The 40 Most Revealing Artist Portraits

Reblogged from LIFE:

It's always intriguing to see the faces of the creators behind famous works of art. While Picasso, Dali, Matisse and perhaps a handful of other artists are recognized around the world, however, countless other painters and sculptors of note — including some of the finest, most influential artists of the past century — are, in a sense, invisible. Their works endure; but their…

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When Cover Lines Collide: Mixed Messages From LIFE Magazine

“There’s an art to writing magazine cover lines — those enticing blurbs of text that, when all goes well, tell readers what stories or features to watch for inside. Editors agonize and argue not only over what articles make the cover, but how to best highlight those articles that make the cut. The cover story itself, of course, gets an awful lot of attention, but quite often there are two or three (and sometimes more) features that merit prominent mention.

Finding a way to somehow, simultaneously, create a hierarchy among the various cover lines — this one is very important; this one is perhaps a tad less so; this one, meanwhile, is just kind of cool — while also making sure that all of the stories get noticed is among the trickiest balancing acts in all of  publishing. When it works, it’s beautiful. When it doesn’t … well, things can get confusing, and unintentionally comical, right quick.

On April Fools’ Day, LIFE.com takes a friendly look at a number of LIFE magazine covers through the years that featured some jarring — and frequently humorous — disconnects between cover photos and cover lines for other stories in the very same issue. Marilyn Monroe and UFOs? A slow, huge-eyed primate and Winston Churchill? Dean Martin, Jerry Lewis and germ warfare? Here, in all their oddball wonder, are early examples of media mash-ups that, decades later, still have us scratching our heads — and smiling.”

“As an added bonus, for no other reason that that we like it so very much — and because it’s so very strange — we’ve also chosen to include the cover of the April 26, 1937, issue of LIFE: the only cover among literally thousands published by the venerable weekly not to feature the distinctive red and white LIFE logo in the upper left-hand corner. The reason for the logo’s exclusion? According to a note from the editors that appeared on the issue’s table of contents page, the LIFE logo “was not boldly superimposed on this week’s cover because that would have spoiled the composition” of Torkel Korling’s striking portrait.”

“All these years later, we find it impossible to argue with that logic. The White Leghorn Rooster — proud, defiant, inscrutable, unblinking — stands alone.

Well played, LIFE. Well played, indeed.”

Read more: http://life.time.com/culture/when-cover-lines-collide-mixed-messages-from-life-magazine/#ixzz2PwAmQiJb

Vintage Photos of Hindi Films and Film stars

This is to present a collection of vintage photographs form Covers of Filmfare.

I landed upon these through the Old Indian Photos, which featured the series from Inde, Bollywood & Cie

I have collected the photographs into a presentation file @  Film Stars on Vintage Covers 

So, photographs can be enjoyed either on that presentation or more details can be pursued at the sites referred to above.

Related articles

• 100 years of Indian cinema: A tribute to 50 iconic heroines (ibnlive.in.com)

Ravi Shankar: LIFE With the Sitar Maestro

Here is my own humble tribute to Pandit Ravi Shankar:

Ravi Shankar: LIFE With the Sitar Maestro, 1956

Among the songs that he composed for Hindi Films, Hae Re Woh Din Kyun Na Aaye (Anuradha), undoubtedly, would be the one that would come up any time into my mind:

http://youtu.be/qhCXMb1NgOs

Here is  clip of of his one of the many classical performances, Raag Rageshwari:

http://youtu.be/wB1CkD8UzSc

Of course, he chose to play several other, usually not very poular, raags. That was his inner creative urge, and perhaps, his non-conformist core.

JFK's Funeral: Photos From Arlington Cemetery

Reblogged from LIFE:

Five decades later, the assassination of John F. Kennedy remains one of the few utterly signal events from the second half of the 20th century. Other moments — some thrilling (the moon landing, the fall of the Berlin Wall), others horrifying (the killings of Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert Kennedy, the Challenger explosion) — have secured their places in the history books and, even more indelibly, in the memories of those who witnessed them.

Read more… 305 more words

When I captured JFK's inugural address, I had not expected that it will lead to so,unexpected, unplanned , but so fruitfully long trail,of so many great details.

Indian cinema on stamps – Let’s talk about Bollywood!

Indian cinema on stamps – Let’s talk about Bollywood!.

This is the link to a marvellous effort – a collection of stamps that depict Indian Cinema, from across the world.

I have put across a representattive sample here:

 

The Best of LIFE: 37 Years in Pictures | LIFE.com

“Over several decades spanning the heart of the 20th century, one American magazine ― called, plainly and boldly, LIFE ― published an astonishing number of the most memorable photographs ever made. Driven by the certainty that the art of photojournalism could tell stories and move people in ways that traditional reporting simply could not, LIFE pursued a grand vision, articulated by TIME Magazine’s co-founder, Henry Luce, that not only acknowledged the primacy of the picture, but enshrined it.

“To see life,” Luce wrote in a now-famous 1936 mission statement, delineating both his new venture’s workmanlike method and its lofty aims. “To see the world; to eyewitness great events … to see strange things … to see and be amazed.

…… however momentous the event, however legendary, notorious, or simply of-the-moment the person, LIFE was there.

