Capital Treasures 4

After our enjoyable visit at the National Gallery it was time for our appointment at The African American History Museum.

National Museum of African-American History & Culture

Definately an amazing museum and wonderful addition to the Smithsonian, this museum is worth the visit. Still being the new kid on The Mall it was packed and tickets hard to come by. We enjoyed it immensely, but we will make a point to come back at a later date when it isn’t so crowded and can be enjoyed as a Museum of its caliber should be. I know they have a lot of people waiting to get in and that tickets are limited in number, but I think they could do better limiting the number of tickets issued to an even smaller number.

Contemplative Court Waterfall Fountain

The Contemplative Court Waterfall Fountain was worth the trip itself alone. Overwhelming. Fearsome had some tears to catch as I began to sob. Cleansing.

Jackie Robinson #42

Fearsome had more tears to catch as I choked up over Jackie’s jersey. One can see the faint reflection of Fearsome’s San Diego Padres hat in the glass just above the shoulder to the right of the Jackie’s face.

Jackie Robinson is truly an inspirational man of honor. Integrating baseball was not an easy task. Jackies strength was in his own personal restraint and self discipline. Fearsome highly recommends the movie about Jackie’s life. The movie is simply “42”. Jackie is one of Fearsome’s heroes.

Fire

Beth Ditto …inspirational vocals …stunning video

Happy Pride Y’all!

Happy Pride!

It’s officially Pride weekend in here in beautiful sunny San Diego California!

Given we live in a state with three major cities, Los Angeles, San Diego and San Francisco, Pride celebrations are spread out in order to allow celebrants the options to be able to celebrate more than once and not have to choose between. There are also celebrations on other weekends in various smaller, yet just as important, locations such as Long Beach and Palm Springs. Having our many California celebrations over numerous weekends also allows tourists from to catch a Pride celebration while traveling through California if they so desire.

My first ever Pride experience was in Seattle back in 1990. The city where I grew up didn’t have such a thing and my travels through east coast cities back in the 1980s never seemed to coincide with one. I haven’t missed a Pride since that first one in Seattle and my official relocation to the West coast.

For me Pride has so many more meanings that just being gay. Pride is love. Pride is joy. Pride is acceptance. Pride is understanding, forgiving, righteous, brotherhood, sisterhood, humanhood, sexuality, sexual identity, identity, political, non-political, peace, justice, black, white, brown, yellow, red, giving, gratitude, sharing, respect, service, caring…Pride is a place to just simply be yourself. Just be.

A tune from my dance floor days before that first ever Pride celebration surprised me on Sirius XM Studio 54 today. A tune that I had probably not heard since seeing Pamela Stanley perform it live during RSVP Cruise Lines 10th anniversary party in Puerto Vallarta back in 1996, which was probably about the 10th anniversary of the tune itself. A tune that seems perfectly appropriate to kick off another absolutely fabulous Pride 2017 weekend in lovely San Diego.

Happy Pride Y’all!

Capital Treasures 3

After our time at the Hirshhorn we crossed The Mall to check out have some lunch over at The National Gallery of Art. After sharing a wonderful lunch in the Garden Cafe we discovered their current exhibit Frederic Bazille and the Birth of Impressionism. 

Fabulous!

A Pierre-Auguste Renoir on the left of Federic Bazzile painting his Still Life with Heron on right.

Federic Brazil was an early impressionist who came of age with Renoir, Monet, Manet, Cezzane and likes. They were a close group and there are many paintings where they painted the same subjects and each other.

Fearsome stands amount the Beards of the great impressionists.

This last painting above is a Bazille that includes many of his impressionist friends in his studio, Bazille is the tallest standing beside the easel. Bazille’s parents always kept him in a studio in Paris and his young impressionist friends, including Renoir & Monet, often stayed and even lived with him in his various Paris studios. Note the painting on the upper left above the man on the stairs as it is the painting of the male nude featured above.

Bazille joined the Army at 29 years of age and left his young impressionist friends behind to only be tragically killed on his first assignment. He never gained the refinement nor fame that his contemporaries did due to his unfortunate untimely death.

Rumors do swirl around why he left and joined a faction of the army to fight on the front lines. Was he in love with one of his contemporaries that couldn’t be fulfilled? Did he need to get away? Was it almost an act of suicide? Or was he just looking for male companionship in the trenches? Rumors that will never be confirmed.

