Harpsichord Works 2010 Calendar

Nice Modern Simple and Yours!
CLICK on the image for a HUGE version to print for your own use.

"Bad Romance" Jeremy Amelin Re-Video

A NEW Alternative video made by some creative souls......possibly Paris?.....

Christmas Eve 2009

1762 Equals 2010 for Harpsichord Admirers

Harpsichord made for the Strozzi Family
Dated 1574; the keyboard altered at a later date
Giovanni Antonio Baffo (active 1570 - 1595)
Italy, Venice
Coniferous softwood, cypress, sycamore and pearwood decorated with ivory, rosewood, boxwood, ebony and parchment
Victoria and Albert Museum no. 6007-1859, London

No Candu for Argentina

"It took the media coverage of the South Atlantic war for most people to learn about Argentina’s repressive military dictatorship. But many Canadian trade unionists already knew all about General Galtieri. They had, as Wayne Ellwood explains, been through a remarkable campaign for human rights in Argentina that brought together trade unions and action groups throughout Canada.
It started in 1977 as little more than a flurry of concern by Argentinian exiles in Toronto about human rights abuses in their homeland Two years later the ‘No Candu for Argentina’ campaign had become the single most dramatic example of Canadian trade union solidarity with workers in the Third World.
Before the South Atlantic war the Latin American nation had been portrayed as a staunch Western ally; the regime’s military junta had successfully subdued a pesky movement of revolutionary guerrillas and was fighting to keep a tottering economy on an even keel.
The reality, however, was far more ugly. Since March 24, 1976. Argentina has been ruled by a military dictatorship whose prime concern has been to rid the country of ‘subversives’ — anyone with vaguely liberal beliefs.
For the handful of Argentinians in Canada the natural point of contact was the Candu nuclear reactor that Ottawa had sold to Buenos Aires in 1973. The Candu, say its critics, is the ideal equipment for producing fissionable, bomb-quality plutonium under the guise of a domestic energy programme. It is estimated that one 600-megawatt Candu could produce enough plutonium for 35 Hiroshima-size bombs a year.
Stopping the Candu became both an organizing focus for the ‘No Candu Committee’ and a concrete demand that could be made of the Canadian government.
The deal should be suspended, the Committee argued, until a democratically-elected Argentine government signed the International NonProliferation Treaty: until trade union and civil rights were restored; until all political prisoners were released: and until the 20,000 ‘disappeared’ persons were accounted for.
Because of the junta’s strong-armed attempt to smother Argentina’s powerful union movement, organized labour in Canada was an obvious focus for the work of the No Candu Committee. Says Committee member and former Ontario Federation of Labour Human Rights Officer, Don Lee, ‘Trade unionists responded with an instinctive sense of fraternity even though the measures to restrict union rights in Argentina were unimaginable to most Canadian trade unionists.’
Committee members sweated long hours painstakingly documenting the Argentine military’s human rights abuses. They doggedly telephoned, wrote long letters and told their story to labour gatherings. The result was that more trade unions endorsed the campaign and helped fund the increasing workload of lobbying and education But labour was not the only source of support. Soon a variety of church, environmental and human rights groups had joined to pressure an implacable government to quash the reactor deal.
On a misty July morning in the Atlantic port city of Saint John, New Brunswick, in 1979, two years of careful organizing paid off. The last essential ingredient in the Argentine reactor $120 million worth of heavy water was due to be loaded for shipment to Cordoba After weeks of frenetic behind-the scenes work by the Committee —including a private meeting with Saint John longshoremen — the heavy water shipment was declared ‘Hot Cargo’. When the New Brunswick Federation of Labour and the Saint John Labour Council set up an information picket at the container-port gate, longshoremen and other workers refused to cross it. For one day at least the shipment would stay where it was — a symbolic gesture perhaps, but an important one.
The ‘Hot Cargo’ protest, as it became known, had the support of 48 Canadian labour, church and environmental groups, including the 2.3 million member Canadian Labour Congress.
‘We can’t stop this shipment forever’, Saint John Labour Council President Larry Hanley admitted, ‘but we can draw attention to both the violations of human rights in Argentina and the danger that Argentina may build a nuclear bomb’.
The successful oneday protest stressed the goals of the No Candu Committee but the workers also demanded the release of 16 Argentine trade unionists jailed without charges. Within three days, six of the unionists were released. According to Larry Hanley this focus on individuals was critical ‘Suddenly, we were talking about real people; the issues were no longer vague and distant For us it was fundamentally a question of trade union solidarity. We are not simply isolated workers. The connections have to be made between trade unionists fighting for their rights in the Third World countries who are often employed by the same multinationals we are working for right here in Canada’
