Shadow Shot Sunday

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The Friday Evening Nudes

Janet Fish

Diego Velázquez.
Venus at Her Mirror
c. 1644-48

Charles Edward Boutibonne
Sirens
French

1816-1897

Boucher
Odalisk

“The buttocks are the most aesthetically pleasing part of the body because they are non-functional. Although they conceal an essential orifice, these pointless globes are as near as the human form can ever come to abstract art.”

Kenneth Tynan (English theatre Critic, 1927-1980)

Sky Watch Friday

The entrance to the courtyard of the Springfield (Massachusetts) Library and Museums, where the Dr. Sues Memorial is located.

Check out more Sky Watch entries from all over the globe by clicking the logo.

She Comes in Colors

Patrick Hughes

My Lovely First Girl: I dedicate this song to you. It is perhaps selfish of me to choose this song for you. You'd probably say that The Rolling Stones are a gang of old men with misogynistic fantasies woven through their music. But just listen, you may even like it. And it reminds me of you, what can I say? ;-)

And it's a happy song; meant to cheer you up yet as I type this, I'm almost about to cry again. We need to move forward. And keep moving. Even if it's just one step a day. We need to make ground and not stop fighting for what's right and just.

All my love. Always. Mommy

A Sad Day for Marriage Equality

I am, of course, deeply saddened by the probable defeat of marriage equality in California. Not only am I personally affected by this because my daughter was married in San Francisco a couple of weeks ago, but also for all GLBT people who have married or wish to marry.

The fact that the religious community, predominantly the Catholic and Mormon Churches saw fit to pump so much cash into an effort to take away the civil rights of others only makes me more certain how bigoted and anti-humanity they really are.

These are the same people who want to take away our reproductive rights and re-write the science curricula in our schools to exclude evolution as well as deny our young people the information and resources they need to make decisions about their sexuality.


But Equality California is not ready to concede defeat:


“Roughly 400,000 votes separate yes from no on Prop 8 – out of 10 million votes tallied.Based on turnout estimates reported yesterday, we expect that there are more than 3 million and possibly as many as 4 million absentee and provisional ballots yet to be counted.Given that fundamental rights are at stake, we must wait to hear from the Secretary of State tomorrow about how many votes are yet to be counted as well as where they are from.It is clearly a very close election and we monitored the results all evening and this morning.As of this point, the election is too close to call.Because Prop 8 involves the sensitive matter of individual rights, we believe it is important to wait until we receive further information about the outcome.”

Further, there is a lawsuit in the works:

Legal Groups File Lawsuit Challenging Proposition 8, Should It Pass

I'm still holding out hope that Prop 8 will be defeated once all the votes are counted but it's doubful. I'd also love to hope that the lawsuit described in the article link above results in fairness for the GLBT community but the massive amounts of money put into the Prop 8 effort will likely also be pumped into contesting any lawsuit that comes along as well.

We're terribly dispondent in the Pagan Sphinx family right now. While we celebrate the monumental victory of Barack Obama, there is also this sadness which reflects our awareness of just far we have to go before all people are treated equally and given the same civil rights.

Second Annual Blog Blast for Peace

The world and its people deserve a day that memorializes the ideals of peace, harmony and brotherhood/sisterhood. Today, Thursday, November 6, is such a day. A day when bloggers from all over the world send a message of universal peace. Thank you to Mimi at Mimi Writes for spearheading this noble effort.

My contribution, as usual, is humble. A simple prayer encompassing the ideals of love, compassion and equality.

And remember, peace begins within.

~~ Namaste ~~

Higher Ground

President Elect Obama: please help us reach a higher ground.

God Bless

Ruby Tuesday

Parsboro, Nova Scotia Gallery

Parsboro, Nova Scotia
Gallery Seating

Ruby Tuesday is a really good photo blog; just enough entries to keep it interesting but not so many that it's overwhelming.

Some Ruby Tuesday participants I recommend:

Do You See What I See? (New Jersey)

Why, What Have You Heard? (North Carolina)

Nature Tales and Camera Trails (New Brunswick)

Yen ( Japan)

Paz's New York Minute

Ruby Tuesday

Ruby Tuesday
Special Election Day Edition

Times Square

Artist of the Week

Isabelle du Tout


Isabelle du Toit
Chinese Gliding Tree Frogs

John James Audubon

Last Friday, WP and I took the day off from work and, after a fine brunch at The Lone Wolf in Amherst, went down to Springfield to check out an exhibition called The New Reality: The Frontier of Realism in the 21st Century. It was quite good; showing the new realism paintings juxtaposed with small, comparative labels of classic works of Realism depicting a similar subject matter.

Cameras were not allowed into this exhibit but from the brochure, I did a little web research on some of the artists whose work I enjoyed the most - Isabelle du Toit (Rouaud) of Germany is one of them.

Shadow Shots Sunday #24

Shadow Shots Sunday

Umbrella Shadow
Bare Bones Cafe
Parrsboro, Nova Scotia