July 14, 2010

In the Silk Upholstered Chair Café

P1000702

P1000701

... you can talk to some rich folk that you know and ignore the ragged company at the next table.

***

I prefer lilies in their decline. Dead flowers. They look like inky brushstrokes to me. See the enlargements: here and here.

32 comments:

Chip Ahoy said...

Speaking of dead things, have you see the show, Chasing Mummies? It features Dr. Zahi Hawas who's a complete freak. OMG, all smiles honey and sweetness one moment and mad General Patton then next, then flips back to sweetness again. His people skills are nil.

traditionalguy said...

All flesh is like grass and all its glory like the flower of the field. But 30 million visits to a flower's blog lasts a long time.

sunsong said...

Those are so beautiful!

Flowers are love's truest language. ~ Park Benjamin

Palladian said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Palladian said...

Ah... "Man, that is born of a woman, hath but a short time to live, and is full of misery. He cometh up, and is cut down, like a flower...


Coincidentally, it's Skull Week at my sketchbook website.

Invite one of these lovely death's heads into your home and help me pay the rent!

LonewackoDotCom said...

If you oppose the far-left, the tea partiers are just getting in your way.

Special note to the very special tea partiers: your brain is just another muscle like your sign-waving hand: you have to exercise it. Really try and give it 110% and strain your brain just as hard as you can to understand my point before replying. Don't be afraid to take a juice break if you have to.

Rose said...

Love daylilies! had a recipe for Daylily soup.

William said...

Steinbrenner, towards the end, was very aware of his mortality and was saddened and terrified by its proximity. That's the down side to being a billionaire. Death doesn't come as a release to endless sorrows but as the cessation of endless pleasures.

Alex said...

I don't know about Althouse. Once Charles Johnson started posting too many photos as open threads, that's when he went loony left. Althouse is about to lurch to the loony left!

As my whimsy leads me.. said...

AA--I see what you mean. There is also a sense of violence in he first photo, and collapsing in the second--or maybe a robed woman riding a wild magenta butterfly. Perhaps Chip Ahoy would fee inspired to apply his talents to these.

Toy

blake said...

Townes Van Zandt sings "Dead Flowers" (as heard in The Big Lebowski).

MamaM said...

Newly opened daylilies present a sturdy crispness that appeals to me. Like cotton that's been starched and pressed. Unable to hold a crease for long, but nice to behold.

I was sure I didn't prefer lilies in decline, until I clicked on the enlargements. They open like one of ChipA's pop-ups. All greenness and pods first, then Boom, unexpectedly awesome twists of color and spilled pollen. A visual and mental surprise!

Anonymous said...

No no no! Those are mush puppies overstaying their welcome!

Unknown said...

Those are daylilies? Our next door neighbor has some beside his house and I thought they were some kind of exotic bloom like bougainvillea (which shows you how much horticulture I have).

Chip Ahoy said...

Speaking of dead things, have you see the show, Chasing Mummies? It features Dr. Zahi Hawas who's a complete freak. OMG, all smiles honey and sweetness one moment and mad General Patton then next, then flips back to sweetness again. His people skills are nil.

Very interesting guy, though. I've seen him on History Channel shows for years and he da man on Egyptology. With that going for him, who cares if he's Miss Congeniality?

traditionalguy said...

All flesh is like grass and all its glory like the flower of the field. But 30 million visits to a flower's blog lasts a long time.

Very classy, sir.

KCFleming said...

The fade of flowers is a constant reminder of our own transience, whether sudden or by senescence.

In my mind I am no more than 20 or 25, though my body clearly proclaims otherwise. I vacillate between joy and horror at my progressive decline into death and then anonymity; remembered only by my children and then gone completely.

'I have seen the moment of my greatness flicker,
And I have seen the eternal Footman hold my coat, and snicker,
And in short, I was afraid.
'

KCFleming said...

But all I really need is a good cup of coffee and a morning kiss.

After that, oblivion can go to hell.

