Earlier this week I was diagnosed with bronchitis & given 2 kinds of pills for it. The pills are making me sleepy & not agreeing with my tummy, but I've been coughing a lot less today, so I hope I've turned the corner. To make things worse, the repairs to the bathroom from the leaks upstairs were finally completed yesterday, but it included repainting the bathroom. So I've been dealing with paint fumes, just what I need for the moment.
     I've been doing a lot on my artwork & last weekend finished the second pen & ink that I'm sending to the Cold-Blooded Creations Exhibit in Florida next month. Haven't taken photos of them yet, but will post them when I do.

  The book review site, Vulpes Libris, was on summer break for 2 weeks, but has now returned with renewed energy.I start off the week with a review of a biography of Elisabeth Vigee Le Brun, one of France's most famous and prolific artists.She mostly painted portraits of the European nobility and was forced to flee her home during the French Revolution.
    I also briefly explore the status of women artists in history. Here is a direct link to my review, if you're interested http://bit.ly/a9TZoF

   Watched the movie "Public Enemies" the other night. It's about the famous gangsters in the 1930's, with Johnny Depp as John Dillinger, which is why I watched it. I was  worried it would be too violent, but it was much less than expected & with  plenty of warning so I could look away. Most of the film concentrated on Dillinger's relationship with his girlfriend, Billie, and his collegues & rivalries. The director was Michael Mann, who did "Miami Vice" back in the eighties, so of course, the look of the film was great, lots of colors & pretty clothes. In fact, some of the clothes looked a bit too new, especially on the G-men. Apparently there was all sorts of historical inaccuracies & continuance problems in the film, there are hundreds listed on IMDb. I noticed a few mistakes, but car, gun & electronics experts saw many, many more. Despite all of that, the movie had a strong atmosphere and really made the viewer feel they were back in the time when a $3 dress was a luxury.
    Dillinger kept saying he needed "one more big job" & then he & his girlfriend would go away to a tropical locale, but he said that after every bank robbery.Obviously, there was no job big enough to satisfy him or any of the other gangsters, so it was inevitable they all came to bad ends, that was they only thing that would've stopped them. They pretended it was about the money, but it was more about the excitement of the job & the adrenaline of escaping the police, especially considering that any single robbery netted them more money than 90% of Americans at the time(it was the Great Depression, after all).
   I do find myself still thinking of the movie 2 days after watching it & haunted by the atmosphere of the time. That feeling is probably made stronger by the fact that I spent a couple hours before the movie looking at old b&w photos of one of the Cleveland suburbs where I grew up(Vintage Lakewood), so I was in an "antique" frame of mind.
    So I can recommend this movie, which was part part character study, part action film. Lots of good music & old-timey touches, even if they aren't completely accurate. And have I mentioned how good Johnny Depp looks in  the clothes?
   

  I entered 3 of my paintings into one of EBSQ's online art exhibits, the theme is "Horizons". Mine were the first ones in the show, but thankfully, others have joined in. Here's a direct link to the show, if you'd like to see it=   http://bit.ly/aq6IfE

 If you'd like to see the fireworks without leaving home, simply go to www.cyberfireworks.com  & create your own. You have a choice of venue (bandstand, carnival, ball park, etc.) & you click in the sky where you'd like the fireworks to appear. There's even sound effects. All the fun without the crowds or traffic jams.