Community Yes! Government Less.

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I’ve been pretty busy the last days, volunteering to do all kinds of graphics work for Ron Shegda’s Campaign for PA State Rep, 136th Dist. Yeah, I know. I don’t even live in Pennsylvania, so why would I care? I care because no matter what state you live in, as US Citizens we’re all affected by the elected officials of every state. I care because too many people fail to vote on local elections, but besides the fact that our daily lives are first and foremost affected by our local leaders, our Congressmen, Senators, and President generally rise out of the pool of locally elected officials and for once, I’d like to have the tough choice between “Best” and “Bester” rather than the lesser of two evils. By supporting “the good guys” and voting for them on the local level now, we’ll have a better chance of getting better choices in the future.

As to Ron Shegda in particular: Ron is different from the typical politicians we’ve all come to know and loathe. He has strong inner values while at the same time, has an open mind. I’ve found him to be extremely well-read (better yet, he actually understands what he’s read!) and very curious and interested in hearing other points of view, whether on the issues themselves or on the best way to achieve a certain goal. Ron doesn’t simply parrot a worn party line as his goals are to serve his constituents by protecting their rights to self-determination, freedom from government, and to inspire greater community involvement. As an old Flower Child of the 1960’s, that’s what I had gotten involved in protests for and I haven’t changed a bit in those values, although I’ve learned that we can’t allow ourselves to make presumptions about candidates based solely on the political party they’re affiliated with. We’ve got to go by the individual character and actions of the men and women who’s names are on the ballot. Sure, that takes a bit of homework, but considering the fact that our whole way of life is at stake, it is definitely worth the time.

Community Yes!  Government Less.

CD “Community Yes! Government Less.”
All profits go to “Citizen’s for Ron Shegda” & are tax-deductible.

Ron hosts a radio show, “The Two Things We Don’t Talk About” every Tuesday morning from 8:00-9:00 am, on WPGN Sunny 1100, that also streams live so you can see them in the studio) called . Generally, Ron has on a guest of either local or national interest and they chat about current issues. Sometimes the discussions get deeply into a subject and other times it’s more breezy while remaining informative. Yesterday, Ron’s guest was my father, Dr. Roland Sigal. It was the first time I had ever heard my father talk about what it was like around the family dinner table while he was growing up. For some reason, I had never pictured him before sitting down with his Mom, Dad and 2 younger brothers. He has always been a grown-up in my mind (a forever young at heart grown-up, but never a child.) So it was interesting. To see yesterday’s show, click: Episode 46: Campaigning For Victory Full Speed Ahead.

On tonight’s menu, I’m posting a few images on the timely subject of the housing market and foreclosures. Enjoy!

Free Clip-Art / Icons of the Day

The following images are either full or reduced size previews. Simply right-click (or control-click) on the preview to save the image(s) of your choice to your desktop. (Unless otherwise noted, downloads are 512px X 512px in .png format). As always, usage of any of the images offered on this blog are free for your personal use while subject to the limitations of my Creative Commons Non-Commercial – Attribution – No Derivatives – Share Alike- 3.0 license. (See sidebar for details)

Brick House

For Sale Vignette

Foreclosed Vignette

For Sale SignForeclosed Sign

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Rejection As A Prognosticator for Success

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Some Interesting Facts:

  1. “The Salon des Paris”, sponsored by the French government since 1673, was considered the most esteemed artistic competition in Paris and one of the greatest spectacles in Europe. Works rejected by the selection committee got marked with a big red “R” on the back of the canvas.
  2. In 1863, the Paris Salon, called “The Exhibition of Living Artists” averaged 23,000 visitors a day (400,000 total at 10 francs a pop).
  3. That same year (and again in 1864), due to pressure from the artists and the public, the Emperor Napoleon III permitted a second exhibition, the “Salon des Refusés”, to take place simultaneously right next to the Salon, to showcase the artists whose work had been rejected by the Paris Salon. A total of only 3,500 people attended the Salon des Refusés, despite the bargain ticket price of 1 franc.
  4. Amongst the artists displaying at the Salon des Refusés in 1863 and 1864, were Édouard Manet, Edgar Dégas, Claude Monet, Camille Pissarro, Paul Cézanne, and the American painter, James McNeill Whistler.
  5. In 1878, Alphonse Mucha’s application to the Prague Academy of Fine Arts was rejected, with the following recommendation: “Find yourself another profession where you’ll be more useful”.
  6. Vincent Van Gogh sold only one painting, “Red Vineyard at Arles”, during his lifetime. He was little known to the art world at the time of his death, but his paintings became famous after he died.
  7. In 1907, Picasso’s “Les Demoiselles d’Avignon” was so way ahead of its time that it was rejected by the art world and the general public. This painting of five figures in a brothel is nowadays regarded as the most outstanding work of Picasso’s earlier years.
  8. In 1961, second-grade school teacher at Belvoir Elementary, Claire Heiss, flunked Leslie Sigal in art (because she could not stay within the lines with her crayon)