Today, the breathtaking pictures they took live here: LIFE’s new, redesigned home on TIME.com. Resurrected through trailblazing photo essays, lighthearted features, and previously unpublished photographs of the century’s leading figures and most pivotal, meaningful moments, Henry Luce’s vision (to see life, to eyewitness great events, to see and be amazed) remains as relevant and thrilling today as it was 75 years ago. This gallery ― featuring one magnificent image a year from 1936, when the magazine premiered, to 1972, when LIFE ceased publishing as a weekly ― serves as an introduction to, and a celebration of, the treasures of a storied archive: a tightly focused glimpse into the jaw-dropping breadth and excellence of a landmark publication’s iconic photography.”

Read more: http://life.time.com/history/the-best-of-life-37-years-in-pictures/#ixzz287Bul4NC

No doubt, the entire photostory is a Collecor’s Delght, however I have selected some of these great picture shere:

1939_Aerial view of a DC-4 passenger plane

With this photograph of Marilyn Monroe singing to John F Kennedy, we take a look at some of the rare photographs of John F Kennedy in this photo-essay:

We end with with a very pleasing NATURE shot:

India’s awesome street art

Snarling tigers, statuesque dancers, cricket superstarts, a freeze-frame from Raja Ravi Varma, even a mural from Conan the Barbarian — these are not ordinary pictures. They are streetside murals in Indian cities……

Here are some of them .. Courtesy :Yahoo / AFP PHOTO/Dibyangshu SARKAR  - http://in.news.yahoo.com/photos/amazing-street-art–slideshow/

Related articles

• 30 Amazing Large Scale Street Art Murals From Around The World (boredpanda.com)
• Wall art (goerie.com)
• Toned-down mural gets city panel’s blessing (dailyprogress.com)
• Street Art Decorates Downtown Dallas (dfw.cbslocal.com)
• Street Art in Penang (stayinblue.wordpress.com)
• Karl Benjamin Mural (thelofton2nd.wordpress.com)

President Kennedy delivered his inaugural address on January 20, 1961

President John F Kennedy, U S A , is my hero of the adolescence. In those days, we hardly would get to access such speeches or articles as easily as has been made possible by internet today.

Here is his one of the epochal speeches – the speech on the inaugauartion of his Presidency.

We also have an interesting pip at the history, the first of the Kennedy-Nixon debates, which first aired on September 26, 1960 on ABC, NBC, and CBS. with his opponent , Richrd Nixon in the run up to one of the very keenly contested elections to the presidency of USA. The uploader of this video, MiscVideos78rpm      , have disabled embedding of this video, hence we will have to do with this link:  The 1st Kennedy/Nixon Presidential Debate .  This is only first of the 3 more clips of the debate. However, they have provided following additional links to Download This Video as well:

1st Part:
http://archive.org/details/1960_kennedy-nixon_1

2nd Part:
http://archive.org/details/1960_kennedy-nixon_2

Here’s a link to the complete transcription.

http://bit.ly/KennedyNixonTranscript

READ MORE AT •

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_election,_1960
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_F._Kennedy
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Nixon

We indeed record our sincere appreciation of MiscVideos78rpm for thier stellar effort.

Joe Carpenter has very aptly quoted the following when this speech was posted on Google +:

“All problems, depressions, wars, disasters, assassinations, all of them were planned, caused, instigated, and implemented by the International Bankers and their attempt to establish a central bank in every country in the world, which they have now done, thanks to corrupt politicians who have been bought and paid for. This is all you need to know about the history of the world.”
~John F. Kennedy~

Whilst on the subject of recollecting some of the very famous speeches, we also have the pleasure of being able to access JFK’s eternal speech at Rice University on September 12th, 1962 setting the goal of the space race during the 1960′s:

Related articles

• Kennedy Vs. Nixon: The Young and The Restless (americanparser.wordpress.com)
• Atheist Billboard Quoting John F. Kennedy Goes Up in Lubbock, Texas (patheos.com)
• John F. Kennedy – The Declaration of Independence (pauls2k.wordpress.com)
• John F. Kennedy – Born May 29, 1917 (chiefwritingwolf.com)

Deep Space Photos by the Space Telescope Hubble

I  do not have any knowledge about the nitty-gritty of sapce, save what we learnt in our school days. But I do like to read all that comes across for lay readers like us. An that is why I am inclined to take up this from TIME….

“The Hubble Space Telescope is completing its 22nd year in space. In honor of that birthday, here are 22 of its most striking images—a tiny fraction of the things it’s seen and the images it’s sent home in its long and productive life”

Read more: http://www.time.com/time/photogallery/0,29307,1984100,00.html#ixzz1sk1ZAKW0

Whilst on the subject of space photostory from TIME, we should also take a peep at  “Stunning Footage From an Alien Planet: Earth” – “

A time-lapse video from the International Space Station provides further proof that we live on what might be the coolest planet of all.”

Read more: http://newsfeed.time.com/2012/04/21/stunning-footage-from-an-alien-planet-earth/#ixzz1skCW5cof

I also do wish to record a great service being rendered by Dr. J J Raval. He has been writing articles, in Gujarati, on quite complicated subjects that can make all th esense to lay readers. In this way, he is bringing in The Space nearer to the next generation of Gujaratis. He has also set up Indian Planetary Society “to popularize Planetary Science, Solar Physics and Astrophysical Science among children, students and the general public.”