rankled elected leaders in this conservative state known as the buckle of the Bible Belt, who say such a proposal would never be approved by the commission.

'I think you've got to remember where you are. This is Oklahoma, the middle of the heartland,' said Don Armes, Republican representative for Faxon.

'I think we need to be tolerant of people who think different than us, but this is Oklahoma, and that's not going to fly here.'

While Greaves acknowledges the Satanic Temple's effort is in part to highlight what it says is hypocrisy of state leaders in Oklahoma, he says the group is serious about having a monument placed there.

Wonder how it'd go down if I put in an application to have a sculpture in the Capitol grounds depicting the ecliptic with signs of the zodiac ?

Capricorn Casserole

Some re-hashed astrology-talk regarding zodiac sign Capricorn, the sign through which the Sun is currently traversing ~~~

On the whole zodiac sign Capricorn gets a bad rap, probably only second to Scorpio for negative reporting. Standard keywords for Capricorn, the sign ruled by planet Saturn, include: serious, disciplined, careful, cautious, thrifty, cold, organised, solid, old-fashioned, conservative, business-like. There's an adjective coined from their ruler's name -"saturnine". Sounds dry and boring doesn't it?

A handful of well-known Sun Capricorn people refute that Sun sign stereotype though, at least from what we're allowed to know of them: think David Bowie, Jim Carrey, Rod Stewart, Janis Joplin, Betty White, LL CoolJ..........

From personal, real-life, experience I draw a blank regarding Sun Capricorn people, but I have formed the idea at the back of my mind that many of 'em have a wickedly dry sense of humour - I'm not sure from whence that idea would spring, possibly from planets lying in signs adjacent to Capricorn. Sun in Capricorn individuals are liable to have two or more personal planets in neighbouring signs Sagittarius and Aquarius; both signs' characteristics would be likely to dilute Capricorn traits considerably, bring in a hint of happy-go-lucky Sagittarius flavour, or a touch of whacky Aquarianisms. Conversely, it's quite easy to pick up Capricorn flavour in natives of those two neighbouring signs, where close personal planets are often found doing a turn in Capricorn.

Typical textbook Capricorn traits would be more likely apparent in a person with Saturn rising in Capricorn - ruler rising in its own sign. That's when Capricorn traits could be more easily discerned, even if that person's natal Sun and Moon were nowhere near the sign of the seagoat. It's unwise to place too much confidence in Sun signs, they're an easy label, a convenient rule of thumb, a fun grouping, but also liable to be very misleading if taken in isolation.



(Sir) Anthony Hopkins has Sun and ascendant in Capricorn - perhaps slightly more stereotypical than those people mentioned above. He comes over as fairly serious and disciplined, a little old fashioned. But even here, his Moon in Sagittarius and Jupiter in Aquarius tend to "mix it up and make it nice", added to which, Capricorn's ruler Saturn lay in Pisces as he was born, lightening its heavy influence quite a lot.





Graham Chapman (of Monty Python- shirtless in the photo), with Sun and ascendant in Capricorn, Moon in Taurus, Saturn in Taurus sounds like someone Earthy and sensible - heading closer to the stereotype - but Venus and Mars lay in Sagittarius, which kind of knocks it all smartly on the head.



(Sir)Sean Connery, the original James Bond,is the nearest I can find to matching a typical Capricorn stereotype, yet his Sun and Moon are in Virgo, an Earth sign which doesn't tend to smother Capricorn completely. He has Capricorn rising with Saturn in first house very close to the ascending degree. Saturn is his dominant planet and Capricorn shares sign dominance with Virgo. The ususal culprits for messing up Capricorn's serious reputation, Sagittarius and Aquarius, don't get a look in in Connery's chart, by the way.

As it happens, Hopkins and Connery both have been knighted by Queen Elizabeth II - that in itself is rather Capricornian! However, Hopkins is unimpressed and says he only accepted the knighthood to make his (then) wife happy. Connery describes it as one of the proudest days of his life. He had been denied the honour for several years due to his passionate Scottish nationalism, and support for Scottish Independence.

