mollichaff showshine

skin yr in

secrets of the talking horse:

crew applied peanut butter to his gums to get him to move his lips.

a string was used. "It was initially done by putting a piece of nylon thread in his mouth.

the gelding learned to wag his lips whenever his hoof was touched.

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                                     ﾞ（ﾟ､ ｡ ７
　                                       l、ﾞ ~ヽ
                                        　じしf_, )

The Science of Life

hybrid animals

In "The Science of Life" (c 1929) by H G Wells, J Huxley and GP Wells, the authors wrote "To-day it is possible to assert without any question that telegony is a mere fable, which could only have gained ground in the days when men were ignorant of the true mechanism of fertilization and reproduction. The supposed instances of telegony which are constantly being reported even to-day, invariably. Perhaps the most famous example is that of Lord Morton's mare. The mare, a pure Arabian, was mated with a zebra stallion, and produced a hybrid foal. On two later occasions, she was bred to a black Arab stallion, and gave birth to two further foals. These had legs which were striped even more definitely than those of the hybrid foal or the zebra sire himself, and one had some stripes on parts of the neck also. In addition, they had a stiff mane of very zebra-like appearance. Darwin himself accepted the evidence as sufficient proof of telegony. But when definitely planned and long-continued experiments were made, the proof escaped. Cossar Ewart, for instance, made a number of horse and zebra crosses to test the validity of the belief. When mares previously bred to zebras were afterwards mated with horse stallions, their colts were often without the least trace of zebra characters. In other cases, colts with some degree of striping were produced. But one mare gave birth to a striped colt as a result of her first mating, which was with a horse stallion ; while two later matings with other stallions, made after she had been successfully mated once and three times respectively with a zebra, gave unstriped offspring. In other cases, when striped colts were born to a mare and stallion after the mare had been previously mated to a zebra, Ewart took other mares, closely related to the first, bred them to the same Arabian stallion without having mated them previously with a zebra - and they, too, produced striped foals. In short, the production of striping (and also of erect mane) in foals is not a very uncommon occurrence in horses; it may appear whether previous impregnation by a zebra has taken place or not. The stripes of Lord Morton's foals were a mere coincidence, well illustrating the danger of drawing conclusions from single and therefore possibly exceptional cases, and the need for systematic and repeated experiments."

glossing over

sexy sidekick

everything is always better with a pony

or...

FU and the horse you ride in on

dog horse stoat

Parmigianino:
autoritratto con cagna gravida
Conversione di Saulo
Antea

japanese toys //

The Ningyo-Do Bunko Database has more than 100 albums of late 19th/early 20th century watercolour sketches of toy designs.

hokusai's wooden horse

subject related to horse

The “ Reverse Flaying ” of the Heavenly Piebald Horse*

And, last but not least, we still have to inquire into the nature of the piebald horse that was skinned.

https://nirc.nanzan-u.ac.jp/nfile/1155

Viewers holding to more traditional standards, however, would have seen otherwise; to them the spolia might have been indices of breakdown, breakdown of the city and possibly of the social order that had built and once maintained it


kinney

horse gin

In fact, animal domestication very often does involve the use of manual tools, but of

a kind we have not so far encountered. They are tools of coercion, such as the whip

or spur, designed to inflict physical force and very often acute pain (see Chapter Four,

p. 73). Another class of tools consists of those attached to the animals themselves and

operated as part of their performance. Thus the ‘handling’ of animals is really a two-stage

operation in which the human master, through the use of the instruments of coercion,

aims to control the skilled tool-using performance of his charges. Indeed there is an imme-

diate and obvious parallel here with slave-driving: like human slaves, similarly compelled

to work through the infliction of pain, animals constitute labour itself rather than its

instruments (Ingold 1980: 88).

