Wolf Moon

On the way to work this morning Mr. Moon was taking up the entire sky. Last night's full moon was a perigree moon, near-side of its ellipse orbit, making it godzilla-huge and as bright as can be.

From Spaceweather.com: "Last night's full Moon was the biggest (+14%) and brightest (+30%) full Moon of 2010." Bunches of moon photos there. The one from Minnesota reminds me the most of my stomping ground (Click to BIG it).



Full moon on a Friday and it's called Wolf.

Full Moon names date back to Native Americans, of what is now the northern and eastern United States. The tribes kept track of the seasons by giving distinctive names to each recurring full Moon. Their names were applied to the entire month in which each occurred.

Amid the cold and deep snows of midwinter, the wolf packs howled hungrily outside Indian villages. Thus, the name for January's full Moon.

(Source: Farmer's Almanac)

Plainfield

Yesterday, we got some snow. In the small Colorado Springs suburb where I work it was particularly lovely. What moisture was capable of melting turned things a deep saturated rotten black. Otherwise all of the plant life was a beautiful dusty dead grey. White skies, white world. So quiet.

During my break I tromp up to the (rather anemic) public library. I'm reading For The Thrill Of It: Leopold, Loeb and the Murder That Shocked Chicago by Simon Baatz. Incredibly well-written account that runs like a thriller, style-wise very much reminds me of Devil in the White City by Erik Larson. I love going to the placid antiseptic reading nook, turning my ears off (amazing how many screaming children are in public libraries these days. If it were my library I'd post signs about shutting up lest you lose your tongue. Anyway.) and escaping into 1920s Chicago.

But yesterday I kept looking out the window watching the slow fat snowflakes blanket the world. It was so soothing. And it reminded me of Plainfield, Wisconsin, the home of Ed Gein. Such an oddly appropriate and enigmatic name, Plainfield. I like it.





They say if you want the weather to change in Colorado all you have to do is wait fifteen minutes. Which means it'll all probably melt today. Until then I'll enjoy the peace of it and the happy suspicion that the only sound in the entire world is that of my boots crunching through the snow.

Roadside Attractions

This was filed away in "Miscellany Weird". The sound is off or maybe that's just my computer. I also don't know how to embed it if that's even an option. So follow the link to view. Really brought a smile to my face...

http://www.arkhamfilms.com/roadsideattractions.html

Shain Erin

Jack has the midnight (or rather, 3:29 am) crazies. Why do cats do this? Earlier, he was staring so intently at the ceiling I could've sworn something was really there... So creepy.

Anyway. Shain Erin makes morbid dolls. Visit his site HERE to see them in all of their delightful glory.

Chronesthesia

(At the bottom of this post, you will find a rabbit hole.)

Today's Word of the Day is -- Chronesthesia. Mainly because I like the sound of it but also because it has this cool Donnie Darko definition: "A hypothetical brain/mind ability or capacity, acquired by humans through evolution, that allows them to be constantly aware of the past and the future." (Source)



... Ze Cellar Door

Do You Want... A Prairie Dog?

Boyd Rice -- Not an actual bad guy, but sounds like one. "I don't care. I don't think I ever made a wrong move. The bad stuff is just good. America loves its villains"

Prairie dog -- Not an actual dog, but sounds like one.



Rice and Pauley Perrette (Abby) from NCIS

Cabinet of Art and Medicine

This is a curious site with lots of corners to poke around in. This post will only focus on the section called "John Wood, Poems" but there's lots more to see. Visit the page HERE.

Endurance and Suffering: Narratives of Disease in the 19th Century, Poems by John Wood, with photographs by O.G. Mason and case studies by George Henry Fox. A collection of clinical photographs, case studies and poems. Some poignant, some funny, some very disturbing. I'm only including short excerpts (except for the last because it's short and creepy as hell). Go to the website to see all of the photographs and read the poems in their entirety.

From the Preface:

Time's passage distances us from the genesis of many photographs and alters our perceptions of them. This can be seen no more dramatically than here. Today these are no longer merely clinical documents but documents of the spirit, of endurance, and of suffering. They are moving in a way they would not have originally been when such diseases and conditions were rampant. But all of these poems are not about nobility of spirit. Some of them are filled with hatred and cruelty because thought some people may suffer with stoic heroism, not all of them do. Suffering just as often brings out the worst in us as it does the best.