Homosexuality was quite frowned upon at the time and the place where he and his friends lived and bromanced. His counterparts went on to marry, he ran away. He housed and supported them and maybe it was only friendship. We will never know. We do know that the loss of his life at such a young age deprived the impressionist movement of a budding young talent who had hardly began his journey.

Frederic Bazille

Beard of the day

2Cellos Beards

Any pair of beards that can enjoy life and share such beauty, certainly deserve a Beard of the day slot here on Fearsome Beard. Damn they are inspirational.

Glorious

I fuckin’ love Macklemore

Beautiful.

Capital Treasures

Fearsome, The Better Half and I are all three galavanting about on holiday. Our first stop was in our nation’s capital. We took the opportunity to focus on the beauty and inspiration that is available in D.C.

First up was the Hirshhorn and what a treat to find part of Ai WeiWei’s @Large which he designed for and exhibit at Alcatraz.

The Hirshhorn’s long curving spaces lend themselves to exhibiting these pieces designed for large Alcatraz common spaces.

Legos are the medium for the pixilated portraits of 176 exhiled or imprisoned activists.

The pixelated portraits lend themselves to viewing through the lense of ones smartphone. Some being almost completely unrecognizable/illegible to the naked eye without this technology we all hold in our pockets. A technology, that if used properly, can enlighten us.

Intricate wallpaper detail of security cameras, handcuffs and Twitter birds.

This part of his Alcatraz exhibit is entitled Trace. It extends for one full circle of the Hirshhorn’s second floor. Stunning.

Ai WeiWei himself is also an imprisoned freedom activist who isn’t allowed to leave his own country of China. The entire Alcatraz exhibit was created by him for the prison space with the help of many other artist who could aid in its design, creation, set up, delivery and installation. Ai WeiWei never was able to visit his own work in the space for which it was designed. The Twitter bird represents his own ability to speak freely beyond his confines while being detained and monitored continuously.

Inspiration of the day

NYC police officer standing up for human values. May many good people follow his lead. He inspires. He calls himself Huge Fat Loser since he chronicles his weight loss on the internet. He is a winner.

 

Is your god dead?

Fearsome Beard …a place for beards to contemplate and to grow their souls.

It’s been a while and it’s due time Fearsome did just that.

Contemplate.

Every human has their own personal right to have, or have not, a relationship with a power, an essence, a universe, an energy or a god of their own choosing. Common human decency, at least my common human decency, allows one to respect all others in their choices surrounding such personal matters.

I call the power of my choosing god. God is a simple word, or acronym if you will, that stands for good orderly direction, or group of drunks, or is simply dog spelled backward.  My god is love. Period. Love. (My dogs are love too, what a coincidence.)

How do I treat my brother? Do I show love? Do I respect? Do I even acknowledge?

Is my god dead?

How about you? Is your god, or something like it, dead?

The New York Times article under the highlighted word “HERE” below is worth the read whether you have, or have not, a source energy outside of yourself. The article is about being human. Being a good human.

Click HERE to go to said article and contemplate on a deeper level.

I’m not perfect. I will never be perfect. I can strive to be better. I can strive to remember to love, to remember to respect, to remember to share. I can try, and try to try daily. I can love.

Where it began

I was but a young boy when people like me lived in the shadows.

Stonewall Inn New York NY circa 1969

Thanks to a few courageous souls who had had enough, I’d never really fully know that life they were forced into.

 

Beard of the day

Pioneering Beard

Rebel Alliance

Mayors stand up for what is right, yes this is a link…go ahead click it…you know you want to. 

Not just mayors but governors. Good politicians with a moral compass who wish to pass a viable planet on to their children stand up.

The message that made me post a link to that article is that this is not a time to get bitter. Now is the time to lead. Lead by example. Lead with good honest morals. Lead by taking steps to not only meet the standards set for us by the Paris Agreement, but exceed those standards. Lead by taking these steps in each of our daily lives and in our communities, cities and states.

Say “Fuck You” to the weaklings who put personal gain and personal comfort over the love of their fellow man, the planet, the animals, the unborn descendants of us all. Those assholes aren’t leaders, those assholes are spineless greedy selfish cowards.

Don’t let such short sided dimwits make you angry & bitter, that’s what they want. Follow the lead of these courageous Mayors and Governors. Follow the inspired responsible one’s lead, starting with your personal choices and follow them with your support. Together we can un-do any mess and any harm that those that are misguided ignorant narcissistic demagogues dish out.