 I'm with Anthony Hopkins on this!

ARCTIC

Intense cold, currently experienced by many parts of the USA, has brought forth a new (to me) term: "Polar Vortex". In reading about it I came across the excellent videos linked below.

David Wasdell explains the situation in a clear concise way in the two approx. 20 minute videos. If you, like me were aware but somewhat confused, please do take the time to watch this important explanation.

ARCTIC FEEDBACK DYNAMICS ~ David Wasdell

Mystical Music Monday ~ Bernadette and the 1844 Gang

Tomorrow, 7 January 2014, will be the 170th anniversary of the birth of Bernadette Soubirous, a miller's daughter born in Lourdes, France, later venerated as a Christian mystic and Saint in the Catholic Church: Saint Bernadette. She was born in 1844, died 1879, aged 35. Her story is well-known, related in the movie Song of Bernadette, and honoured in this Song of Bernadette written by Leonard Cohen, sung here by Jennifer Warnes ~

The early months of 1844 brought forth some rather special natives with fairly unusual natal charts. Personal planets and some outers clustered around "the winter signs" Capricorn/Aquarius/Pisces. Occasionally Moon would be found out on a limb, as in St Bernadette's case. Her chart is below, using data from astro.com.

Some others born during the first half of 1844 have a touch of mysticism in their makeup too - there must've been something in the air during those months! That doesn't apply to the first of the group listed below though.

On another level altogether, and a bit closer to home : Cole Younger - Thomas Coleman "Cole" Younger (born January 15, 1844, 2 weeks after St Bernadette). American Confederate guerrilla during the American Civil War and later an outlaw with the James-Younger gang. He was the eldest brother of Jim, John and Bob Younger. tacitly acknowledged as "the brains" of the gang. He sometimes showed kindness, giving stolen foodstuff to the poor, and among Confederate sympathizers Younger and his cohorts were perceived almost as folk heroes. Their occasional hide-out in the hills of Oklahoma is now known as Robbers' Cave State Park.
(See HERE)


Olney H. Richmond (22 February). American mystic. From a mundane background, he became a feed and grain dealer. However, he had so many "unusual" experiences during the Civil War that he turned to metaphysical study. Richmond later founded the Temple of the Stars and wrote the "Mystic Text Book" for Masons only.


Abdul Baha'i, (23 May). Persian religious leader of Baha'i who aimed to establish a New World Order. The eldest son of Baha'u'llah, he followed the mystic path from age nine and became his father's successor. Abdul-Baha weathered internal strife and religious persecution to establish communities around the world. In 1920, the year before his death, he was knighted by the British government.

Camille Lemmonier (23 March). Belgian novelist, short-story writer, and art critic, one of the outstanding personalities of the 19th-century French literary renaissance in Belgium.

..........under the influence of the naturalism of Émile Zola. Like his other novels, it is a work of great violence, describing characters of unbridled instincts and passions. Happe-Chair (1886)....deals with the life of drudgery led by mill workers. Later, in the work of his middle period, Lemonnier turned to psychological analysis, condemning the conservative tendencies of the bourgeoisie. He then developed a mystical naturalism, as in Le Petit homme de Dieu (1903; “The Little Man of God”).

There's something else worth a mention, it's what blog friend and commenter "mike" calls a "quinky-dink". William Miller (1782-1849), a Baptist preacher, from the United States, credited with beginning the mid-nineteenth century North American religious movement now known as Adventism, predicted that sometime between 1843 and 1844....Jesus Christ will come again to this earth, cleanse, purify, and take possession of the same, with all the saints, sometime between March 21, 1843, and March 21, 1844.
He didn't. I do wonder, though, whether William Miller had astrological knowledge and had noted the peculiar line up of planets during part of that period.

Hmmm - funny ol' year, 1844!

Postscript
RIP Phil Everly.
There's an old post on Phil and his brother HERE.