After the Horsemen came the Antimasquers

After the Horsemen came the Antimasquers, and as the Horsemen had their Musick, about a do|zen of the best Trumpeters proper for them, and in their Livery, sounding before them; so the first Antimasque being of Cripples, and Beggers on horseback, had their Musick of Keys and Tongues, and the like, snapping and yet playing in a Con|sort before them.
These Beggers were also mounted, but on the poorest leanest Jades that could be gotten out of the Dirt-carts, or elsewhere: and the variety and change from such noble Musick, and gallant Hor|ses, as went before them, unto their proper Mu|sick, and pitiful Horses, made both of them the more pleasing.
The Habits and properties of these Cripples and Beggers, were most ingeniously fitted (as of all the rest) by the Commissioners direction, wherein (as in the whole business) Mr. Attorney Noy, Sir John Finch, Sir Edward Herbert, Mr. Selden, those great and eminent Persons, as all the rest of the Committee, had often Meetings, and took extraor|dinary care and pains in the ordering of this bu|siness, and it seemed a pleasure to them.

After the Beggers Antimasque, came men on Horseback, playing upon Pipes, Whistles, and In|struments sounding Notes like those of Birds of all sorts, and in excellent consort, and were followed by the Antimasque of Birds: This was an Owl in an Ivy-bush, with many several sorts of other Birds, in a clustre about the Owl, gazing as it were upon her: these were little Boys put into covers of the shapes of those Birds, rarely fitted, and sit|ting on small Horses, with Footmen going by them, with Torches in their hands; and here were some besides to look unto the Children, and this was very pleasant to the Beholders. After this Antimasque, came other Musicians on Horseback playing upon Bag-pipes, Horn-pipes, and such kind of Northern Musick, speaking the following Antimasque of Projectors to be of the Scotch and Northern Quarters; and these, as all the rest, had many Footmen with Torches waiting on them.
First in this Antimasque, rode a Fellow upon a little Horse, with a great Bit in his mouth, and upon the man's head was a Bit, with Headstall and Rains fastned, and signified a Projector, who begged a Patent, that none in the Kingdom might ride their Horses, but with such Bits as they should buy of him.
Then came another Fellow with a bunch of Carrots upon his Head, and a Capon upon his Fist, describing a Projector who begg'd a Patent of Mo|nopoly, as the first Inventer of the Art to feed Ca|pons fat with Carrots, and that none but himself might make use of that Invention, and have the Priviledge for fourteen years, according to the Statute.
Several other Projectors were in like manner per|sonated in this Antimasque; and it pleased the Spectators the more, because by it an Information was covertly given to the King, of the unfitness and ridiculousness of these Projects against the Law: and the Attorney Noy, who had most know|ledge of them, had a great hand in this Anti|masque of the Projectors.
After this, and the rest of the Antimasques were past, all which are not here remembred; there came six of the chief Musicians on Horseback upon Foot-clothes, and in the habits of heathen Priests, and Footmen carrying of Torches by them.

Whitlocke, Bulstrode, 1605-1675 or 6.
Title: Memorials of the English affairs, or, An historical account of what passed from the beginning of the reign of King Charles the First, to King Charles the Second his happy restauration containing the publick transactions, civil and military : together with the private consultations and secrets of the cabinet.
Date: 1682 

The Endless Crisis as an Instrument of Power: In conversation with Giorgio Agamben

The Endless Crisis as an Instrument of Power: In conversation with Giorgio Agamben

http://lareviewofbooks.org/article.php?id=1729&fulltext=1

One day humanity will play with law just as children play with disused objects, not in order to restore them to their canonical use but to free them from it for good…. This liberation is the task of study, or of play. And this studious play is the passage that allows us to arrive at that justice that one of Benjamin’s posthumous fragments defines as a state of the world in which the world appears as a good that absolutely cannot be appropriated or made juridical.

WE HAVE A NEW ATTORNEY, Dr. Bucephalus 

We have a new attorney, Dr. Bucephalus. Little in his external appearance reminds one of the time when he was still Alexander of Macedon's battle steed. But those who are familiar with the circumstances notice certain things. Indeed, I recently saw, on the outside staircase, even a quite simple court employee admire the attorney with the professional look of a modest regular of the races as, lifting his thighs high, he went up from step to step, his footfalls ringing out on the marble.