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

Maybe is the number 30,000 but I swear I see a kind of natural sexual element, elements, present at the time this picture was taken.

"We will add your biological and technological distinctiveness to our own. Your culture will adapt to service us.

I have not been assimilated.

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

Flowers are real time machines.. they have the unusual power of altering the event horizon.

let me know when you tire of my flowery sci-fi metaphors.

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

It's bad enough they are carrying our debt.. they can't wait to move in.

JAL said...

Daylilies are gorgeous. I moved them all from my old house and my mom's. Some are blooming now and I am thinking "Wow, did I buy that one?"

Horses don't eat the plants. So they are safe near my fence line. Though I did notice some chomped deep maroon buds as one was trying it out for salad. You know ... like that dash of red cabbage in your greens.

The sentence structure above is enough to make a grammatatian or law blog prof weep.

KCFleming said...

My father-in-law died last year. We transplanted some ferns he had planted at his home 40 years ago to our house, 50 miles away.

They have done very well, spreading out and fighting for light. It does my wife good to see her father's work keep going like that.

ricpic said...

That's what happens to half my lilies. They bloom and almost immediately go sour.

JAL said...

Which reminds me (not really).

Beth -- did you see the insty link to Democrats block amendment to ensure press access to oil spill?

Tain't BP.

All transparency & light.

Liars.

(Imagine if during Katrina .... . . .. .)

ricpic said...

I see the kiddie porn chink is back.

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

Remember the story from the other day Jal.. on average people dont understand basic sentences anywayss ;)

its the one from.. "every shoe has a hamster in it".

MadisonMan said...

It really does look like silken upholstery; good call.

But I hate hate hate day Lilies. At every house we've owned, we've yanked them out. They are not welcome. Not sure why. I'm sure someone out there questions my taste in garden plants (I'm a big fan of lupine and phlox). They're probably the people who like lilies.

jungatheart said...

Daylilies are my favorite. Those close-ups are amazing, Althouse.

A.W. said...

A musical interlude:

Take me down little Susie, take me down

I know you think you're the queen of the underground

And you can send me dead flowers every morning

Send me dead flowers by the U.S. Mail

Say it with dead flowers in my wedding

And I won't forget to put roses on your grave

No, I won't forget to put roses on your grave

JAL said...

MM -- too bad. Send them my way next time you yank some out.

What I need (Meade?) is something to plant with them to offset the uglies which occur after they've bloomed (and all there is is some scraggly dreen and those brown stems to cut back).

Bee balm (spider plant)? The deer don't come into our yard much (except for apples) but somethings perennial that will bloom after the lilies ... [note- I am a very lazy gardener].

Ideas?

wv mooponpo
Either a Chinese delicacy or an exotic plant which will meet my gardening needs.

HT said...

Vincas are self-seeding annuals and they grow in the shade. I just found this out.

I'm glad AA has not blogged about Bentley winning the gubernatorial race, oops I meant the Republican runoff here in this state. Byrne was expected to win, he was my favored candidate. Normally, I'd vote Democratic, and I did support Artur Davis back in the primary, but he lost and the Dem candidate is so very beholden to the gambling interests that it is beyond sick.

The very unfortunate thing is that Byrne was much more opposed to gambling than Bentley is. Bentley, the pious doctor (a dermatologist), made a deal with the AEA thus sacrificing his piety. There's nothing clean left. I really don't care about the AEA as much as gambling. Alabama, perenially 49th, might now overtake Mississippi. Gambling makes us all worse. It's a nasty business.

MadisonMan said...

HT, what you need is a Gubernatorial Candidate, as in WI, that pledges to save money by not filling long-vacant State Government jobs. Or one that drives around the state in a car with expired plates.

HT said...

Dr Bentley says he is not going to take his salary until we reach x level of unemployment. I can't remember what it is exactly. Those gimmicks don't matter to me. What matters to me is sound governance. Gambling simply cannot figure into that. And I know I know. This is Alabama. But still, we ain't got gambling now (officially) and we should never have it.