Military

I read this very good article yesterday at Counterpunch:
Patriotism: Signs of Saturation
by JAMES ROTHENBERG
Snip:

On one of the flights (South West Airlines) there were some young, uniformed military personnel. I had noticed in the pre-flight waiting area a young man and woman, both in camouflage fatigues, she with a large backpack. As we inched to the gate at the end of one leg, an attendant solemnly requested that all passengers remain seated while these – in rough paraphrase – brave men and women who have just been deployed overseas and will be fighting on our behalf so that we may remain free have the honor of exiting first. This request was greeted by some polite applause, and then a woman began singing God Bless America. Several seemed to join her but it quickly died out. And then the troops exited to more applause.............A scene like this (familiar to many readers) renders with clarity the excellent selling job the state has done to its “appendages” in pursuance of its power arrangements. It is at once maddening, sad, and tragic.

Similar occasions do become familiar after a time in the USA. Just last weekend, watching the Kennedy Center Honors show on TV, as Garth Brooks paid tribute to Billy Joel one of the honorees, by singing Joel's song Goodnight Saigon - singing it very well too - of course an opportunity like that could not be left alone could it? Onto the stage marched a variety of military and veteran personnel. The audience rose to their feet, all was hallowed, it was as though the Messiah had entered the building. I tried to reduce my angry yell to a subdued complaint as husband shrugged his shoulders.

Yesterday glancing around Twitter I noticed a hashtag title "#AmericanvBritish", wondered what it was all about. It was mostly silly stuff about comedy or sport or celebrities, but among the "tweets" I found this:

Said by an American soldier after a tour in Iraq.

Notwithstanding my dislike of anything militaristic and overtly patriotic, I had to swallow a lump in my throat as I read it. As I recall, in the UK, people do not revere their military lads and lasses in anything comparable to the way people of the USA idolise theirs.
"Just saying"... as they say.

TV Series Sampled : The Good Wife, Boss, The Sopranos.

Over the period known in the USA as "The Holidays" we rented some DVDs from our local video store, among them were Season 1 of The Good Wife (2009), and Season 1 of Boss (2011) - lots of episodes in each kept us busy. The Good Wife, created by Robert King and Michelle King is now in its 5th season on CBS, so we're way behind the times on that. Boss, created by Farhad Safinia, lasted only two seasons on Starz channel, but there's promise of a future 2 hour TV movie to finish off loose ends.

During Fall we'd finished watching Seasons 1 and 3 of The Sopranos. The Season 3 set I'd found in a junk store whose owner sold it to me for just one dollar - how could I refuse? I then bought a used Season 1 set at E-bay in order to get some grounding in the series. The Sopranos has had such enormous acclaim over the years that I felt confident we'd enjoy it, even though I've never been a fan of Italian mafia stories.

We watched Season 1, were not impressed. Season 3 remained on the shelf for a while, but we watched that too eventually, and  remained  unimpressed.  Too much violence, too many nasty characters with no redeeming characteristics - I simply didn't care what happened to anyone in the series, couldn't wait for each episode to be over.  Perhaps it would all have "come good" in season 4 - I don't know, and am unlikely to find out.

So, back to The Good Wife and Boss. Both series were coincidentally set in Chicago. The Good Wife is yet another drama series about lawyers. It's...I dunno...workmanlike I guess. Not as addictive as Boston Legal or as much fun as Ally McBeal - nor of the quality of any of David E. Kelley's series about lawyers, yet The Good Wife plots, ongoing story arc and excellent acting are interesting enough to hold the attention.

Julianna Margulies plays Alicia Florrick, betrayed wife of a State's Attorney (Chris Noth). There's a clear reflection of real life events involving such US notables as Eliot Spitzer, John Edwards et al. Part of each episode is reserved for the ongoing marital saga, and part for  legal cases undertaken by Alicia in her role as Junior Associate at a very swish city law firm. In Season 1 any romance between characters is kept to a minimum, definite attractions hinted at but never allowed to fully blossom, that'll be for later seasons. The tone is serious, believable, though not depressingly so.