In general the bar approves of the admission of Bucephalus. With amazing understanding they tell themselves that Bucephalus is in a difficult position in today's social order and that therefore, as well as because of his world-historical significance, he deserves some accommodation anyway. Today -- no one can deny it -- there is no great Alexander. Yes, many people try to murder; also there is no lack of people with the skill to strike their friend over the banquet table with a spear; and many find Macedonia too cramped, so that they curse Philip, the father -- but no one, no one can lead to India. Even back then, the gates to India were unreachable, but the king's sword showed the way. Today the gates are elsewhere entirely and further and higher; no one shows the way; many have swords, but only to wave them about; and the gaze that wants to follow them gets tangled up.

So maybe it's really best, as Bucephalus has done, to sink into law books. Free, his sides unvexed by the loins of the rider, by a quiet lamp, far from the racket of Alexander's battles, he reads and turns the pages of our old books.

derby day

 Anmer goes down in racing history not for winning anything special (he succeeded in just one small contest at Newmarket) but for being brought down by the suffragette Emily Davison in the 1913 Derby. She later died of her injuries. The jockey Herbert Jones was concussed but recovered; Anmer survived to be placed a few times and was never heard of again, and the first past the post, Craiganour, was disqualified. The eventual winner, Aboyeur, was later lost in the Russian revolution.

The National Horseracing Museum has a racing plate worn by Anmer during his tragic Derby run. It is now thought that Emily Davison did not intend to sacrifice her life, since she had a return train ticket in her pocket. Others consider that Craiganour's disqualification was politically motivated, since his owner was Charles Ismay, son of the owner of the Titanic.

Aboyeur was the winner of the sensational Derby of 1913, in which the first past the post Craganour was disqualified and the King's runner, Anmer, was brought down at Tattenham Corner by a suffragette. Aboyeur, winner of just one of his juvenile starts, was a 100/1 outsider for the Derby. He was a queer tempered customer to train, galloping loose on the downs on more than one occasion. His maternal grandsire Morion had been an absolute savage.

Aboyeur never won again after the Derby and was sold to Russia, where he disappeared during the Revolution. 

http://www.horseracinghistory.co.uk/hrho/action/viewDocument?id=1016

http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2013/may/26/emily-davison-suffragette-death-derby-1913

http://www.bbc.co.uk/learningzone/clips/the-death-of-emily-davison/967.html

http://www.sporthorse-data.com/index.htm

clay horsey

Today we may perhaps hope that it will be possible to overcome the basic error – namely, the assumption that the imaginative content of a child’s toys is what determines his playing; whereas in reality the opposite is true. A child wants to pull something, and so he becomes a horse; he wants to play with sand, and so he turns into a baker; he wants to hide, and so he turns into a robber or a policeman.

 

For who gives the child his toys if not adults? And even if he retains a certain power to accept or reject them, a not insignificant proportion of the oldest toys (balls, hoops, tops, kites) are in a certain sense imposed on him as cult implements that became toys only afterward, partly through the child’s powers of imagination.” (Benjamin “Toys and Play” 118)

I

In the same way, the genuine and self-evident simplicity of toys was a matter of technology, not formalist considerations. For a characteristic feature of folk art – the way in which primitive technology combined with cruder materials imitates sophisticated technology combined with expensive materials – can be seen with particular clarity in the world of toys. Porcelain from the great czarist factories in Russian villages provided the model for dolls and genre scenes carved in wood. More recent research into folk art has long since abandoned the belief that ‘primitive’ inevitably means ‘older.’ Frequently, so-called folk art is nothing more than the cultural goods of a ruling class that have trickled down and been given a new lease on life within the framework of a broad collective.” (Benjamin “Toys and Play” 119)

