Hello & Goodbye ~


I have created a new photography site, Persistence of Vision, which begins on January 1st. It is a series of abstract and semi-abstract compositions. I hope to add a new image every day. We'll see about that.....


So the xola blog will be retired for now. It's been over four years since I started the project and I would like to try a different look with a more consistent theme.


I really have appreciated all of you who have been followers of xola. Thank you all for your interest and encouragement .  I especially applaud ji, Mary, Velcro, Eleanor, Lily Chipmunk and Anonymous for taking the time to make insightful, stimulating and witty comments.  


Or as Jani would say !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


xola

a light breeze

~~~

swirling the dark

~~~

transfiguring the dark

~~~

ahead of the dark

~~~

“Every light is a shade, compared to the higher lights, till you come to the sun; and every shade is a light, compared to the deeper shades, 
till you come to the night.”

~ John Ruskin, 1879






~~

the end of the dark

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dancing the dark

driving the dark

~~~

at the end of blue

beyond the blue neon

Although neon gas was originally used in neon signs, it is now only used to produce reds and oranges. Argon, or an argon-neon mixture, is used in most signs. To improve the intensity of the light, a small amount of mercury is added to the argon to produce an intense blue light.


Recently, neon has made a comeback in both commercial signage and as an artistic medium. In Los Angeles, the LUMENS project of the Museum of Neon Art has restored over 150 signs ensuring that the city has the greatest concentration of original neon in the world.

thirty-three/blue

                                                                                                                                

blue doors ahead

In the Amish community of Wilmington, Pennsylvania, almost every house-door is painted a light sky-blue. Most residents ascribe this practice to tradition. However, according to legend, an Amish father paints his door or gate blue as an indication that he has daughters of a marriageable age. But since Amish communities are close-knit, and everyone knows everyone else (or is related to everyone else) there is no apparent need for such advertisement.                                                                                              

Research indicates the legend may have its origins in Pennsylvania as long as two centuries ago, when an Amish bishop defied custom by painting his gate blue. As the bishop happened to have several marriage-eligible daughters, the rumor took hold that he was trying to draw suitors to his home, and the myth took on a life of its own.

thirty-two/blue

how blue can you get

Sea glass (also known as beach glass, mermaid's tears and lucky tears) is glass found on beaches along oceans or large lakes that has been tumbled and polished by the water and sand, creating small pieces of smooth, frosted glass. Cobalt and cornflower blue glass are from early medicine and poison bottles as well as from Milk of Magnesia bottles, Bromo-Seltzer and Vicks VapoRub containers.

Sea glass is one of the very few cases of a valuable item being created from the actions of the environment on man-made litter. However, authentic sea glass has become much less common as littering has decreased and so it has become increasingly expensive. For every 200 to 1,000 pieces of sea glass found, only one will be a blue.  Two very small, somewhat matched pieces can sell for $30.00.

       thirty-one/blue
ps  Thanks to Mary for this image.  It inspired me to read more about sea glass.

dust pan blues

Blues songs frequently take the form of a loose narrative. The singer voices his or her personal woes in a world of harsh reality: a lost love, the cruelty of police officers, oppression at the hands of white folk, and generally living through hard times. Depression-era blues reflect the issues facing the population: Dallas County Jail Blues, TB Blues, Ragged Hungry Blues, Dope Head Blues, Bad Luck Blues. In 1929 almost thirteen million people were unemployed. By 1940 1.5 million women had been abandoned by their husbands

                                                                                                

Working in a hotel cleaning up the floors

I nearly got a stiff neck and my knees are gettin' sore

I got them dust pan blues

I'm through with cleanin' floors

I'm gonna pack my grip, take a long long trip

I never comin' back no more.

Now honey if you love me, you'll come and go along

Cause you know I'd always feed you and I'd never treat you wrong. 

I got them dust pan blues

I'm through with cleanin' floors

I'm gonna pack my grip, take a long long trip

I never comin' back no more.                                                                               

thirty/blue

tangled up in blue

Tangled Up in Blue is one of the clearest examples of Dylan's attempts to write "multi-dimensional" songs which defied a fixed notion of time and space. Dylan was influenced by his recent study of the Cubists who sought to incorporate multiple perspectives within a single plane of view. In a 1978 interview, Dylan explained this style of songwriting: "What's different about it is that there's a code in the lyrics, and there's also no sense of time. There's no respect for it. You've got yesterday, today and tomorrow all in the same room, and there's very little you can't imagine not happening."  Dylan said he wrote the song after spending a weekend immersed in Joni Mitchell's Blue.

twenty-nine/blue

blue monday

Blue Monday is a name given to a date stated to be the most depressing day of the year. The date was calculated by using many factors, including: weather conditions, debt level, time since Christmas, time since failing our new year’s resolutions, low motivational levels and feeling of a need to take action. The above formula for determining blue Monday shows: weather = W, debt = d, time since Christmas = T, time since failing new year’s resolutions = Q,  low motivational levels = M and the feeling of a need to take action = Na. 'D' is not defined.   

This date typically falls on the Monday of the last full week of January. Blue Mondays in the past were January 24, 2005, January 23, 2006, January 22, 2007, January 21, 2008, and January 19, 2009. And the 2010 Blue Monday will occur...?

twenty-eight/blue

into the blue

twenty-seven/blue

deep blue desert sky

"And after a time we begin to make mental notes on the changes of light, air, clouds, and blue sky. At first we are perhaps bothered about the intensity of the sky, for we have always heard of the "deep blue" that overhangs the desert; and we expect to see it at any and all times. But we discover that it shows itself in its greatest depth only in the morning before sunrise. Then it is a dark blue, bordering upon purple; and for some time after the sun comes up it holds a deep blue tinge. At noon it has passed through a whole gamut of tones and is pale blue, yellowish, lilac-toned, or rosy ; in the late afternoon it has changed again to pink or gold or orange ; and after twilight and under the moon, warm purples stretch across the whole reach of the firmament from horizon to horizon." - from The Desert by John C. Van Dyke, 1903 

twenty-six/blue 

cross road blues

Cross Road Blues is one of Delta Blues singer, Robert Johnson's, most famous songs. The lyrics have the narrator attempting to hitch a ride from an intersection as darkness falls. But, it has come to represent the tale of a blues man going to a metaphorical crossroads to meet the devil to sell his soul in exchange for becoming a famous blues player. While this image, may be fascinating and evocative, the song itself plainly describes the very real, harrowing situation feared by Johnson and other African Americans in the Deep South in the early 20th century who were discovered out alone after dark.

twenty-five/blue

looking out the window with a blue hat on

In computing slang, hackers and crackers are identified according to their intentions.

   White hat hacker - working for beneficial purposes

   Black hat hacker - working for malevolent purposes

   Grey hat hacker - working with ambiguous ethics

   Blue hat hacker - working as an outside computer
security consulting firm to bug test a system
prior to its launch


twenty-four/blue