A Brit a Day [#1245]

Rather than being decisive about the end or move of ABAD, I’m going to just say that ABAD is on a hiatus of undetermined length. I have enjoyed doing it, and I’m proud of my own commitment to posting almost every day for almost three and a half years, but my passion for it is touching the low water mark at the moment.  There’s no excuse for doing a bad job of it, so I’m going to let it go for now.

So…this isn’t good-bye, just an exceptionally mushy post.

If I have to leave a parting thought here for a while, though, it would be this:

A few years back, I developed a crush on the charming and charismatic frontman of a British band called Art Brut.  His lyrics blew me away. They were funny and ironic and seemed to expose every fear a 20-something young man could have–which are not that different from the fears a 40-something old woman has. I reached out to him as a friend on Myspace, that antique social medium that revolutionized my six-degrees-of-separation world.  Now there could be one degree.  To make a long story short, over the years I have met Eddie, hung out with Eddie, drunk vodka-and-apple-juice cocktails and bad wine with him.  I have met [through email] Eddie’s mom in England [she’s exactly 2 months older than I am].  Two of Eddie’s paintings hang in my house. He says that the story I’ve told him of how my preschooler misconstrued the words to one of his songs has become a part of his patter onstage.

Friday was Eddie’s birthday.  I emailed him my good wishes.  He emailed me back his thanks.  My point is–never doubt your heart.  You can feel a connection through pictures, music, video….to someone you would never have met in your ‘normal’ life or perhaps will never meet outside of the internet.  But the connection is no less real.

So…if you’re reading this–I’m connecting with you.  And isn’t that cool?

A Brit a Day [#1235]

I’m tooting my own decidedly non-British horn in ABAD today because I am so excited that my Etsy digital download shop is finally open!

I’d love to sell a bunch of downloads of the big 10MB jpegs I have for sale there, but mainly, I’m just happy for everyone to be able to look at samples of the pictures.  Go here to check it out–

http://www.etsy.com/shop/OurKodachromeYears

I only have about 2 dozen images up now, and I have a looooong way to go.  I think I’ve mentioned this before–the images are from the slides I inherited from my dad, and a few of my own from Europe in the 80s. Eventually, I’ll be concentrating on the ones my dad took for his personal use during his travels with the USDA.  Some of them [mainly ones I haven’t posted yet] have historical significance, IMO. I’ll try to add 3-4 items a week to the shop.

A Brit a Day [#1179]

Bring on Monday! I’m posting these great pics of James May by Neale Haynes today to prepare you for some cool fan art and a fantastic artist I found on pixiv.com that you’ll see tomorrow.

A Brit a Day [#1169]

Don’t get me wrong, I love Loki!Tom, but if I could have seen Tom Hiddleston in just one of his appearances at Comic-con, I would have gone to the Nerd HQ panel.  The work that these two photographers posted online almost makes me feel like I was there.  Check it out:

Andi Cowan:  http://www.flickr.com/photos/99255476@N05/with/9348876090/

Kathy Flynn:  http://wickedgoddess.smugmug.com/People/Tom-Hiddleston-at-Nerd-HQ/30671570_PTG9X3#!i=2649363930&k=V3sSXKg

A Brit a Day [#1057]

You may recall my posting these photographs back in January when Tom Hiddleston toured the nation of Guinea with a group from UNICEF.  These pictures were published along with Tom’s excellent travel diary that he blogged to us from the field.  In the last few days, the photographer Harry Borden has shared more of his work as a part of that group, and I am amazed to find additional images from these same three settings that are at least as compelling, if not even more so.

The obvious connection Tom has with children, especially with the baby in the third-to-last picture, just flips my heart over in my chest.  This from a man who has tweeted about how babies look into your eyes and see you for exactly who you are; from a guy who has ‘have a family’ near the top of his bucket list…

If you’d like to see more of Harry Borden’s beautiful images from his trip to Guinea with Tom, go here.