E. H. C., aet. 58: CORNUA CUTANEA



"... for a wife that maketh her husband ashamed
is as a rottenness in his bones.

And he read his wife the horned scriptures
and the scriptures of his authority
and the scriptures of pollution,
and grunting and squealing as his horns stirred
and his marrow thickened to sweetness,
and the calluses of his hands
hardened, throbbed, and began to split,
he told her she would banquet
on the violence of his brightness.
And he was upon her,
and she was like corn."

-----

Dermatitis Calorica: MR.SINISTER DREAMS OF NEW HANDS

(A young man had his fingers frost-bitten, and soon after applied to an apothecary who gave him tincture of Arnica to apply. Within fifteen minutes his fingers began to swell and large bullæ formed.)



"With hands like these I'd teach them fear.
I'd let them linger here and there.
There's nothing I would let them spare.
There's nothing I'd not let them tear."

-----

Syphiloderma Tuberculosum: LADY IN A HAT



"Well, then, you can just kiss my arse;
I'm not taking the hat off. A lady without a hat
is no lady. I'm not one of your old whores
here to have her ailing privates looked at."

-----

M. K., age 48, Ireland: FIBROMA



"Kahn said, Forget truth. And Knightly said,
Reality is as shifting as smoke in a dream. King said,
Whatever the heart reads is real. Michael Keane
looked out with his single eye and said,
It could have been a different life."

-----

Syphilis Hereditaria: MR. SINISTER SMILES



"Mr. Sinister smiles—
At you—Lady, and drools—

And drips a bit from where
You'd guess, but would most fear.

He has made many plans:
Little trips for his hands.

And they all involve you.
Oh there's nothing to do—

But wait for him. He's there
You know, and he's like air:

He's everywhere you'd go.
He's got something to show

Just you. You won't like it."

Carriers (2009)

Huge fan of the post-apocalyptic genre. In highschool, I used to daydream constantly about it. Watched Alien 3 and Dawn of the Dead over and over and over, wanting to don the fatigues, shave my head and pack some firepower. I suppose some people grow out of this. I didn't.

Over at Arbogast, there is a (typically) great review of a movie called "Carriers"...



From the review:

I spend an inordinate amount of time thinking about the end of the world. I don't mean a 2012/DEEP IMPACT/ARMAGEDDON style Big Woosh but more specifically the fall of civilization, the descent to barbarism, the necessary evil of banditry, the sovereignty of our darker angels and the requisite recalibration of the line between acting as a hero for your loved ones and being some stranger's worst nightmare. If I were alone in the world, I'd probably sit out the end of days parked in front of my widescreen, watching old movies as long as the grid holds or reading or catching up on some sleep. Having children changes you. The things you might do to protect them. Or feed them. Sometimes my daughter climbs out of her bath and says "Daddy, I'm cold" and I flash on a worst case scenario exploiting this momentary discomfort and dwell on the waking nightmare of not being able to do a goddamn thing about it. All this to say, I think about the end of the world a lot.

Read the entire entry HERE and do yourself a favor and check out the entire blog. I spent an unknown amount of time reading every single word in one-sitting because this guy is so awesome.

AA-12

Filed under "Notes for the zombie apocalypse", this is either a shotgun or a grenade launcher or both. Either way, I think it belongs in the survival kit. Big badda boom!

Barry Lyndon

Most of what I've learned about music comes from movies. Here is Schubert's piano trio in e flat.



And this is Handel. From the wiki article for "sarabande" -- "The fourth movement Sarabande of George Frideric Handel's Keyboard suite in D minor (HWV 437) for solo harpsichord achieved modern popularity when an orchestrated version was used by Stanley Kubrick for his 1975 film Barry Lyndon.[4] Later, Brian De Palma featured the same orchestration as the overture for his 2007 film Redacted. Also, in another direct reference to Barry Lyndon, Michael Winterbottom included this sarabande in A Cock and Bull Story in a new arrangement by Michael Nyman."