Stand-out performances by Julianna Margolies and by an actor I recognised immediately but couldn't name without reference to Google search: Alan Cumming. He plays Eli Gold a campaign strategist, image consultant and crisis manager . He's a British (Scottish) actor now a US Citizen. Quinky-dink (thanks for the word,"mike"): Alan Cumming has the same birthday as me, 27 January (different year), and became a US citizen in the same year, 2008, 2 months after me. (In the photograph he's standing 3rd from left). Out of curiosity I shall investigate some of his other roles.


Boss aka Mayor of Chicago, did not entertain or hold our attention until the last few episodes of Season 1 - apart perhaps from the odd giggle at frequent soft-porn-worthy sex scenes.

Kelsey Grammer plays the lead, ailing Mayor Tom Kane, a character very different from those rather pretentious but unintentionally funny twits Mr Grammer has been used to portraying.

As a 21st century mayor of one of the USA's major cities, he comes over as something of an anachronism - I kept thinking back to a movie about Huey Long, governor of Louisiana in the late 1920s to early 1930s. Or - a better comparison would be a character from a graphic novel, exaggerated and not entirely believable. In fact the whole show, at times, reminded me of a graphic novel in style. Numerous "sexy" quickies between characters in near-porn close-up and ridiculously risky situations, unpleasant bullying, cut-off ears, burials alive..... tacky, nasty. Political shenanigans continuing throughout the plot are par for the course these days, most of us have become aware of the dirty corruption behind smiles and promises in national politics, in this drama the same things are reflected at city level. The corruption that is portrayed in the series is a good analogy of what is going on at national level, all the time. There's a poisoned water supply, much wheeler-dealing among a powerful cabal of money-grabbing guys, power behind the throne as it were; there are several murders to cover corruption, all topped off with lots of explicit, supposedly titilating sex scenes - to attract a certain type of audience no doubt.

Boss picked up momentum for us in the final three episodes of the first season. I'll be interested to discover how the story progressed in Season 2, though probably by reading about it rather than watching.

I'm not surprised that while The Good Wife is now in its fifth season, Boss survived only two. Kelsey Grammer, in interview with Jay Leno said he felt the show wasn't nominated for an Emmy due to his own political leanings.

The Frasier star is a member of the Republican Party and has expressed an interest in politics saying he may someday run for United States Congress. An active campaigner for the GOP, Grammer was a guest at President George W. Bush's first inauguration, campaigned for John McCain in the 2008 general election and endorsed Michele Bachmann for the Republican nomination for President in 2012.

It's unlikely that Mr Grammer's politics had anything to do with the show's cancellation. His Republicanism didn't prevent him doing well in previous shows, Cheers and Frasier. In the right director's and/or editor's hands, if shown on a more widely available channel, I suspect Boss could have been a big success. Any potential quality the show promised was spoiled by overdone brutality and unbelievable sex scenes. Kelsey Grammer's performance was impressive, Connie Nielsen, playing his wife was good too. The rest of the cast, especially younger members, were wooden at best, which didn't help counteract the silliness and hyperbole of some scenes. Many ultra-close close-up shots of sub-par actors' faces and individual features didn't help either, and at times were comical rather than dramatic. If Boss had retained more polish, less tacky viewer-bait, I think it could have survived longer, and to more acclaim.

Boots and Hat.....

The cowboy, familiar icon of The American West - Old West. Cowboys, real ones, still exist, but fairly tame versions of the 20th century Hollywood cowboy. Best thing about classic cowboy image is the work-wear: great boots, snug jeans, big belt buckle, and best of all the hat. It's probably a bit on the adolescent side, but I still do get a thrill when I see a guy dressed in what's come to be known as "western wear". It underlines for me the fact that I really am where I am - which still surprises me again and again even after going on 10 years! How the heck did I get here? How did that happen? Is it some crazy dream?