At around the same time, the advance of the Reformation forced many artists who had formerly worked for the Church ‘to shift to the production of goods to satisfy the demand for craftwork, and to produce smaller art objects for domestic use, instead of large-scale works.’ This led to a huge upsurge in the production of the tiny objects that filled toy cupboards and gave such pleasure to children, as well as the collections of artworks and curiosities that gave such pleasure to adults. It was this that created the fame of Nuremberg and led to the hitherto unshaken dominance of German toys on the world market.” (Benjamin “Cultural History of Toys” 114)

“If we survey the entire history of toys, it becomes evident that the question of size has far greater importance than might have been supposed. In the second half of the nineteenth century, when the long-term decline in these things begins, we see toys becoming larger; the unassuming, the tiny, and the playful all slowly disappear. It was only then that children acquired a playroom of their own and a cupboard in which they could keep books separately from those of their parents. There can be no doubt that the older volumes with their small format called for the mother’s presence, whereas the modern quartos with their insipid and indulgent sentimentality are designed to enable children to disregard her absence. The process of emancipating the toy begins. The more industrialization penetrates, the more it decisively eludes the control of the family and becomes increasingly alien to children and also to parents.” (Benjamin “Cultural History of Toys” 114)

Last, such a study would have to explore the great law that presides over the rules and rhythms of the entire world of play: the law of repetition. We know that for a child repetition is the soul of play, that nothing gives him greater pleasure than to ‘Do it again!’ The obscure urge to repeat things is scarcely less powerful in play, scarcely less cunning in its workings, than the sexual impulse in love. It is no accident that Freud has imagined he could detect an impulse ‘beyond the pleasure principle’ in it. And in fact, every profound experience longs to be insatiable, longs for return and repetition until the end of time, and for the reinstatement of an original condition from which it sprang. ‘All things would be resolved in a trice / If we could only do them twice.’ Children act on this proverb of Goethe’s. Except that the child is not satisfied with twice, but wants the same thing again and again, a hundred or even a thousand times. This is not only the way to master frightening fundamental experiences – by deadening one’s own response, by arbitrarily conjuring up experiences, or through parody; it also means enjoying one’s victories and triumphs over and over again, with total intensity. An adult relieves his heart from its terrors and doubles happiness by turning it into a story. A child creates the entire event anew and starts again right from the beginning. Here, perhaps, is the deepest explanation for the two meanings of the German word Spielen [which means 'to play' and 'games']: the element of repetition is what is actually common to them. Not a ‘doing as if’ but a ‘doing the same thing over and over again,’ the transformation of a shattering experience into habit – that is the essence of play.” (Benjamin “Toys and Play” 120)

WB wooden horsey

Lehrstücke

Gestus

Gestus, as the embodiment of an attitude, carries at least two distinct meanings in Brecht's theatre: firstly, the uncovering or revealing of the motivations and transactions that underpin a dramatic exchange between the characters; secondly, the 'epic' narration of that character by the actor (whether explicitly or implicitly)
Henry Müller The Geste of Citation: Three Points

mourning horses

“Do something undreamed-of,” demanded Khlebnikov, “strictly new, you horses pulling the hearse of the world!”

shklovsky

 

“The road keeps turning. The turns throw back the highway like a roll of fabric on the counter.

monument mobbed

The equestrian statue of Frederick the Great in Berlin is decorated – and mobbed – in celebration of the German victory over the French at the Battle of Sedan, September 1-2, 1870.

Lost allegorical sculpture /// work of Francois Willeme // l'angleterre venant au secours de la France 


At no point in time, no matter how utopian, will anyone win the masses over to a higher art; they can be won over only to one that is nearer to them. And the difficulty consists precisely in finding a form for that art such that, with the best conscience in the world, one could hold that it is a higher art. This will never happen with most of what is propagated by the avant-garde of the bourgeoisie. … The masses positively require from the work of art … something that is warming. Here the flame most readily kindled is hatred.   WB konvolut K

There is one notable dead tree . . . the inscape markedly holding its most simple and beautiful oneness up from the ground through a graceful swerve below (I think) the spring of the branches up to the tops of the timber. I saw the inscape freshly, as if my mind were still growing, though with a companion the eye and the ear are for the most part shut and instress cannot come.  GMH