Despite growing public outrage at the Candu sale the Canadian government remained adamant in its commitment to honouring a contract signed ‘in good faith’.
Meanwhile the main sticking point of the No Candu campaign that Canada shouldn’t be involved with a regime bent on the wholesale destruction of both trade union and civil rights was attracting more attention amongst Canadian trade unionists. And, surprisingly, many of the unions supporting the campaign had an important stake in the nuclear industry.
Mike Rygus, Canadian vice-president of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, put the case bluntly. ‘The production of the Candu equipment in several Canadian cities, some under our jurisdiction, means jobs. However, we must not allow our negligent government to blackmail us into supporting barbarous governments that trample over basic human and trade union rights in such a ruthless manner’.
The 150,000 Canadian members of the United Steel Workers (USW) were also heavily committed to the No Candu campaign Like the Machinists many steelworkers depend on the nuclear industry. Says USW Canadian Education Director D’Arcy Martin, ‘It was always the approach of our union that the purpose of the campaign was not to displace jobs but to emphasize the question of human rights. This moral commitment to international solidarity was the strongest reason for our involvement. ‘The fact that hundreds of metal workers in Argentina were directly affected by the repression there was a solid point of identification for steelworkers here.’
Many unions, in the Amnesty International style, ‘adopted’ individual Argentinian trade unionists in an attempt to have them released from prison. According to D’Arcy Martin it took almost a year of constant pressure through diplomatic channels to pressure the Canadian government to convince the junta to release former Argentine Steelworkers Union Leader Alberto Piccinini. When Piccinini was finally allowed to visit Canada and speak to the Canadian Steelworkers national policy conference the event was a moving display of both solidarity and pride, says Mr Martin.
‘Unity,’ Alberto Piccinini told the hushed audience of Steelworkers, ‘is the unity of all of us; and it must go beyond national boundaries. I am very clear that I am free today because of the struggle first of the people in my country and second because of workers elsewhere — especially in this beautiful country. This creates a commitment that will last for the rest of my life.’
While individual unions continued to press the case of imprisoned and missing fellow workers in Argentina. it was the longshoremen of Saint John who once more put their jobs and income on the line this past June —almost three years after the original ‘Hot Cargo’ protest.
With the Argentinian nuclear fuels fabrication plant behind schedule, the junta decided to purchase 3,000 more fuel bundles from Canada. Details of the shipment were leaked to the public in the height of the Anglo- Argentine conflict Once again the ‘Hot Cargo’ boycott shifted into gear. The Saint John longshoremen voted to refuse to handle any nuclear equipment intended for Argentina. And they were backed by every labour federation in the country including the Canadian Labour Congress. The basic demands of the 1979 protest were unchanged But the union was clear that the boycott was strictly divorced from the patriotic jingoism about the war in the South Atlantic.
‘The military dictatorship of General Galtien is exploiting this dramatic fight to divert attention from the more fundamental fight of Argentina’s people for sovereignty,’ said Larry Hanley. ‘We are acting in solidarity on behalf of the people of Argentina for freedom in their country and peace in our hemisphere.’
Undaunted, the government quickly shunted the fuel rods to Montreal where they were flown by special cargo aircraft to Argentina.
The Candu reactor at Rio Tercero has yet to be commissioned and there are still 1,000 fuel rods on order. But, for the short term at least, Canada’s nuclear dealings with the junta have finished As a result the No Candu Committee has also decided to wind up its work.
‘ We no longer have the opportunity for independent action that would seriously disrupt the junta’s plans,’ says Committee spokesman Don Lee. ‘The question is now exclusively in the hands of the Western governments concerned’.
Committee members will continue to raise questions about human rights abuses in Argentina through a sister organization, the Group for the Defense of Civil Rights in Argentina. And Canadian trade unions will continue to press for the release of political prisoners and the whereabouts of the ‘disappeared’.
But just as important is the example the No Candu campaign has created for future cooperation between Canadian trade unions and other organizations involved with Third World solidarity and support work.
‘The No Candu Committee,’ says Steelworker D’Arcy Martin, ‘had both a sophisticated understanding of Canadian labour and a strong pro-labour bias. And that made all the difference. It is our hope that many more such alliances can be made. Because, after all, it’s in the best interest of both trade unions and other groups to work together.’

1926 Calendar Equals 2010

"...and Bring Me Some Figgy Pudding..."