Spellbound

by Nox Arcana

"The witching hour's drawing near,
And my tragic fate is clear—
I'll take your secret to my grave,
For evermore, I'll be your slave—
Because I'm spellbound— "

Album: Carnival of Lost Souls

Historical Images of Surgery

Found THIS PAGE while looking up Kamata Keishu.

Images of surgical treatments have been portrayed with many voices and techniques. This pictorial history in reverse chronologic order from the present to the past highlight the influences of culture, knowledge and technology on medical progress.

Features the painting I posted previously by Thomas Eakins called "The Agnew Clinic". I'm already familiar with most of these artists (except the very old or very new) but've never seen them collected in one place. Serves as a really nice time-line! Great resource! Example...

Ambroise Paré (1509–1590) - may be thought of as the father of modern prosthetics. A French military surgeon, Paré developed treatments of wounds and amputations which greatly reduced the death rate on the battlefield. He abandoned the use of cauterization and reintroduced ligatures to tie off blood vessels. Paré advocated natures healing power and the inscription, "Je le pansay, Dieu le quarit" (I dressed him; God healed him) appears on his grave. Paré treated many amputees during his career and is credited with the first medical description in 1551 of the phantom limb syndrome. The illustration of a mechanical hand appears in his 1564 book, Instrumenta chyrurgiae et icones anathomicae. Paré had no way of understanding the advancements in materials, surgery and antibiotics needed to make the prosthetic hand a reality.

Jacques-Fabien Gautier d’Agoty

(1716-1785) French painter/engraver of anatomy. Famous for his pictures depicting anatomical dissection in a way that was both beautiful and grotesque (skinned peeled back on a smiling, almost coquettish model).

Interesting characterization (Source):

It was rare for anyone to best this man, especially in his own eyes: He was fearless and tireless in the defense of his work and his ideas, even when ridiculed by established and well-respected experts. As Watin's remark suggests, Gautier's varied exploits brought him a large circle of artisan and scientific acquaintances and attracted support as well as derision within those communities. Gautier's achievements must be balanced against his grandiloquent writing, his demands that his scientific and practical endeavors be treated with equal seriousness, and by his artistic abilities, which were less well-developed than his enthusiasm for them. His persistence made his successes, notably at the exploitation of color-printing techniques and at publishing, atypical of eighteenth-century inventors even if his motivations—a combined desire for self-promotion and financial security—were more conventional.

Featured on Morbid Anatomy with the following image links:

- Historical Anatomies on the Web

- Gautier d'Agoty's Anatomical Atlas

- Digital Clendening: Rare Text Images: Human Body: Gautier, 1746

Dissection

A recent acquisition, and now firmly in the category of "most prized possession", is a book called Dissection: Photographs of a Rite of Passage in American Medicine, 1880-1930. I'd been waiting to post about this until I'd had an opportunity to scan some of the examples (I would normally not try to squish a photo book into a scanner but, with help, will be able to do it without damaging the spine/pages). I'm too eager though. The pictures are of medical students posing with their cadavers in anatomy classes.

During this period of time it was incredibly difficult to get bodies for dissection. They were often acquired through illicit means (body-snatching) so students were sworn to secrecy about what went on in the anatomy lab and threatened with expulsion if they divulged the source and/or identity of their subjects. Professors, administration and the janitors tasked with maintenance also closely guarded this secret. All witnesses to dissection were bound in silence. Therefore, any evidence of this activity (photographic/written) was exceedingly rare. This is why this book is so monumentally cool -- we finally get to see a glimpse into one of the most amazing realms of medical history.

The photographs are stunning, black and white, large format. Divided into seven categories: Teamwork, Epigraphs, Circulation, Skeleton, Dark Humor, Class Portraits, The White Coat. Each section details a different aspect of the rite of passage. Called such because the act of cutting up a dead body changes a person (see "Body of Work" by Montross), separates them from the rest of society and prepares them for the challenges ahead. Doctors are a breed apart. To many, they are the Devil and Savior wrapped in one. Their mission is to save people. By cutting them open.

I never tire of this subject, it is an endless source of fascination and I still intend on making an opportunity to either watch or participate in body handling one day. Until then I continue to read and collect all material I can. Stay tuned for the upcoming examples from this book.