My husband and his family are definitely not into the western wear thing. I sometimes get the feeling that they don't like it one little bit. Familiarity breeding contempt perhaps? I suppose the politics of our area might have something to do with it, but much as that bothers me too, on one level (actually I loathe and despise it), I can still enjoy the sight of a guy in western wear and the sound of good ol' country music (not modern country-pop music). I must have inadvertently fallen into this weird "love" back in the UK, while watching TV series such as Lonesome Dove, Centennial, maybe even Dallas had a hand in it too.

Considering the areas through which most of our road trips have wandered and locations of antique stores where husband has found his vintage photographs, it's surprising that he has hardly any featuring cowboy types. I guess real cowboys didn't go much on having photographs taken; they'd be out on some line camp, alone with the cows and coyotes for much of the time.

This one started young....



Did he grow up like this?




Some of the fun comments on the above at Flickr, 3 years ago:

fulvue
I'm a lineman for the county......

anyjazz
And the banker never wears a mac in the pouring rain.

fulvue
Very strange!

moos
Holy cow! I've seen lots of denim clad butts - but this one takes the beefcake!

anyjazz65
Ain't he a peach? Beats a poke in the eye and bein' snowed in.

cowgirlrightup
I could use one of those....:) Moos sent me. Happy New year!

moos
I just commented to a flickr friend that he's probably at least eighty by now. But you know, if he still likes to clean. . . just ignore the Copenhagen drool.

gebodogs
He fills out his jeans nicely too.

gebodogs
Oh, and I'd like one too....one that does floors and cooks.

anyjazz
It's all in how you train them, girls. This one is obviously house broke.

Jean Albus
The laundry is not what I noticed first. :) Happy New Year, Karen. xo

anyjazz
Yeah, I spotted the jug of moonshine by the steps first.

These four guys were obviously horsin' around for the camera in borrowed outfits




Here's a real live example snapped by husband in a small town not far from home:




Wonder if one of those hats would suit an ol' Yorkshire gal?

Bit of a Kick and Prance & A Shout Out for Lawrence Lessig

What to write about?
It's 2 January.
Wikipedia tells that it's "the 9th day of Christmas", when a lover sent
"9 ladies dancing"
to the adored.

Note: re post title: "kick and prance" is London Cockney rhyming slang for "dance".

Dancing....Terpsichore....Terpsichore - one of the nine Greek muses, in this case muse of dancing and choral music. She was daughter of Zeus and Mnemosyn - goddess of memory (from whence comes our word "mnemonic').

I was ignorant of the word Terpsichore for many years. It was in listening to Frank Sinatra's recordings that I first heard it, in the Jimmy Van Heusen/Sammy Cahn song "Come Dance with Me":

........Hey there cutes, put on your Basie boots and come dance with me
Come dance with me, what an evening for some Terpsichore
Pretty face, I know a swingin' place, come on dance with me
Romance with me on a crowded floor...............

Also, by the by, there's an asteroid bearing the name Terpsichore: See website Dancestrology where an attempt is made to discover Terpsichore the asteroid's astrological meaning.

Back to the 9th day of Christmas, 2 January, and HERE a more spiritual interpretation is put on Nine Ladies Dancing :

...the nine Fruits of the Holy Spirit: 1) love, 2) joy, 3) peace, 4) patience, 5) kindness, 6) generosity, 7) faithfulness, 8) gentleness, and 9) self-control. (Galatians 5:22-23).

Back to hard reality....and something well worth a shout-out: see fellow-blogger David Macadam's post at The Oligarch Kings yesterday, 1 January: New Hampshire Rebellion.

Every effort, of whatever type, could help bring about the changes we so badly need. It won't happen quickly, it might not even happen in this decade, but every voice raised, every line of text written supporting the changes needed will drift off into the great public consciousness and build, and build until critical mass is attained.

I'll repeat the video from David's post here, but please do go read his whole piece then do whatever possible to spread the word in your own way. Thank you!