Christmas 1918 Washington D.C.

"Merry Christmas"
Submitted by Santa Claus on Fri, 12/18/2009 - 9:13am. :

What a great idea, I love horses and sometimes use them to pull the sleigh while giving the reindeer a break...

Detachable Collars

Collars are neckbands attached to the neckline of a shirt. Removable collars were invented in 1827 by Hannah Lord Montague (1794–1878) of Troy, New York. They fastened either at the front or the back of a shirt with a collar button, a stud on a shank, or shaft, that slips through two small eyelets on a collar. They became popular money-saving items when clothing was custom-sewn and expensive. Collars detached from the body of shirts for laundering separately, which extended the life of the shirt. Even after shirts became mass manufactured, removable collars remained popular. They were a common part of men's, and some women's, wardrobes into the 1930s.
Montague's invention so impressed manufacturers in Troy that they began mass-producing detachable collars locally for sale to a world market. Making these collars called for only a small investment; factory workers, usually low-paid women, needed only scissors, material, and a spool of thread to cut and sew collars. So successful was the venture that Troy became known as "collar city," with twenty-five collar factories by 1897.
During the first two decades of the twentieth century, collars were manufactured primarily in white. They were made of cotton and linen fabrics and made stiff by dipping them in thin cooking starch. "Linene" collars were cotton bonded to thin but stiff cardboard called card stock, and "linex" collars were linen bonded to card stock. Others were bonded to celluloid, a flammable substance mainly used in the manufacture of film stock. Straight-standing collars for formal wear were worn with evening suits. These collars were very rigid and ranged in height from two to three inches. A sudden jerking of the head could cause a chafing at the bottom of the jaw with these collars. For less formal functions, a man wore a "wing" collar, a hard collar with the front edges folded downward to resemble wings, or a "fold-over" collar, a hard collar that is turned down. A collar might cost thirty-five cents individually, or four to five dollars for a box of twenty-five collars.
For business and leisure wear, various styles of white detachable collars were worn with pastel or bright-colored shirts in solids, patterns, or stripes. As office work became more available in the early 1900s, the prestige attached to a clean white collar led to the term "white-collar worker," a term that is still in use to refer to office or business professionals. Women who chose to wear tailored suits with shirtwaists and ties also sometimes wore detachable collars.
During World War I (1914–18), soldiers in the United States armed forces wore soft-collared uniforms. After the war men's styles became more relaxed for the comfort of the wearer. Detachable "spread" collars, extended flat collars, as opposed to straight-standing, made of softer materials became popular. By the 1930s only older, conservative dressers kept the tradition of detachable collars.

Christmas 1914 and 1915

"Just you think," wrote one soldier to his family, "that while you were eating your turkey I was out talking with the very men I had been trying to kill a few hours before!"
At Christmas 1914 and again at Christmas 1915, enemy shook hands with enemy in No Man's Land, exchanged souvenirs, even played football. The truce between the trenches extended over two-thirds of the British line. There were similar cease-fires in the French and Belgian sectors.
The outraged staffs on both sides eventually put an end to these illegal truces. Soldiers were threatened with court-martial and even execution if they dared to do such a thing ever again.

Louis Comfort Tiffany

Louis Comfort born 1848 to Charles Lewis Tiffany. He grew up in his father's jewelry business. Tiffany founded his own firm in 1885 and focused on art glass. Earlier, Louis had already registered for a patent on a new glassmaking technique of combining different colors in opalescent glass to create vibrant, multidimensional hues of color never before seen in glass. This challenged the traditional approach of painting on glass to create multicolored effects. Tiffany became an enthusiastic supporter of the European Art Nouveau movement, challenging the current Victorian ornate style. Art Nouveau used free-flowing designs based on nature that exemplified the characteristics prevalent in Tiffany's earlier creations as a landscape painter. The use of light, color and nature assumed greater significance in Tiffany's work as he developed his unique approach to Art Nouveau. Tiffany's work was displayed in Europe at the most important venue for the introduction of Art Nouveau, Siegfried Bing's L'Art Nouveau.
In an effort to reach the interiors of a greater population, Tiffany began to design lamps to allow more people to enjoy art and beauty in their own home. Colored glass, Tiffany's lasting love and challenge, found fresh scope and inspiration. While the windows served to transmit the light of day, the lamps represent a new source of illumination independent of daylight. Fabrication of the lamps began in 1885, with the majority of them being made between 1895 and 1920. It was not until 1899 that Tiffany publicly introduced the lamps for sale.
Tiffany is best known for his designs of glass vessels, lamps and windows, but he also created items in various other media including metalwork, furniture, jewelry and ceramics, introducing enamels in 1898, art pottery in 1900, and jewelry in 1904. He established a metalwork department, producing lamps, desk sets, and chandeliers that were sold through his New York showroom, company catalogues and department stores. He designed most anything having to do with interior design, including even textiles and wall coverings. His remarkable career spanned over five decades, including his tenure with L.C. Tiffany & Associated Artists, the Tiffany Glass Company, Tiffany Studios, Tiffany Furnaces and the L.C. Tiffany Furnaces.
By Tiffany's death on February 18, 1933, the popularity of his elaborate lamps declined with the rise of Art Moderne and Expressionism. For two decades the designs of Louis Comfort Tiffany were forgotten. It was not until the first Tiffany retrospective show in 1958 that his objects were rediscovered by museums and collectors. Awareness of Tiffany's craftsmanship escalated with an Art Nouveau show in 1960 at the Museum of Modern Art. Today the designs of Louis Comfort Tiffany are honored and treasured around the world, confirming Tiffany's legacy as a visionary of Art Nouveau design and most anything with the magical Tiffany name fetches enormous sums of money.