My Girl, Wednesday

Schweine

By Glukoza. Damn it all to hell, I've got this stuck in my head now...

Babe, I'm On Fire

Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds

Meet Phineas Gage

How would you like to be considered a milestone in the history of medicine? Well, Phineas Gage was just that. After an accident in 1848 sent an iron rod through his face (destroying one or more frontal lobes) much was learned about the connection between the brain and behavior, parts and personality.

This morning I saw this photograph:



Brought me to THIS website, where our host/hostess explain,

"... is a daguerreotype that has been in our collection of over 30 years. We believe that this is the first identified photograph of the famous patient, Phineas P. Gage, holding his well-known tamping iron. On this site you can read about its transformation from an unidentified daguerreotype in our collection to what is certainly a photograph of Gage."

Very good article on the aftermath of Gage's injury as well as the promised backstory of the picture.

La Pestilencia

Paul Komoda is the artist responsible for this gorgeous sculpture of Joseph Merrick:





Frankly, that is the only reference I need. I'm utterly convinced of his ability. Now, he is doing a series called "Human Pathology". The first piece illustrates the effects of tertiary syphilis and is based on an infamous photograph of the disease:





See more gorgeous (big) details HERE. Quoted from THIS article:

"These busts were originally commissioned from Paul by the U. S. Department of Education – one for every classroom, placed squarely atop each health teacher’s desk, to scare students into finally taking the subject matter seriously. Unfortunately, the piece came out more garish than they expected, and the Department refused the final product."

Heh. Thanks to rejection, now on sale for $160 each (more details on this in the article). Such a brilliant depiction of a devastating disease and evocative (to me) of the gaslamp era, my first thought was "I want one!" But perhaps I should wait to see what's in store for the rest of the series. Definitely got my eye on this guy.

Brain Bowls

Originally saw this on Street Anatomy where Vanessa says, "a whole new way to eat your spaghetti". Ha!

At Etsy.

My Rob Zombie Thing

So I was asked about a comment I made recently about a photo of a guy wielding a knife. Replying to the picture, I said "Nice!!!"... in a very naughty way. Contrary to the (exasperating) implication of the inquiry, I was not trying to be disrespectful. I just can't help myself. I've had a Thing for Al Jourgensen/Rob Zombie/werewolfy boogeymen for as long as I can remember (or at least since my hormonal-overdrive teenage days) and this fella fit right into that category. I'm not always in the mood for Zombie's music but I really dig the horror stuff and his mug makes my licorice-black-heart beat faster every time. Yuuuuuummmmmmmmmmmmm.

Darth Vader: The Man Behind the Mask

Speaking of the ultimate icon of evil... Did you know that Vader is Dutch for "father"? My dad used examples from Star Wars to explain Joseph Campbell to me once. And, in highschool, I used to wear a pot metal Vader charm on a string around my neck to poetically punkishly puckishly symbolize mask-wearing (one of the many indoctrinated skills we're taught in public schools).

Here is a cool episode from NPR on the subject:

Darth Vader: The Man Behind the Mask

"Luke, help me take this mask off."

"But you'll die."

"Nothing can stop that now. Just for once, let me look on you with my own eyes."

----

And for the best version ever of his theme song, I recommend Epica's "Imperial March"

Bob Bassett

Described as the Ukrainian steampunk leather virtuoso, Bob Bassett makes masks. I really dig this style. And, yes, I get the fetishistic (Furry?) undertones but to me these are more darkly whimsical (City of Lost Children-ish). So thanks to well-meaning, unintentionally condescending acquaintance for pointing out the probable use of these masterpiece-masks but, like Darth Vader before he died, I prefer to see things with my own eyes.

Go to Bassett's World of "You Can't Even Imagine" Things to check out all of the awesome awesomeness.

Skulls Unlimited

Dear crucified jesus, I do love me some skulls. Skulls Unlimited is one of the best resources in existence. Visiting their website is like being in a toy store. I want one (or ten) of everything.

Check them out on "Dirty Jobs"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4R7eqMug-wo

Shakin' The Blues Away

1928 all-girl, all-banjo plays "Shakin' the Blues Away". Found via Boing Boing. Oh, this just makes me smile.

(Guess what kids?! I have fast internet again. That makes me smile too.)