 

Love, smiles and purr

Yes Fearsome is posting a cat video, kittens no less. It will make your day a better day.

This is just one of the many reasons we support The San Diego Humane Society. This feature short highlights their kitten nursery that cares for, nurses to health, spays, neuters and manages to find homes for more than 5,000 kittens a year. Yes that is FIVE THOUSAND kittens per year.

The San Diego Humane Society “got to zero” in July 2014 and has remained at zero since that date.

“Zero” means that zero rehabilitatable animals are euthanized by this facility. We are proud to stand with and support such a facility.

Could it be that maybe we are fostering a second Yorkie? Maybe a cousin of Phoebe?

Why yes we are, and her name is Betty!

Betty

Values

“A Nation should not be judged by how it treats its highest citizens, but it’s lowest ones”― Nelson Mandela, Long Walk to Freedom

 

“We’re all human, aren’t we? Every human life is worth the same, and worth saving.”
― J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

 

“Good works is giving to the poor and the helpless, but divine works is showing them their worth.” ― Criss Jami, Killosophy

 

“Strive not to be a success, but rather to be of value.”
― Albert Einstein

 

“No one has ever become poor by giving.”
― Anne Frank, diary of Anne Frank

 

“Don’t tell me what you value, show me your budget, and I’ll tell you what you value.”
― Joe Biden

 

“Those who don’t value their words, will never value your wishes.”
― Amit Kalantri, Wealth of Words

 

-Some Fearsome thoughts-                                                                                                                                  …It is time I again contemplated values. My values, good values, value of others, value of the material and value of the spiritual. Contemplation helps me to re-enforce my core beliefs and personal morals. I post these quotes for inspiration from words that resonate with me.

I’ve found in my life that by living my values, I lead by example. In some way we all lead others and in some way we all follow others. I sincerely hope I follow good ones and that those I lead have found a good leader. Each day I must try to simply do my best. I must strive to do good and share goodness.

We can each make the world a better place. We simply have to start with ourselves and start right where we are.

Why not start right now?

Joe Biden stands with us

If you are so inclined to believe in equality and respect for all, please consider reading Joe Biden’s latest Washington Post Editorial.

Thank you Joe Biden for being a man of reason, integrity and respect. We are grateful that you are a part of our culture and our lives. Keep up the good work leading by example with true American values.

Finding words

Is it that I don’t have anything to say? No I really don’t think it is that.

Is it that I am too rushed and don’t set aside time? Very possibly.

Could it possible be finding the words to express myself? Most likely.

I have a lot to say. By saying it through the written word I go deeper. When writing I learn. Expressing myself through writing helps me explore me.

Why oh why don’t I stop more often and write? Why don’t I discipline myself? Is it possible to make it a habit?

Since starting Fearsome Beard I have learned more about myself as well as grown in ways I never expected, it was all through writing. I had never written before in my life. I have never journaled, kept a diary, written prose nor hardly ever even written a letter. I recorded nothing.

Posting pictures of a beard seems like a daily place holder. I’m not saying that posting those beards isn’t. However I do have to find them and I do usually post one that reflects a thought or mood or at least a fondness I am feeling. I also caption them ever so slightly with a word or two. It’s a good daily habit as it brings me here and it does take effort. Effort no matter how minimal.

Writing takes a bit more effort and often requires a little inspiration. I have found that the more I do it, the easier it is. Finding words is an art that comes easier and easier with practice and habit.

I guess my contemplation on this cool San Diego evening is a thoughtful challenge to myself, to express myself through written word more often. I do not want to get so caught up in the whirlwind of my daily life that I forget me.

I love blogging.

With gratitude

Ellen,

I am unable to Thank You enough for your strength and courage.

Get out there!

If we don’t hop out of the nest, how do we know what’s out there waiting for us?

Get up. Get out. Discover. Fly!

Happy Earth Day

Let’s all make Mother Earth proud and get out and March!

Fearsome is ready.

Fearsome in his Pussy Hat

Or given the march…

Fearsome in his DNA Top Hat….

Decisions, decisions….

Whatever Fearsome decides to wear doesn’t matter because Science is real. Even according to a certain book with parables from some 2000 years ago, humans are directed to be a Shepard, good Shepards, of the home given us. We must take care our blessings and not exploit those blessings. We all live here. We all must share. Let us be good stewards of the gifts we have received that we may share them with each other and most of all …those yet to come.

Stand up, speak out, do good and do right.

What is the key?

It’s you.