Solar Queen

One of the most wonderful things about visiting Canada this summer is that this was Queen Elizabeth's Golden Jubilee.  As you may or may not know, Canada is a commonwealth nation, and the Queen is the head of state.  Ultimately, it could be said that it was her fault that I had to walk 40 minutes in knee-high snow to get to work every morning, for months, when I lived there.  And then forty minutes back home at the end of the day.  But not really uphill...  (See: Manifestation! and More Manifestation!)

Anyway, Jubilee means Jubilee Swag.  I scored a commemorative mug at the Scottish & Irish Store around the corner from the ThinkTank.  And this gem from Chapters, the big chain bookstore in Canada.

You guys!  It's a solar powered QEII!  She has a little solar cell in her handbag, which powers her perpetually waving hand!  She is sitting next to my bench at the lab now, right on a sunny windowsill, where she is perpetually waving at me.

(This is not my picture: I found it on The Google.)

Halloween

I had two Halloween parties to attend this year (more than usual) and for once, I was ready.  This is the best, most epic, Halloween costume that I will ever have.

Princess Beatrice, at the Royal Wedding.

I made the legendary hat myself, and yes, it attached to the front of my head and stuck right up into the air.  Excesses of black eyeliner, everything beige, and nude nylons (the Royal Ladies always have nylons on - always).

Here's my one picture.  Marion took a full-costume photo for me, but since the wall behind me is beige too, it's like I'm wearing camouflage.  But trust me, the hat was epic.

Trying New Things: Tea

Number one tea: Tetley.

I buy like two 80-bag boxes of Tetley every three months or so, and it requires a special trip to a slightly more-inconvenient grocery story, because the number one Tetley Tea is the British Blend.  (My life is soooo hard!  First world problems - wah wah wah.)  The tea bags are round, have more tea in them, and are even better at brewing darker and are thusly more effective at staining your teeth.

The corner convenience grocery by my apartment doesn't have any form of Tetley, so the other day I decided to branch out, but cautiously, with PG Tips.  PG Tips has a ridiculously awesome name, and is apparently England's number one tea.  Truth - I have actually heard/read of real-life English people drinking it, though when I was in England it was Tetley for me every morning!

Anyway, the PG Tips is good.  It will be my number-two tea.  Emergency run-out-of-number-one-tea or take-to-work tea.

So imagine my surprise when I did a little internet tea-stalking and discovered that the people that make PG Tips are also responsible for Lipton!

Ugh - Lipton.  Why is America okay with Lipton?  So bland, so weak, so nasty.  The tea of conferences - offered by those who only drink coffee, usually with water heated in a coffee pot, so it come pre-sullied with a nasty burnt coffee flavor.  The only thing a cup of Lipton is good for is watering plants: it's so gross.  You might as well just steep a cup of random sticks and leaves that you found in the park.

Interesting side-note.  Tetley British Blend was easy to find in Ottawa.  Once British people get to Canada, they become 250% more British than they were back in the home country, so they need the British Blend to survive in North America, even after they've become Canadian citizens.

There was a second British tea that was all-over Ottawa: Ty-phoo.  I never purchased any Ty-phoo, because the name is too close to Ty-phoid, and it made me think that either a) the tea was only good if you were sick, or b) the tea would infect you.  I did drink some Ty-phoo, and it was okay.  I didn't get Ty-phoid, but then I think my vaccination for that is still good.

Disclaimer: this is all my opinion, clearly.  You might totally love Lipton.  Whatever.

Downton Abbey

The British make the best costume dramas in the entire world. The one I'm currently all-about is Downton Abbey. So good. PBS is posting an episode online every Monday, and this coming Monday will be the last one: but (!) all four episodes will be online until late February.

Linnaeus Tripe

The final photographer discussed at the Special Event was Linnaeus Tripe (his father really liked scientific classification). Tripe (April 14, 1822 – March 2, 1902) was born in England and sent to the East India Company as a young man. He started dabbling in photography between 1850 and 1854, where he was on a sick leave. He likely attended the same 1851 Great Exhibition that got Roger Fenton into photography.

When his health returned and he was sent back to India, Tripe began working as an official government photographer, producing images of a British trip to Burma and of important architectural structures throughout southern India. Unfortunately for Tripe, this appointment only lasted for a few years, after which the entire government-sponsored photography program was abandoned. Tripe may have continued photographing after this, but not to the extent that he did while being sponsored.

Arcade in Quadrangle, from the album Photographs of Madura: Part IV, South India, 1858, no. IS.41:4-1889, Victoria and Albert Museum


















The East Gopuram of the Great Pagoda, from the album, Photographs of Madura: Part III, South India, 1858, no. IS.40:2-1889, Victoria and Albert Museum

Aisle on the South Side of the Puthu Mundapum, from the Western Portico, from the album Photographs of Madura: Part II, South India, 1858, no. IS.39:3-1889, Victoria and Albert Museum

Mosque (Musjid) of Nuttur Auleah, Madras, India, 1858, no. 33:801, Victoria and Albert Museum

Roger Fenton

One of the three photographers that the Special Event in DC focused on was Roger Fenton. (Fenton's self-portrait courtesy of wikipedia, who had no idea from where it had gotten it).

















Roger Fenton (March 20, 1819 - August 8, 1869) was born in Lancashire, England - his grandfather had earned the family's wealth in trade. He attended the University College London, and afterward took an extraordinarily long time to become a lawyer. He took his time studying law, because he actually wanted to be a painter. He studied with respected historical painters in Paris and London, and attempted to have a few works admitted to the Royal Academy.

He visited the 1851 Great Exhibition and was struck by the photography displays. Soon after he was back in Paris, this time learning how to make calotypes - waxed paper negatives - and salted paper prints. Fenton was a fast learner, and by 1852 he was entering his own photographic work into exhibitions and was instrumental in forming what would later become the Royal Photographic Society.

His first photographs really aren't that great, but before too long something clicked, and Fenton started making some fabulous pictures.

He traveled to Russia, technically to photograph an under-construction bridge, even though there are only like three pictures of the bridge out of scores of others.

Moscow, Domes of Churches in the Kremlin, 1851, National Gallery of Art
This is much better is real life. You'll just have to trust me on it.















In 1855 Britain was involved int he Crimean War, and Fenton was commissioned by a publisher named Thomas Agnew to travel to the Crimea and photograph. Fenton took on two assistants, fitted out a large wagon as a traveling darkroom/tent, and field tested it in rural England. After making the necessary adjustments to the wagon, the team sailed for the Crimea.

The Artist's Van, 1855, PH - Fenton (R.), no. 122, Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division


















Dromedary, 1855 PH - Fenton (R.), no. 298, Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division


















Because of the over 300 images Fenton made in the Crimea, he is noted as the first war photographer. Even though the American Civil War is only a few years away, the 'war' photography done by Fenton is quite different. Fenton never photographs the dead or wounded, whereas the Civil War photographers had no hesitations. Why Fenton made that choice is still unclear.

This is probably the most well-known of Fenton's Crimean photographs. The road is covered with cannonballs fired by the Russians.

The Valley of the Shadow of Death, 1855, PH - Fenton (R.), no. 218, Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division















These images are of color slides, and they're probably from the mid-nineties, before the photographs were treated. Observe below: very dirty, and with a big loss along the bottom edge. This print looks very different now - much less dirty, tears mended, and losses filled.

Sebastopol with the Redan, Malakoff & Mamelon, 1855, PH - Fenton (R.), no. 122, Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division