Victorian Paraffin Brass Lamp

JAMES YOUNG STARTED A BUSINESS IN ENGLAND IN 1850's HAVING BEEN GRANTED PATENTS IN ENGLAND, CANADA AND USA, FOR A PROCESS TO PRODUCE PARAFFIN(KEROSENE). LATER HE STARTED MANUFACTURING LAMPS AS AN EXTENSION TO HIS PARAFFIN BUSINESS AND DEVELOPED THE CENTRAL DRAUGHT COURT LAMPS. HE DIED IN 1883 AND THE COMPANY NAMED AFTER HIM FINALLY SHUT THE DOORS IN THE 1920's.
James Young, in 1847, discovered a refining process, which produced paraffin and marked the era of oil lamps as a means of lighting both inside and outside the home.
Its popularity coincided with the reign of Queen Victoria. The introduction of the flat wick using paraffin, with its cog wheel adjustment, and a design which produced good aeration of the flame, was the basis for the expansion of the lamp industry.
An advancement was made in 1865 when Joseph Hinker placed two flat wicks side by side and invented the Duplex burner, which made the lamps both more reliable and more efficient. The effect of the two lighted wicks close to each other increased the brightness of the flame.
The burner was covered by an oval bulge chimney, which had to be fitted with the wicks parallel to the length of the bulge.
These improvements would certainly make the lamps more reliable on draughty nights in the home and in the workshops on dark winter afternoons.
With the coming of the central draught burner, that is a lamp with a tubular wick and a hollow draught tube in the center, a more efficient flame still was produced. The central draught lamps had spreaders or air diffusers of many different types fitted into the central tube. Without the spreader these lamps would not function properly and would smoke if the spreader was damaged.
The glass chimney played an essential part in producing a flame. The main source of lamp chimneys was Saxony - many of them marked, ' Best Saxony Crystal.' Glassware also came from France and Belgium but during the First World War chimneys of an inferior quality were made in Britain.
The most critical factor of an oil lamp was the draught supply, which was calculated very accurately. The chimney, by the size and location of the bulge, and the overall height, was the most crucial factor.
The globe was the additional glass for the diffusion of light, but the chimney was the most important factor in the functioning of the lamp. Many ornamental chimneys were made which were used without globes, on the cheapest type of table lamp.
The maintenance of the fire and the lighting of the lamps in the Victorian parlour were a ceremony in themselves.
The lamp was lit. It was a round based lamp which stood on the table and had two wicks, which were trimmed and turned up a little and then lit with a paper spill. Next a glass chimney was fitted over the flames so that they burned bright and clear with no smoke, and finally a round glass globe with a pattern on it was lowered over the chimney. As the globe was lowered a pattern of flowers spread across the ceiling.'
In between the flat wick burners, and the central draught type, were lamps called Kosmos, which took a flat wick which came out circular in the burner. The draught was still taken from the sides of the burner as in the flat type. The burner had no spreader like the central-draught type. These Kosmos lamps were confined in use to small hand lamps and reading lamps.
Even the simplest of households in Victorian times had several lamps for different purposes, as almost every room had to have its own lamp. The parlor or front room would have a Duplex lamp with a globe, or perhaps a central-draught lamp.
The dining room would have a Duplex lamp in a cheaper version, while in the kitchen the table lamp would have a one inch burner with no globe or perhaps a small hanging lamp. For bedrooms small hand lamps were normal. Night lights were provided for the children and a small wall lamp would be in the toilet.
Pressure lamps and lanterns were made by firms experienced in the making of pressure stoves, for they used the same principle as a Primus stove. The British Veritas, Tilley and Aladdin accounted for a large part of the market.
Following the crude inverted flame lamps with naphtha as fuel came the inverted pressure lamps. These were widely used for market stalls and traveling fairs.
All the oil lamps had to be cleaned frequently, wicks trimmed, founts filled with oil and glasses and globes washed and polished. Many of the lamps were made of brass, the polishing of which added to the time spent on maintenance. Special tools were available for maintainance.,

