U Is For Urban.

Urban.

This crow is an urban dinosaur. It looks for snacks at a gastropub terrace and in the bonus pictures tries to figure out what the flightless mop-heads are up to and checks the door between the shoe shop and tech store.

The pictures were taken in Keskuskatu (translation Center Street) pedestrian zone in Helsinki Downtown in Midsummer Day 2017. Very few shops or restaurants were open as most people would be somewhere in the countryside eating, drinking or attending music festivals.

Keskuskatu is in other times a much more busy place. Keskuskatu and much of Aleksanterinkatu, which is the street crossing Keskuskatu in the pictures, are heated in the winter with the district heating water returning from the buildings to the power stations. This way, no snow ploughs or salting is needed most of the time.

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© Ice Swimmer, all rights reserved.

Daniel Pešta.

Daniel Pešta, “Scream III” (2015-2016), acrylic on canvas, (all images courtesy of DOX Centre for Contemporary Art, Prague).

Daniel Pešta, “Scream III” (2015-2016), acrylic on canvas, (all images courtesy of DOX Centre for Contemporary Art, Prague).

Daniel Pešta is an artist with a lot to say, and he’s well worth getting acquainted with, to say the least. His work is deeply expressive, profound, and stirring. Many times it’s frightening, because people can be quite frightening, and Daniel Pešta has a good deal of insight when it comes to human nature.

Daniel Pešta’s largest exhibition to date, drawn from his high-flying decade starting in 2007 , which has included three Venice appearances and Second Prize in Painting at 2017’s London Art Biennale, dominates Prague’s DOX Centre for Contemporary Art. Pešta’s work is timely, disturbing and profound. His extraordinary artistic range encompasses photography, video, assemblage, installation, sculpture, drawing and painting; his materials include wax, leather, resin, textiles, paper, plaster, wood, acrylic, latex, gum, paint, neon lighting, and stone. Two generative objects pull this exhibition together. One is red string, signifying blood, genetic coding, fatalism, or humanity’s endlessness, variously. The other is the mask. A central motif in Pešta’s practice, it is meant to evoke disguise, dissemblance, and anonymity.

Born in 1959, Pešta lived according to the larger Czech struggle for self-determination. He was painting as the Czechs stumbled out of the darkness of Communist rule in 1989. In the mid-1980s he entered into the underground music scene, anticipating what has been dubbed the “Velvet Revolution” — the demise of what former Czech President Vaclav Havel had called “post-totalitarianism” (in his 1978 samizdat essay “The Power of the Powerless”). After a trip to New York, in 1998, Pešta saw the possibilities of multimedia art.

You can read and see more at Hyperallergic.

T Is For Tiili.

Tiili.

Tiili is Finnish for brick. I found this piece of red brick near Ursininkallio in Eiranranta, Helsinki, in November 2017. Waves and ice had worn it down to a shape similar to a pebble or a small, a bit flat potato. I put it back there after having taken the photos, because I felt that I shouldn’t take it. It wasn’t the only one there, but there weren’t that many of them either.

It’s possible that the brick comes from the sea bathing facilities that were at Ursininkallio (Ursin’s rock) until 1934. Nils Abraham af Ursin (1785 – 1851), after whom the rock and the bathing facility were named, was a Finnish physician, Professor of anatomy and physiology and the Rector of University of Helsinki (at the time the Imperial Alexander University in Finland).

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© Ice Swimmer, all rights reserved.

Fun in the Field.

From Kestrel: We are discing a field preparatory to planting it (even though it does not look like a promising year for rain) and one of the horses, Tito, decided to “help”. You can see he’s not scared of tractors, but it’s still fun to run in the field anyway. At least until it’s time to go back to sleep.

Tito’s a beauty, click for full size!

© Kestrel, all rights reserved.

You’re a pervert, you’re a loser, you’re ugly, You have penis envy!

Donald Trump and Wayne Allen Root (YouTube/screen grab).

Wayne Allen Root, in his latest attempt to defend the endless and mind numbing corruption on the part of the Tiny Tyrant, unleashed an incredibly immature rant against Robert Mueller. The arrested development seen in so many conservatives is rather fascinating, and the older they become, the more they regress. I can’t imagine such a rant having the slightest effect on me, being 60 years old, it’s barely worth an eye roll. I expect if Mr. Mueller was aware of it, the reaction would be the same. Someone should perhaps inform Mr. Root that such rants tend to reveal a great deal more about the ranter than anyone else.

“Robert Mueller has probably never had sex in his life,” Root said. “I know he has never had sex with a beautiful woman. Did you ever see the angry look on Robert Mueller’s face? Robert Mueller needs sex badly and he is so jealous that Donald Trump was a billionaire playboy and obviously had sex with the most beautiful women in the world.”

Hmm. Mr. Mueller is married with two children. As for the Tiny Tyrant, well, a long history of sexual assault, and a descriptor of average from a porn star. Not exactly  bragging material.

“Robert Mueller has penis envy,” he continued. “This is so obvious. This was high school, guys. In high school, there were handsome guys, and then there were handsome guys who were jocks, and then there were handsome guys who were jocks and had rich fathers. And that is Donald Trump. And then all the little nerds like Robert Mueller, who had never had sex in their whole lives, they hated the jocks, they hated the handsome guys, and they really hated the jocks who were handsome guys who were rich. This guy, Muller, has never had sex with a beautiful woman, so he hates Trump with a passion.”

I’ve noticed that Mr. Root often talks about high school. About time you got the fuck over it,  no? Mr. Mueller has a job to do, and I don’t recall him expressing personal feelings about people at all. That would be called professionalism.

“The greatest president in modern history, a man is trying to take him down who is a pervert,” Root added. “Robert Mueller is a pervert. He probably sits home and watches porn. He has probably never had a girl in his whole life, a beautiful woman, so he sits and watches images and then he realizes there is someone like Donald Trump who is living every man’s fantasy … [Mueller] doesn’t even know what sex feels like. Robert Mueller is an ugly lawyer, he’s got nothing going for him.”

Jesus Christ, most 5 year olds are more mature than you are, Mr. Root. The greatest president? Hahahahaha, no. The greatest crook, perhaps.

“Mueller is a little pervert,” Root continued to rant. “Mueller is vicious, Mueller is disgusting, Mueller is a pervert. Can you imagine what he does at home at night? Who knows what he does, watching his computer images of Donald Trump and beautiful women. I can just guess what Mueller is doing in the dark, with the light of the screen glaring on him inside is office at 12 midnight. Quote me, Robert Mueller: You’re a pervert, you’re a loser, you’re ugly, you have never had a beautiful women in your life and you’re jealous of Donald Trump. It is all so clear now.”

I can pretty much guarantee you that whatever Mr. Mueller does in the evenings, it has nothing to do with watching the Tiny Tyrant and women. You, on the other hand, Mr. Root, that I can envision.

“It’s penis envy,” Root declared triumphantly. “Mueller’s is smaller than Trump’s.”

Who is the official penis inspector, and when is the report coming out?

RWW has the story, such as it is.

S Is For Sikinsokin.

Sikinsokin.

Sikinsokin is Finnish for “all mixed up”. And the roots of the pine and the birch (see the white bark) seem to be just that and the erosion has revealed it.

This place is in Munkkiniemi, Helsinki and is by the sea, so at high water, waves and ice may have eroded the soil.

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© Ice Swimmer, all rights reserved.