The lesson to be learned? Listen to your own heart about who you want to be and what you want to do in life and then, do it. Period.

Free Clip-Art / Icons of the Day

The following images are either full or reduced size previews. Simply right-click (or control-click) on the preview to save the image(s) of your choice to your desktop. (Unless otherwise noted, downloads are 512px X 512px in .png format). As always, usage of any of the images offered on this blog are free for your personal use while subject to the limitations of my Creative Commons Non-Commercial – Attribution – No Derivatives – Share Alike- 3.0 license. (See sidebar for details)

SALON_Drawer

SALON_InBox 2SALON_OutBox

SALON_Documents Fldr

SALON_DocumentSALON_Folder Generic

SALON_Document Box

SALON_NotesSALON_Diary

SIGAL_signature

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What The Dormouse Said (The Art of Epilepsy)

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Recent events in my own life reminded me of a blog post titled, “What About Lewis Carroll” by Sadi Ranson-Polizzotti, that I’d found a few years ago concerning the role temporal lobe epilepsy played in the delightful imagination of The Rev. Charles Dodgson (author of such beloved classics as “Alice’s Adventures In Wonderland” that was published in 1865 under his more familiar nom de plume, Lewis Carroll). Finding out I had something in common with one of my literary heroes, Temporal Lobe Epilepsy (also referred to as ‘Complex Partial Seizures’ or ‘Psychomotor Epilepsy’), peaked my interest in finding out more about Dodgson personally and also about other famous authors, artists, and composers who have lived with this diagnosis, and whether medical science has been able to find a cause-and-effect between TLE and the vivid imaginations, mystical experiences, and profuse output of creative works of such persons. While I have not come across a research study that definitively proves or disproves a biological etiology for such traits, I did find an enormous interest among experts in the field of cognitive neuroscience and a plethora of research that appears well on the way to not only proving such a connection but also being able to map it out in the brain.

Is that cool, or what?

In any case, if you’re either a fan of Lewis Carroll, have an interest in Temporal Lobe Epilepsy in general or in learning more about the recent discoveries in Cognitive Neuroscience identifying the exact location(s) in the brain and the environmental and biological triggers that produce highly attenuated senses (visual, auditory, taste, smell and/or touch), out-of-body feelings, paranormal experiences, hyper-religiosity, déjà vu (a feeling of familiarity), jamais vu (a feeling of unfamiliarity), hypergraphia, altered states of consciousness such as euphoria and samadhi, and more, I’ve put together a selection of links that I think you’ll enjoy. At the top of the list you’ll find links to Sadi Ranson-Polizzotti’s blog where she has a number of scholarly articles about Lewis Carroll and Temporal Lobe Epilepsy. I recommend these as a good place to start.

Suitably apropos, this morning’s serving of artwork is built around my interpretation of one of Lewis Carroll’s hand-sketched illustrations that was included in the 1865 first publication of “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland”. (Special Note: While the images linked below are low-resolution (72 ppi), I’ll be sending off to the printer’s the 600 ppi original file later this week and making the image available through my Zazzle store in poster-size as well as a Greeting Card.)

Enjoy!

Free Clip-Art / Icons of the Day

The following images are either full or reduced size previews. Simply right-click (or control-click) on the preview to save the image(s) of your choice to your desktop. (Unless otherwise noted, downloads are 512px X 512px in .png format). As always, usage of any of the images offered on this blog are free for your personal use while subject to the limitations of my Creative Commons Non-Commercial – Attribution – No Derivatives – Share Alike- 3.0 license. (See sidebar for details)

Alice 600

Alice, Not Feeling Quite Herself (600 x 720px)

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