Nemiroff Lex Vodka

This brand is used in the "Bad Romance" video of Lady Gaga.

Nemiroff Vodka Particulars==
Nose:Very subtle with hints of fresh wheat bread, a whiff of charcoal, and aniseed emerging mid-way. Palate: Initially light with sweet creaminess,before luscious aniseed opens up,balanced mid-way by savory spice,and continually expanding on the palate to become mouth-filling. Finish: Spicy aniseed with luscious sweetness. During the rule of Russian Empress Katherine II, the price of vodka was twice as high than the price of the best French cognacs. Among Vodkas' first connoisseurs were the likes of Johann Goethe, Immanuel Kant, Karl Linnet, and King Gustav II. Historians called vodka the 'locomotive of progress' and philosophers called it the great creator. In fact Vodka has played a vital role in the production of the first powerful foundries and railways. Appreciating the unique taste of vodka, Voltaire, known to be well versed in French wines, labeled Vodka one of the 'greatest discoveries of mankind' in his correspondence with the Russian Empress. This is just a short history of vodka, which has been proven a libation for the great, successful, courageous, and free. Embarking on a new and unique recipe for an elite strain of vodka only a few years ago, the experts at Nemiroff Ukrainian Vodka Company strove to achieve a final product which could renew that 'golden era' of vodka history. A product, whose power and unique taste and qualities will turn around traditional ideas about the consumption of vodka, as well as expand its consumer appeal to a wider market base. In November 2003, Nemiroff unveiled its standard bearer for the High Premium class' new Nemiroff Lex Vodka. In Latin 'Lex' (the Law), and the improved smoothness of this vodka has been achieved by the additional use of flavored alcohol from oat flakes and lime blossoms to bring out its light and delicate flavour. Finally, all of the ingredients are combined in strict adherence to customary and regulated proportions so as not to change the classic flavor of the vodka, instead only enhancing its noble and smooth taste. Several revolutionary techniques have been applied to the technology of Nemiroff Lex production: the alcohol is selected from specific sources allowing for better purification parameters, which considerably exceeds the established norms of compliance for the luxury class spirit; following control and testing the alcohol used in the production of Nemiroff Lex, is aged for 6 months in order to accumulate the noble mixtures and harmonize its unique flavor; Improvement in classic technology of vodka purification (Nemiroff's know-how) allows increasing time and efficiency of purification by several times and excluding traditional growth of undesirable impurities therein. Waves of flavour from this new vodka are subtle and changeable and its taste peculiarities are multiple and mature, thus all together enabling those who try it to slowly and without haste feel the true and elegant core of this really noble libation with centuries-old history. The right way to drink is, sipping it slowly, savoring the unique organo-leptic qualities neat and not by adding additional ingredients or swift drinking. Nemiroff Lex will be highly appreciated by those who are able to receive satisfaction from every moment of life and see more in the little things in life. During the first month of production Nemiroff produced more than 50,000 bottles of Nemiroff Lex, focusing, first of all, on the requirements of the local market, as well as for supplies to the Russian Federation, Baltic states, US, Germany, Greece, Israel, Turkey and other countries. By April 2004 it had achieved monthly production volumes of 150 000 bottles. This is how the demand of these markets is estimated by the specialists based on test sales of the product. The first step towards promotion of the new product was its placement in a network of elite and exclusive restaurants as well as on shelves of supermarkets.

Graveside Prayer

"Do not stand at my grave and weep..
I am not there. I do not sleep.
I am a thousand winds that blow,
I am the diamond glints on snow.
I am the sunlight on ripened grain,
I am the gentle autumn rain.
When you awake in the morning's hush
I am the swift uplifting rush
Of quiet birds in circled flight.
I am the soft star-shine at night.
Do not stand at my grave and cry..
I am not there. I did not die."

Mary Frye

1924 Hatted Man Unpacks