Wellcome Trust YouTube Channel

Go HERE to check out the channel page thingamajig! Archival medical films and films about the Wellcome collection. Titles/subjects include: "Family Doctor", Blood Transfusion, Radical Amputation of the Left Breast, Thoracoplasty, nephrectomy, muscles, body framework, foot deformities, diptheria, Tsetse fly, osteoplastic craniotomy, craniectomy, bacteria, war neuroses, and much more.

Here is one called "Occipital Puncture" (1929). Description: "A German film showing the procedure for an occipital, or cisternal puncture, at the base of the skull. A demonstration is performed on a skeleton, showing where to insert the needle at the top of the spine, and base of the skull. The correct position is also shown by using an illustration of a cross-section of a brain. The operation is performed on a female patient. 2 parts. "

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MRSW09NLfH4

Grand Guignol

I was watching Sweeney Todd the other day. Not a huge fan of the music but I love the visuals so I watch it on mute. I was reminded of the thing I have for straight razors (mesmerizingly beautiful tools) and how much I wish I had poliosis (localized white streak of hair) a la Bride of Frankenstein. Apparently, people who have it can get white eyelashes. So freakishly beautiful.



Anyway. This viewing pleasure led me to look up Grand Guignol. The very first result in a Google search is GrandGuignol.Com, a lavish, informative website hosted by San Franciscan theater troupe, Thrillpeddlers. Lots of great articles on the history, book lists, a poster gallery and much more. Nice resource!

Harry Dubin and Old New York

I love historical photography collections, relish flipping through them and getting a glimpse into another era. It's very H.G. Wells, very magical to me. At the Kisseloff Collection, there is a series on a fella named Harry Dubin. This is such a cool story. Please follow THE LINK to read it in its entirety and see the wonderful photos.

Inside were some 30 color photographs taken in and around the city in the 1940s. I had never seen such vibrant photos of the city in those years. In fact, I had never seen any color photos of the city in those years, yet here they were. It was such an interesting collection. Each of the pictures depicted a man in uniform intently doing his job, whether it was a street sweeper, gas station attendant or hansom cab driver. When I looked at them twice, I realized something, all of them were Harry!

Needless to say, while our subsequent interview was wonderful, the album left me speechless in delight. These were the most evocative photographs of old New York I had ever seen. Harry explained that all of them were taken by his son Ronald, who was then a teenager, after Harry managed to convince each worker to change clothes with him in an alley and let Harry do his job for a few minutes so the picture could be taken.

Freezing to Death

One of the books on my "To Read" list is called Surviving the Extremes: What Happens to the Body and Mind at the Limits of Human Endurance by Dr. Kenneth Kamler. Relatedly, to pay homage to the biting intense Colorado cold, here is a classic, detailed article on the process of freezing to death via Outside Magazine:

"The cold hard facts of freezing to death By Peter Stark"

Great creepy description and nice reference. Here are some deliciously weird factoids from the article...

At 85 degrees, those freezing to death, in a strange, anguished paroxysm, often rip off their clothes. This phenomenon, known as paradoxical undressing, is common enough that urban hypothermia victims are sometimes initially diagnosed as victims of sexual assault. Though researchers are uncertain of the cause, the most logical explanation is that shortly before loss of consciousness, the constricted blood vessels near the body's surface suddenly dilate and produce a sensation of extreme heat against the skin.

In fact, many hypothermia victims die each year in the process of being rescued. In "rewarming shock," the constricted capillaries reopen almost all at once, causing a sudden drop in blood pressure. The slightest movement can send a victim's heart muscle into wild spasms of ventricular fibrillation. In 1980, 16 shipwrecked Danish fishermen were hauled to safety after an hour and a half in the frigid North Sea. They then walked across the deck of the rescue ship, stepped below for a hot drink, and dropped dead, all 16 of them.

Moments later, he's sliding a large catheter into an incision in the man's abdominal cavity. Warm fluid begins to flow from a suspended bag, washing through his abdomen, and draining out through another catheter placed in another incision. Prosaically, this lavage operates much like a car radiator in reverse: The solution warms the internal organs, and the warm blood in the organs is then pumped by the heart throughout the body.